
#   
Anandayana Project

## Gnoseology of Serenity

version 1.1

www.anandayana.org

## Revisioni

Ver | Data | note  
---|---|---  
v0.0 | -25/10/2015- | draft  
v1.0 | -22/04/2019- | First edition  
v1.1 | -01/05/2020- | English translation from Italian

## Distribution and Editor's Notes

The Anandayana Project manuscript is freely available online for all.

Serenity is a universal right of every individual; institutions should see it as a duty to provide methods and environments that promote serenity in the community.

The Anandayana Project aims to spread inner serenity to all of the earth's inhabitants, providing everyone with the basic tools to construct their own serenity.

The Anandayana Project is based on cutting-edge research and knowledge.  
As our knowledge continues to expand, the methods used by the Anandayana Project are constantly being refined. It follows, then, that the Anandayana Project itself will always be gradually evolving as new frontiers open up.

We are living in a world whose religions and laws were established for societies, people, and cultures vastly different from today's, rendering them inadequate for the modern individual. In contrast, the Anandayana Project will always move with the times. The needs of individuals change from generation to generation; the Anandayana Project will adapt to these changes, becoming an up-to-date and modern tool for achieving individual serenity.

The Anandayana Project will always be ready to re-evaluate its research methods when new methods arise or current methods become obsolete, and by extension its theories will always be open to re-evaluation as new horizons reveal themselves in the future.  
Despite this, we would discourage anyone from taking a liberal interpretation of any part of this text: this manuscript has been passed down to the reader free from any hidden meanings between the lines.

New versions of this manuscript will always be freely available online at www.anandayana.org (donations are welcomed).

With the birth of the Anandayana Project, a new Web community is born.

The main aim of this community is to spread the Anandayana Project.

Within the community, which is based on volunteer work, many objectives will present themselves over time, such as the translation of this text and its subsequent updates into other languages, the establishment of a representative body, and the construction of meeting centres, where spiritual experiences can be tried, promoted, practiced, and shared.

We highly recommend joining our Anadayana Project online community to avoid missing new versions of this text and updates from the community itself. Registration is free and your personal data will never be disclosed to any entity for any reason, neither for advertising nor statistical purposes.

An environmentalist note:

We try to respect the environment: please do not print this text if you can read it in electronic form, or use recycled paper if you absolutely must print it. Please do not throw away printouts of old editions; give them to friends.

We try our best to encourage an environmentalist outlook!

## Acknowledgements

The Anandayana Project takes inspiration from Pragnil: it is his teaching, his way of seeing, interpreting, and living life, always serene, no matter the situation in which he finds himself.   
Pragnil is the messenger and the Anandayana Project's mission is to spread his message.

I send heartfelt thanks to the shamans with whom I worked, and in particular my spiritual guide, " _abuelo_ " J. R., who never claimed to be a master or even to teach anything, but who with his simplicity of being, his modesty, and his remarkable shamanic abilities rooted in the noble traditions of the true Shipibo shamanism, illuminated my pathway.

I thank all of the friends who submitted themselves as patient volunteers for my first attempts at _altered-consciousness NLP treatment (A.P. Methodology)_ , and I also thank all of the patients who have benefited from subsequent treatments.

A special acknowledgement, along with an encouragement, goes to anyone making the effort to improve their own Individual Consciousness, creating a path of serenity; whatever path they follow, they are subconsciously contributing to the improvement of humanity.

## Preface

This text is not a quick read; it requires continuous reflection on even the basic concepts. Although it will not come naturally, it will be necessary to dwell on various passages in order to understand and absorb them.

You are strongly advised **not** to ignore parts that you do not fully understand out of impatience or a desire to get to the next part.  
If you encounter momentary difficulties in fully assimilating a concept, or even just an example, you are advised to stop reading, set aside some time to reflect on the concept in question, and resume reading after a few hours, or the next day.

Similarly, when reference is made to a passage which has previously been understood but has since been forgotten, the reader is advised to return to that passage. You should not resume reading until the previous concepts have once again been assimilated or remembered.

This text has been written in the simplest manner possible. It avoids unnecessary jargon, instead using basic terminology, and seeks to provide simplifying examples.  
We wanted to create a text that is accessible to any reader, of any creed or cultural background. Simple, banal illustrative examples have also been used, to the extent that they may seem coarse or downright crude.

To compensate for the difficulty of some of the materials, the topics themselves have also been addressed in a simple and simplified manner. At times, scientific correlations and corollaries are minimised, if not excluded altogether, at the risk of irritating scholars and experts in the field. Highly-educated people or those from a STEM background may turn their noses up at the simplistic manner in which scientific topics have been treated.

We offer our sincere apologies to those who feel that their sophistication and intelligence has been offended by the text's "simplicity". We invite such people to consider that for every one person who has been offended by the simplicity of this text, there is at least one other person for whom this simplicity has permitted a full comprehension of the subject matter.

The scope of this text is not to convince the reader of its writer's technical and scientific prowess, or even to vie for the approval of the scientific community, although this may not be to the liking of scientific researchers. The scope of this text is to enable as wide an audience as possible to understand the concepts within.

Some readers will find concepts that are new, provocative, and perhaps even contrary to their own culture or religious beliefs.  
Other readers will rediscover concepts that they had read about in other scientific, religious, metaphysical, or psychological texts. Nothing here has been invented; rather, beliefs based on superstitions and stories have been demystified. This text does nothing more than assembling a collection of logical links between hidden truths, ancestral cultures, and truths which have always been out in the open.

Although the readers may find in this text concepts that they have already read about elsewhere, they must not let themselves become convinced of the erroneous idea that this is one of many books born from a potpourri of ideas; this text is not a syncretism of New Age, religious, and other miscellaneous beliefs.

Although we sought to reach as wide an audience as possible, this manuscript objectively has a limited target readership. It is intended for readers of average and high intelligence, gifted with an open mind, intellectual modesty, and sensitive intuition; they are objectively critical, free thinkers in search of their own path.

Readers who approach the task of confronting this text with their own beliefs in a conservative manner, besides not grasping the contents of the manuscript, will not even succeed in following its logical steps, and will probably rage against its basic concepts.  
Only those who succeed in abandoning their creed, their certainties, their views and their scientific knowledge will be able to shed light on their own Anandayana.

This text is not for those who are well-suited to a sick society. This text is not for those who are only able to find happiness in brief moments of physical intoxication. This text is not for those who unquestioningly believe what they are told. This text is not for those who firmly cling to superstitions, beliefs and rites, dictated by antiquated writings, never stopping to think about what they are doing. This text is not for those who never experiment with or doubt their beliefs. This text is not for those who are unwilling to listen to alternative views. This text is not for those who blindly believe what they are told by television, religion, and science, rejecting knowledge from other sources out of hand. This text is not for those who prostrate themselves in the presence of "superiors", regardless of their field. This book is not for those who, between being and having, choose to have.

The reader who will appreciate this text is a reader who has always felt that something is wrong with the system, and society as a whole; a person who has never felt fully at ease within society. A person who lives well with others, but also does well alone. A person who has always felt a spiritual calling, but has never found a path or a religion that satisfies own spiritual needs. A person who has started to understand the things in life that are important, those that are unnecessary, those that are useless, and those that are harmful. A person who prefers concepts to form. A person who wants to be rather than have. A person who is ready to love oneself, and therefore to love others. A pacifist who feels in harmony with nature.

### The Project

The Anandayana Project, while making no claim to scientific rigour, is rooted in the traditional scientific approach: any logical theory is potentially valid until it is disproven.

Practising your own Anandayana, you will find the answer to a question as ancient as human civilisation itself: what is the meaning of life?

For thousands of years, great philosophers have studied man and the meaning of life, producing beautiful and brilliant analyses that have become materials for advanced university study. Unfortunately, however, this study has remained an end in itself.

Some people may claim that they are always so busy and in such a rush that they have no time to reflect on the reason for our existence in this world; living in this way, without knowing one's reason for being, seems paradoxical.

Some people may claim that the meaning of life is to build a family and/or to reach a certain social position, obtaining status symbols such as the various consumer goods offered by society: property, vehicles, and luxury products. Those who assert this viewpoint do not realise that the surrogate for happiness that they feel each time they reach or achieve one of these goals is fleeting, immediately being replaced by a new frustration over a new consumer good. This system of consumer goods makes us like cats, chasing our own tails.  
None of these people stop to consider that the desire for such stimuli does not arise from one's own thoughts or desires, but rather has been very shrewdly planted in their minds by society.  
The obfuscation created by society, religion, and occasionally even science, has made it so that those philosophical theses have remained nothing but words without any real-world application.

Even though the meaning of life remains an enigma for many, everyone would agree that the optimal condition for living is a state of serenity.  
Although some religions alert their followers to the false happiness generated by the system of consumer goods imposed by society, their followers attribute little importance to the matter.

If modern societies can be accused of distracting individuals by creating status symbols and dangerous role models, incentivising ambition and nurturing people's egos, religions play an even more important role in clouding the minds of individuals: basing themselves on ancient superstitions, they create behavioural models which discourage the individual from exploring the concept of life. They cast every present moment, for the entirety of the believer's life, towards the false hope of a post-mortem future in an undetermined place. The obvious and desired result is that followers constantly project their present into the future: choices, ways of life, attitudes, personal and social relations, sacrifices and deprivations of all sorts are made, and must be made, throughout their entire existences, with the goal of gaining a place in paradise or a worthy reincarnation. An individual raised in this environment, constantly projecting into the future, finds it difficult to conceive of the fundamental concept of serenity: the " _Here &Now_".

Maybe you yourself are not religious, but by living in a religious society, one's lifestyle is to an extent moulded by the religion or religions of the place in which one grows up.

Some people are aware that what human beings seek is simply happiness, but even among these people, few truly seek to understand how to obtain happiness. We are born, raised, educated, and living in a society which provides us with completely misguided models of happiness, which is fed by powerful people in society. These models are based on career, money, sexuality, a religious creed, or family, without any form of inner search to understand what the source of happiness is.

The term Anandayana has roots in Sanskrit: _Ananda_ , which can be translated as "happiness" and _Yana_ , meaning "journey", "way", "path". Thus, Anandayana: the path to happiness. "Happiness" was originally defined as the positive state of mind of those who consider all of their desires to be satisfied. However, the term "happiness" is often considered to refer mindset of brief and ephemeral grace, something which is destined to soon end, although this is not intrinsic within the meaning of the word. The reason for this is likely that when one thinks of the word "happiness", it is associated with material, as opposed to spiritual desires; and indeed, happiness deriving from the satisfaction of a material desire (such as the purchase of a new car or mobile phone) is fleeting. On the other hand, happiness which derives from the satisfaction of a spiritual desire is long-lasting... those who are unaware of what is meant by the satisfaction of spiritual desire, do not worry; this will become clear by the end of this manuscript.  
The term "serenity" is generally associated with an emotional state of tranquillity and calm, both deep and apparent, enduring through time. In this text, the term _Anandayana_ will be used also to refer to the path for serenity.

This is not one of the many texts which purport to provide the recipe for reaching lasting serenity in a few steps. There neither exists a recipe nor secret for serenity.

Siddhartha Gautama, better known as (the first) Buddha, said:

_\- There is no path to happiness: happiness is the path -_

We will see that contained between the lines of this quote is the concept of the "Here&Now", in which there is no such thing as a path " _to_ " serenity, but rather a path " _of_ " serenity.

In summary, the term " _Anandayana_ " denotes the " _path of spiritual happiness and serenity_ ", although for simplicity's sake only the meanings of _path of happiness_ or _path of serenity_ will be referred to going forward, depending on the subject at hand.

The path, or journey, to happiness is a personal one. Nobody can provide an ad hoc recipe that works for everyone; one person's effective journey will not necessarily work for someone else.

### Terminology for Getting Started

"Consciousness" and "awareness" are two terms which are sometimes expressed as synonyms, and at other times defined in stark contrast to one another. Even students of Psychology and Philosophy cannot always agree with their colleagues on the precise definitions of "consciousness" and "awareness".

In this text, "awareness" is meant as the capacity, to a greater or lesser extent, to cognitively perceive and react to conditions or events, not necessarily implying their comprehension. Indeed, while an increase in "consciousness" generally requires an increase in knowledge, an increase in "awareness" can take place in response to an experience which has not been understood.

With the term "individual awareness", we are referring to the "awareness" of an individual.

"Individual awareness" can be seen as a mental activity of the present (and the recent past), generated by an individual's "consciousness" with the aid of observed events (or conditions), memories, and knowledge... in other words, an instrument of "consciousness".

For ease of function, the mind and its activities divide themselves into three categories: "conscious", "unconscious", and "subconscious". By "consciousness", we mean to refer to the act of being conscious of the cognitive activities of sensation, formulated thought, intuition, reason, will, and memory, i.e., "conscious" acts of the mind.

More cognitively elevated mental activities which are not "conscious", such as spontaneous thoughts, emotions, and instincts, are defined as "unconscious".

Less cognitively elevated mental activities are defined as "subconscious"; this category includes activities which regulate and synchronise physical activities.

At this point, we must draw a sharp distinction between "Individual Consciousness" and "consciousness".

Within this text, the term "Individual Consciousness" is not intended to be taken simply as the definition of "consciousness" as it has been defined above, applied to the individual.   
Rather, with the term "Individual Consciousness", we aim to expand the concept of "consciousness"; that is, to be conscious of one's cognitive activities, and even to be conscious of the existence of one's spiritual part, in the broader sense of the term.

Thus, if we understand the difference between "Individual Consciousness" and "consciousness", it is easy to deduce that the "consciousness" of an individual is a skill that can be partially developed by the individual themselves. On the other hand, an individual's "Individual Consciousness" presents greater potential for development: the difference lies precisely in the fact that being conscious of one's own spiritual part is an implication which can profoundly change an individual.

Later in the text, we will introduce the terms _Mens_ and _Spirit_ and understand how these spiritual components make up a part of every human being. In doing so, we will understand that most of what constitutes the "conscious" is part of the _manifestation_ of _Mens_ , while the majority of what constitutes the "unconscious" is part of the _manifestation_ of _Spirit_.

Therefore, the " _Individual Consciousness_ " of a living being is an amalgamation of that being's _manifestations_ of _Mens_ and _Spirit_. We will see that _Mens_ and _Spirit_ are entities possessing more dimensions than we realise, and that they therefore perceive events and conditions which the individual does not perceive; consequently, they possess a more extensive, if not heightened, awareness.

### How to Proceed

Following a spiritual path is difficult, no matter what stage one is at.

Aside from the fact that guidelines on creating a spiritual path are lacking and confusing, for millennia society and organised religion have done all they could to divert individuals from a genuine spiritual path, instilling superstitions and false myths and creating collectives which limit "individual awareness" and hinder the development of "Individual Consciousness". The reason for all of this is that a society containing a high number of people with a developed "Individual Consciousness" is not a society that can be controlled.

Anandayana intends to propose guidelines which assist the individual in finding their own spiritual path, or rather their own path of serenity.

The term "guideline" is purposely used, as a complete behavioural guide for all living beings cannot exist. Each individual is a unique work of perfection. No one recipe for serenity can work for two individuals, let alone many - even less so when those people are spread over different generations.

Before proposing "guidelines", it is necessary to make sure that the reader possesses the basic level of understanding which permits one to interpret these guidelines, and to therefore find one's own path of serenity.

In _Part I - The Gnoseology of Serenity_ we will introduce, albeit in highly simplified form, the structure of the universe insofar as it concerns humans and their spiritual components. The present part of the text can be considered a complete preparation for the rest of this manuscript; understanding and absorbing this chapter is essential for lighting the way on what will be your own path of serenity. In fact, an ill-informed individual can only possess confused ideas; for such a person, any form of spiritual research amounts to wandering in the dark. Furthermore, any hypothetical spirituality that is found would be in the same vein as modern religious practices: a set of superstitions.

Recall that the broad definition of "consciousness" (see the first definitions given in the paragraph _Terminology for Getting Started_ ⇒) includes the acquisition of knowledge; if one's knowledge is erroneous, growth in _Individual Consciousness_ cannot correctly take place.

It would not make sense to continue to _Part II - Our Environment_ without completely understanding and absorbing Part I.

In this way, elements of the "guidelines", although not specifically dictated, will take shape to build one's own Anandayana, in the form of the insights into our surroundings and how to better interact with them.

The reader is invited to read with a receptive, flexible, and open mind.

## Abstract

It is certainly true that an elevated _Individual Consciousness_ helps an individual to identify and pursue their own path of serenity. At the same time, following the true Anandayana helps to increase one's _Individual Consciousness_.

This text hopes to help raise one's Individual Consciousness.

To raise one's Individual Consciousness, it is necessary to elucidate a few points, thereby lighting the way on one's personal path.

It is difficult to keep going when following a darkened path; fears and insecurities easily spring up, particularly since the fundamental concepts of whatever one's own Anandayana may be will differ fundamentally from the concepts promoted by religious society; and the latter, while wrong, carry the semblance of security that comes with a large following.

By elucidating on certain points, ideas become clearer, allowing one to strengthen one's convictions surrounding new concepts.

With a clear idea of certain important concepts and topics, the individual will find it much easier to see, comprehend, and pursue their own path of serenity.

Consciousness is also increased by way of varied life experiences, while simultaneously helping us to make the most of such experiences.

As already mentioned, knowledge is a necessary (though not the only) condition for increase of consciousness. Consciousness acquires knowledge with the use of one of its most important tools: awareness. Obviously, an increase in consciousness leads to an increase in Individual Consciousness.

In order to provide the reader with the fundamental knowledge to give way to an increase in Individual Consciousness, this text will shed light upon a few points which have been kept in obscurity by religion and society for obvious motives: it is easier to control a group of individuals with low Individual Consciousness than it is a group of individuals with high Individual Consciousness.

To obtain a group of individuals with low Individual Consciousness, one need only increase numbers by feeding such individuals with false knowledge, certainties, and fears. For this reason, they have created a fear of death and the possibility of eternal life. They have created a supernatural "God" with similarities to humans: a supreme judge who decides whether we deserve eternal life or eternal damnation; whether we are reincarnated as another human being with a comfortable life or a lesser being; whether we will live in bliss by his side or in perpetual suffering. They also create rules, varying in rigidity depending on the individuals whom they seek to control. To make the whole thing credible, they must peddle various fanciful stories, some of which feature miracles and supernatural events of all kinds, while others have been reworked from ancient myth; all of these have been included in a book "inspired by God".

The individual, pigeonholed to a certain extent by rules, superstitions, and beliefs holding more in common with bedtime stories than anything else, is also tormented by a system which imposes status symbols, competitiveness, unattainable goals, stress, and problems of all kinds.

All of these factors come together to cultivate a low collective consciousness, with individuals tending not only to not develop their Individual Consciousness but to repress it.

An individual who has been moulded in this way represses all forms of non-conformist thought, particularly because a level of Individual Consciousness different from and higher than that of others is required to entertain alternative ideas.

We must, therefore, try to shed light on certain points: how to understand ourselves as human beings, or rather the elements of which we are composed; what our life's goal is; why we need our Anandayana; and what practices can help us on our path.

To begin removing points which obscure our path, it is first and foremost necessary to understand what we are, thus allowing us to attempt to analyse the meaning of life, the aim of our existence, and that which we unconsciously desire.

# Introduction

My first trip to South America was amazing: six life-changing months spent backpacking.

On this trip, I began to comprehend many things; some of which had been obscured to me until that moment, but others I had been completely ignoring.

In those few months, many of my beliefs, gathered from a lifetime of existing within European society, unexpectedly collapsed; it was like an old stone house giving way to the fury of a magnitude 10 earthquake. The experiences lived on that journey became the earthquake that rocked me to my core.

Surrounded by the rubble, I was able to see that what appeared substantial was in reality ephemeral; what appeared solid was in reality being propped up by beliefs and planted ideas; what appeared important was in reality completely superfluous. All that rubble was nothing more than a conglomerate of superficialities, uselessness, and ignorance.

I re-evaluated and reconsidered many certainties which I had previously considered a core part of my set of values.

From the rubble of my old beliefs, a completely new path opened up to me, too clearly to pretend I hadn't seen it.

When I returned to Europe I was a different person.

Since the day I returned, my task was clear: to completely change my life.

It was not easy to set out on a new path. So many years of study dedicated to a career that I had dreamed of since I was a little boy... a brilliant, fast-paced career at that, which would guarantee me a secure and respectable place within society. Now I had to give it all up.

The main reason for my hesitance was the fact that I was leaving ideal conditions, which were stable and secure, for a future which still held no prospects... even worse, I didn't have the faintest idea of what I would do from then onwards, how I would support myself; what I would eat; I had some savings, but I knew that they would only last a few months. It was a leap of faith.

I held only one certainty: that path, which was still completely unknown to me, attracted me enormously. I had a strong feeling that it would bring me joy, serenity, and happiness.  
Already at various points in my life I had relied on my sixth sense, but only for secondary decisions; until that moment, I had never tested it.

There was also another factor which spurred my choice to turn the page on my life: I had always felt as though something was wrong with the world around us. I did not know what it was - I could never begin to guess what exactly felt out of place - but I perceived it clearly. This feeling was shared by a few of my friends; some of them put their trust in theories which claimed to explain that feeling and the problem from which it stems. However, I never shared their beliefs; they always felt wrong, or at the very least, incomplete.  
I was almost completely certain that if I embarked upon my new path, I would understand the origin of that feeling.

I had two choices before me: I could bury my head in the sand like an ostrich, continuing to live my former life of luxury, secure and satisfying in some respects - or I could take a leap of faith, with no expectations and no certainties.  
I was convinced that the majority of people would have chosen the ostrich option: it was the safe option, what everyone does... things could only go up from here, so why take a risk?  
\- Better the devil you know than the devil you don't - . That's a simple, clear saying, meant to forewarn those who intend on making irrational changes, asserting the importance of all they've built... and I was just about to go completely against its advice. Leaving a concrete position that I was in the process of consolidating, with prospects that could only improve, to dedicate myself to something that I didn't yet have the foggiest idea about. All I had to go on was a shapeless glimmer, peppered with vague and extravagant ideas.

Courage, non-conformism, adaptability, and probably a little insanity: I armed myself with these (almost) virtues and decided to take that leap of faith. I thought to myself - I only get one life; at worst, I'll certainly have a few stories to tell... -

Without realising it, my new journey had already begun... the hesitations were just the final throes of a dying part of my former life.

I don't know whether the choice to change my life was the result of various thoughts accumulating over time before suddenly reaching a conclusion, or if it was a bolt from the blue. But I do know for certain that at the moment I realised that I had made a decision, many things within me had already changed: the concept of a career had lost its significance, and the desire to belong to any sort of group had dissipated into thin air.

At the beginning of my new journey, I knew one thing I couldn't compromise on, but which would have clear consequences: for a period of my life, I would have to make a clean break with society. At the start, I didn't even have any idea why I had to abandon all forms of society; I only knew that I had to do it. With hindsight, all has become clear, obvious even: to be able to understand humanity and its social system, I had to detach from it; I had to cut all ties; I had to assume the position of the foreign and neutral observer, neither affecting nor being affected by the environment I was studying. And so it was for various periods over the following years.

I predicted from the start that it would not be easy, and indeed it was not, but I have been repaid abundantly in return, by my experiences, spiritual growth, and personal attainments.

I thought that I would never live again experiences like those on my first trip to South America, in terms of personal, cultural, and mental revelations and changes, but I was sorely mistaken... I now see my first trip as a type of psycho-physical-spiritual preparation for the experiences that followed, and above all, preparation for comprehending and absorbing the teachings of Pragnil.

## The Meeting

From my notes written roughly three hours before my first Shipibo Ayahuasca ceremony:

"...

Before sunset, most of the adults shower out in the open next to their houses wearing little clothing, using buckets and basins, while the children go to wash themselves in the muddy river Ucayali, a river so turbid that it is impossible to see any deeper than 5cm.

Yesterday evening I went to the river to take photos at sunset. The long, narrow wooden jetty that leads to the pier, 2 metres above the water, is rickety, old, and falling apart; it seems like it could collapse at any moment, but has a charm to it regardless.

Among the various "peque-peque" parked around the area were a dozen small children, a few older ones and a couple of adults, one foreign; all of whom were playing in the water more than washing with it. The foreigner appeared to be particularly sociable and held the attention of all of the others. He seemed to get along wonderfully with the local people, always charming and smiling; he exuded good vibrations and serenity. I didn't get into the water, which was too turbid for my tastes; I stayed sitting on the jetty taking photos, watching those simple people enjoy themselves and drinking in the unusual atmosphere.

With the setting of the sun, the mosquitoes started to get even more annoying. I was about to leave when suddenly all of the people began to exit the water and head towards the thin jetty, passing by me one by one. It was a strange episode. All children stayed gathered around the foreigner. The foreigner himself, while passing by me, looked me in the eyes, gave a small smile, touched my shoulder with his arm and said 'mañana noche confia en ellos' ... I was taken aback; even now I don't understand why he said those words to me and what he meant by them.

...

I did quite a bit today, and M. advised me to rest. A few trips around the village, a few conversations about this and that with the local indigenous people.

When I returned to my hut this evening, the hunger started to make its presence known. I don't understand the point of the ritual's fasting requirement.

I am a little hesitant about tonight.

M. told me that he will come to get me at around 8pm for the ayahuasca ritual.

..."

Notes written the day after the night of my first Shipibo Ayahuasca ceremony:

"...

Last night M. was late collecting me; almost everyone had already gone to sleep. We set off north in the darkness and walked for about 35 minutes with the dim light of his torch, passing through a few small villages whose names I don't remember, and a few houses scattered here and there. There is no artificial light in those villages... at that hour, the only presence is the few houses whose forms can be seen from the path, and the dogs who bark as we pass by. Penetrating the darkness ever deeper, I started to feel nervous. A thousand thoughts popped into my head, and all ended with one sentence: - I'm insane to follow a semi-stranger into an Amazonian forest in the middle of the night -. The nocturnal sounds of nature, which at first created a pleasant, welcoming concert in the background, became more intense, taking on menacing tones, as we proceeded and the path became narrower. We stopped in front of a simple, small hut; M. told me to wait - he had to go and call his father. Waiting there, I thought back to the foreigner's words: - mañana noche confia en ellos - (Author's note: trust in them tomorrow night), and to his peaceful smile... inexplicably, the memory of those words had rearranged my thoughts in a positive way... the curiosity was immense and I didn't want to turn back; therefore, the only solution was to trust those shamans, relax, and allow myself to embark upon the adventure.

..."

The stranger that I met along the river was Pragnil, and I can now say with certainty that those few words, 'trust in them tomorrow night', was the first time he guided me.

If Pragnil had never spoken those words, would I have been capable of having that extraordinary, life-changing experience? I have asked myself this many times since then.

In any case, that brief period in the Amazonian jungle was probably the most important of my life: I met Pragnil for the first time and participated in my first Ayahuasca ritual; two events which changed my existence forever.

My positive impression of Pragnil was cemented with successive meetings; a person of captivating tranquillity and inner peace, so much so that the people around him can clearly perceive his positive vibrations. With his ever-present serene smile, Pragnil emanates serenity. His words are few, but profound, always exactly hitting the point. He always has a word for those in need of comfort. Constantly available to help the next person. An amazing listener, paying attention to the details of what people tell him. Pragnil possesses all of the characteristics of someone who could be called a sage.

A striking trait of Pragnil's is his vast, almost omniscient, level of culture. Pragnil possesses deep knowledge of every topic on which I have heard him speak, and always dispenses this knowledge with extreme modesty.

If enlightened people exist, Pragnil is most certainly one of them; if not, then I have never met one.

Aside from his ample cultural knowledge, Pragnil is capable of acts which fall under the realm of the paranormal. Many times I have been witness to Pragnil's ability to tell the future and, when it is necessary, to bestow effective and succinct advice, capable of engineering conditions to the benefit of those for whom the message is intended; as was the case with me before my first shamanic ritual, and on later occasions.

And not only this. I personally witnessed Pragnil healing an illness in a manner which could also be described as miraculous: during a shamanic ritual which I participated in with Pragnil, some indigenous people from a nearby village carried over a woman who was writhing in pain, sweating, moaning, and crying in a language unknown to me. Pragnil crouched beside the woman laid out on the wooden floor of the ceremonial stand, roughly a couple of metres from where we were sitting, and put his hands on her stomach. In a few seconds, the woman calmed down and fell asleep, and so Pragnil returned to sit with us. After roughly half an hour, the woman awoke, silently arose from the ceremonial stand, and joined the people who had accompanied her, who had continued to sit and wait quietly a short distance away. Though I was stunned, Pragnil and my master shaman J. were unperturbed.

From my diary over these days:

"...

I awoke in the ceremonial centre to the first light of dawn at the same moment as J. . He usually gets up at 5am, probably the ritual lasted much longer than expected; I lost my sense of time passing and I still feel very dazed. Pragnil was not there when I awoke, and I did not know when Pragnil had left, but he returned after a short time.

While we cleaned the ceremonial centre, I asked Pragnil something I was curious about: what had been wrong with the woman, whether it was J. who had taught him how to heal, and whether he considered himself a shaman. The only reply I receive was - _you have to study for your whole life to become a shaman_ -.

..." 

# Part I \-   
The Gnoseology of Serenity

## Methodology

For those who do science, the scientific method should be clear and scrupulously followed. However, this is sadly not always the case;

  1. any theory is valid until clear scientific evidence to the contrary is found, and
  2. a theory is no longer valid if there exists at least one consistent piece of proof to demonstrate its invalidity.

This text does not claim to give scientific answers to unresolved questions or to formulate new physical theories. Nonetheless, in order to introduce certain concepts, a few erroneous theories must be rectified.

Anadayana is a personal journey, and nobody can define another person's path with certainty, as each person has their own path, different from that of all others. Despite all of this, it is possible to suggest methodologies that an individual may evaluate as possible content for their own anandayana.

The important thing is to have certain clear ideas at the start of one's own Anadayana - and clear ideas may only be held when one understands one's own territory, that's to say, the reality which surrounds them.

The start of one's own Anandayana is truly the most important step: we realise that we are in a territory that we thought we knew, but that we only partially knew. Not only this but what little we knew was distorted by culture and the society in which we were raised, not to mention the religious indoctrination to which we are subjected.

We need to demystify all of the knowledge constructs which we have, creating a new view of reality. Once a new view of reality has been obtained, the territory that we thought we knew appears as if new.

With a new vision, any path one sets upon will feel like finding oneself in new territories to explore, understand, and learn about.

If one the one hand, the Anandayana Project has no intention of providing scientific answers to unresolved questions, on the other hand, it wishes to debunk erroneous concepts so that the individual has a clearer vision of their starting territory.

By following their own Anandayana, practitioners will soon understand for themselves that it is not important to understand all of the universe's mysteries. The important thing is to have clear ideas on certain topics to facilitate the assimilation of some new notions, and to maintain an open and flexibility mindset: this is essential to following one's own Anandayana.

Useful knowledge for shaping one's own Anandayana could be called _gnoseology of serenity_ , or rather theory of knowledge for serenity.[1]

To understand the secret of one's own serenity, it is necessary to analyse what we truly want and what we need. However, the first step is to absorb the _gnoseology of serenity_ by beginning to understand "what we are".

We will never be able to understand what is needed for our own serenity if we have no idea who we really are. All of us have confused and erroneous ideas about what we are, caused by a basic culture and education that has intentionally provided incorrect information.

Understanding exactly what we are is impossible; however, but having correct ideas surrounding this topic is not difficult, and is the first necessary step to activating our Anandayana.

## Dream, Hallucination, or Reality

written notes a few nights after my first Ayahuasca ritual:

"...

The physical reaction to the medicine (Author's note: Ayahuasca) was certainly strong, but it was worth it. I am still perplexed by the extraordinary visions of the shamanic journey; hundreds of questions befuddle my head, trying to find a logic to everything, a rational explanation: all of those visions, were they dreams, hallucinations, all created by my mind? And the answers to the questions that popped into my head, did I tell myself them? If everything had flowed from my mind, why had I chosen those kinds of visions? The questions come one after another.... those visions have truly perturbed me, I never expected so much.

Today after eating I went to take a walk alone, to distract myself a little. There was nobody around, everyone was on siesta. I felt the sun scorching my skin, so I sat in the shadow of a fat plant near the school; quickly thereafter, I see that stranger I met by the river appear. He approaches, greets me, asks permission to side beside me, and introduces himself as Pragnil. I ask him if he has ever done an Ayahuasca ceremony and we begin to talk about the subject.  
I told him of my dismay at the messages I received during the Ayahuasca session in the form of visions and answers to my questions; of my scepticism of indigenous beliefs in spirits; and also of my doubts that the visions were simply the fruits of a mind under the influence of psychedelics, and that they were therefore not based on anything real, but were only the product of a hallucinating brain.  
. After listening to me, Pragnil answered by saying: - do you think that there is anything real in what you are seeing, touching, and feeling in this moment? Isn't all of that created by your brain? -

..."

Pragnil never imposed his own knowledge or ideas on me; he never dispensed unseen teachings. Pragnil always helped me to reach a comprehension of concepts through inference and reasoning, intellectually accompanying on my way to a clear understanding.

_\- do you think that there is anything real in what you are seeing, touching, and feeling in this moment? Isn't all of that created by your brain? -_

Since the moment I heard those words, I needed to probe deeper into the subject; I immediately felt that it was a fundamental concept for my new path... and I imagine that Pragnil knew this well, or he would not have brought up the subject when we had only just met.

Pragnil has reminded me several times that the reality in which we live is ours to create.

Wishing to deepen my knowledge of the subject, I returned to Pragnil several times on different occasions, and, having received confirmation on subsequent research, I succeeded in obtaining the general framework which I will propose to you in the following paragraphs. I believe that the division of each subject into paragraphs will prove useful for future reference.

## Manifestations of Entities with Other Dimensions

This part of the text hopes to define the concept of _dimensions_ and possible _manifestations_ perceived in certain situations.  
Many readers will find this subject easy to understand, while others may need to read this paragraph several times.

It is advised not to continue reading until the details of this chapter are clear and have been fully digested, as they will be repeated many times in this text.

We invite the reader to return to this part of the text if the concepts therein become obscured over time.

### Space-time Dimensions

We are all used to manoeuvering the world as we see it in _four dimensions_ : _three spatial dimensions_ we perceive (length, height and depth) and _an one-way temporal dimension_ (time we perceive it that spends in an incremental one-way, unable to retreat).

Il. 1

Unless the reader has pursued a career in scientific studies, imagining a fourth spatial dimension is already difficult.

### Manifestation

Let's take a somewhat rough example, which will be recalled several times in the course of this book to facilitate the reader's ease of comprehension.  
Projecting ourselves into a hypothetical (visible) universe in three dimensions: two spatial dimensions and time.  
In this universe there is a country where some characters live: Mr. Segment, Mrs. Comma, and Mr. Angle.

The three friends, living in a world of two spatial dimensions, totally ignore the existence of a third spatial dimension; indeed, they cannot even conceive of a dimension beyond the two spatial dimensions in which they live... just as we struggle to perceive a fourth spatial dimension.

All three characters are used to witnessing a strange _manifestation_ every day, whose cause they cannot begin to guess at: a circle that at times becomes larger and sometimes becomes smaller.

Il. 2a: world in 2 spatial dimensions

Il. 2b: world in 2 spatial dimensions

Mr. Angle is a scientist and has dedicated his entire life to studying strange event. By formulating various physical laws based on complex mathematical models, he is able to adequately describe the geometric dynamic of the _manifestation_ that appears, but Mr. Angle's knowledge and perceptions don't allow him to understanding the full nature of the phenomenon. Similarly, we have created astounding quantum physics, but have not fully understood the true nature of the phenomena we call electrons and photons.

The mysterious phenomenon is actually Mr. Cone, who lives in a world of four visible dimensions (three spatial dimensions plus time), and continuously moves up and down the third spatial dimension.  
The phenomenon perceived by the three friends is the planar _intersection_ of Mr. Cone on the plane of the three friends, Comma, Angle, and Segment, who cannot conceive of the third spatial dimension; they can only perceive the part of Mr. Cone that intersects with their two-dimensional spatial reality.

Il. 3: world in 2 spatial dimensions seen by observer in 3 spatial dimensional world

And so the three friends, Comma, Angle and Segment, living in a world of two spatial dimensions, deprived of the third spatial dimension (perpendicular to the plane), do not notice the presence of Mr. Cone; the three friends only notice the _manifestations_ of Mr. Cone in their world with its two spatial dimensions.  
That strange circle that changes dimension is in reality nothing but the _geometric incidence_ of Mr. Cone on the two-dimensional plane (shown in grey colour on illustration 3)... Mr. Angle has been able to describe Mr. Cone's _manifestation_ in the world of two spatial dimensions well, but because Mr. Angle lacks the third spatial dimension, he cannot understand Mr. Cone's true nature.

We can define two distinct types of manifestation:

  * Direct manifestation: when a phenomenon manifests itself in a sub-dimension through its own geometric incidence, as in the case of Mr. Cone, who "interconnects " with the world of Comma, Angle and Segment.
  * Indirect manifestation: when a phenomenon manifests itself in a sub-dimension by means of a projection. As an example, consider a person in a four-dimensional space (three spatial dimensions and one temporal) and a light source (the projection medium); the shadow created on a wall (two spatial dimensions) may be an indirect manifestation of the person, because it occurs due to the presence of the projection medium (the light).

To define whether a manifestation is direct or indirect, one must fully know the nature of the phenomenon.

In general, a phenomenon can be well-defined if its nature lies completely within our perceptible dimensions and manifests itself in sub-dimensions.

In the event that the manifestation of the phenomenon occurs in the dimensions perceptible to us, but the nature of the phenomenon lies in dimensions imperceptible to us, comprehension of the phenomenon is certainly unlikely.

In this text, no distinction will be made between direct and indirect manifestation; they will be referred to as simply _manifestation_.

### Manifestations and science

Now, let's translate the example we just made into our reality, which we experience in four dimensions (three spatial and one temporal).

Although we often do not realise it, over the course of our lives we live with _manifestations_ of phenomena whose nature science cannot fully explain. Science succeeds in fully describing the _manifestation_ of some of these phenomena, and even to predict and control them, but fails to give an explanation of the nature of the _manifestation_.

_Manifestations_ such as electrons, photons, brain activations, and gravity are manifestations of phenomena that also "exist " in other dimensions besides our four, but we perceive only their manifestations in our four dimensions.

Even if we manage to adequately describe the _manifestations_ of these phenomena in our four dimensions, as in the case of the scientist Mr. Angle in the example above, we are completely or partially ignorant to their true nature, because our understanding is limited to the three spatial dimensions and the temporal one.

Our physical-mathematical models are correct for describing the manifestations of the phenomena in our four-dimensional world, but the phenomenon's true nature often escapes us. This holds true in the case of gravity, the manifestation of which had already been described by Newton by the 17th century with its description subsequently being refined, but the true nature of which is unknown even today, despite A. Einstein attempting to provide a more complete explanation of gravity based on space-time distortion in his theory of relativity.

Light is a fundamental element of our lives, just as electrical current is a fundamental element of our technological age. However, the true nature of the microscopic constituents of light and electricity, namely the photon and the electron respectively, still eludes us: the manifestations of these elements, which have infinitesimal dimensions, have been macroscopically described by physics and optical physics, respectively, and microscopically by quantum physics, but we still do not understand the true nature of electrons and photons. A demonstration of this is the name of the fundamental mathematical model for quantum physics for both electrons and photons, known as the _wave-particle_ model: this is precisely because we still do not understand whether these phenomena are a wave, a particle or, more likely, something else (see paragraph _The Wave-Particle Duality in Brief_ ⇒).

We do not necessarily need to enter into "intangible" scientific topics to find unsolved mysteries; the most important part of our body is still partially a mystery: the brain.  
This is the wonderful gelatinous tool that allowed us to overwhelm the rest of the animal world, despite humans being physically inferior to other species.

Science flounders in an attempt to understand certain features of the brain whose manifestations are obvious to everyone, but whose nature completely evades us.  
As one of the most renowned researchers in cognitive science, Walter J. Freeman, states[2], despite our ability to make macroscopic models which define the general operation of the brain, and microscopic ones which define the functioning of its microscopic parts (neural networks), we do not understand the connection between these macroscopic and microscopic models.

Not to mention our comprehension of some of the main functions of the brain, such as vision for example: it is not yet known where and how the brain recreates an image from the electrochemical signals provided by the optic nerve.

These and other phenomena possess natures which are not limited to our known dimensions, but which also extend to other dimensions, though we cannot perceive them and probably cannot even understand them, as in the case of the three friends in the two-dimensional world in the cited example.

Surely other spatial dimensions exist. In fact, the recent Superstring theory has gone so far as to hypothesise up to the eleventh dimension. There are probably other temporal dimensions, related to each other, where time is not only unidirectional. It is doubtless that there are other energy and potential dimensions beyond what we know. Perhaps there are also dimensions that are neither temporal, nor spatial, nor energy, nor potential, the concepts of which are unimaginable to us due to our limitations.

It is precisely because there are so many dimensions that we cannot even conceptualise that it is wrong to think that human beings are limited to the dimensions known to us. The individual awareness of human beings is certainly limited to the dimensions that we perceive, but the constituent parts of the human being do not have this limitation, even if we are not aware of it. These constituent parts of the human being which possess further dimensions beyond our perceived ones, constitute the so-called _spiritual parts_.

## God and the Universe

The word "God" brings to mind the God or Gods of modern religions, both monotheistic and polytheistic; a superior, otherworldly entity, endowed with extraordinary abilities and possessing a certain personality with human characteristics.

When we hear the term "God", depending on our culture, we automatically associate it with a higher entity with well-defined characteristics; wrathful, meticulous, vengeful, spiteful, ruthless, cruel, such as the Jewish God, Muslim God, and Christian God of the Old Testament or the Hindu God Shiva; or merciful, loving, sympathetic, compassionate, like the Christian God of the New Testament.

However we put it, the word "God" is immediately associated with a supreme being possessing a certain type of personality.

Unfortunately, such a human-supernatural entity does not exist.

This human-supernatural entity is the product of ancient superstitions, handed down orally first, then in manuscripts whose texts have also been modified over the centuries. These texts, designated as "sacred", were used by rulers in ancient and modern times, to control populations, pit them against each other, foster racial discrimination and, in general, limit the development of Individual Consciousness.

Believing in such a God is a form of consolation, necessary for people with low self-awareness. If they did not have this idea of a God, believers such as this would feel alone in the universe; they need rules and regulations for their own existence, a universal judge and a prize for good behaviour in life: this recipe is called _religion_.

Note: in this text we will no longer use the word "God" so as to avoid associations with erroneous ideas caused by mental recalls due to our cultural background. In this text, the term "god" refers only to that imaginary supernatural being with human characteristics associated with the god of monotheistic religions, while with the term "gods" refers to the various gods of polytheistic religions.

Any "sacred" book that describes a god is a collection of superstitions, fables, and stories, perfectly fine as good night fairy tales for nursery children... but many people have never left the nursery of Individual Consciousness, having never had the opportunity to increase their Individual Consciousness.

This is precisely the reason why a majority of people have an underdeveloped Individual Consciousness, and why religions exist and must exist. If there were no religion, all those people with low Individual Consciousness would feel lost in the universe; lost, directionless, without goals or hopes for the future. The lack of religion would lead to a powerful, chronic depression diffused throughout all populations, which would, in turn, cause total, general demotivation and a multitude of suicides; as the vast majority of people in any society posses low Individual Consciousness, the lack of religion would lead to the collapse of the societies themselves.  
Thus, religion and their concepts of god and "sacred" texts are necessary to humanity, despite the fact that they are the cause of many evils. Religion is the cause of the of majority's underdeveloped Individual Consciousness, while at the same time religion is necessary to people with low Individual Consciousness.

Readers interested in the topic of the concept of god are referred to other texts, including the popular best-seller by R. Dawkins[3].

### Universal Consciousness

Universal Consciousness is the closest concept to the god of religion, even if only for some secondary aspects.

Universal Consciousness is, has always been, and will always be.

Universal Consciousness is what generated that which we perceive as the universe.

Universal Consciousness possesses none of the human characteristics that religions generally associate with God.

Universal Consciousness is neither pleased nor disappointed, regardless of what happens or what is done.

Universal Consciousness does not judge and will not judge.

Universal Consciousness does not judge and will not judge.

Universal Consciousness is neither irritated nor compassionate.

Universal Consciousness neither takes revenge nor forgives.

Universal Consciousness neither loves nor hates.

Universal Consciousness is.

### Virtual Universe

Our perception of the world around us is a virtual perception; to us it appears in a certain way, but actually it is not as it appears.

All things as we perceive them, the world around us, the whole universe, in reality do not exist; they are virtual.

Following this line of reasoning:

the entire universe that appears around us is made up of _matter_ , and all of the _matter_ around us is made up of _atoms_.  
Showing that _atoms_ do not exist in reality as a physical substance but only as energy, and therefore as _matter_ , and consequently the universe does not exist as a physical entity but only as energy.

Take the _Quantum Physic atomic_ structure, namely composed of _electrons_ circling on quantized orbitals and a central _nucleus_ , which is a set of _neutrons_ , _protons_ and other sub-atomic particles.

Il. 4: Quantum Physic atomic structure

The _mass_ of the atom ("weight" in common parlance) is all concentrated in the central part of the atom called the _nucleus_ , which has dimensions between approximately 1,000 and 10,000 times smaller than the entire atom. To give an idea of the proportions, if the nucleus had the dimensions of a bottle cap, the whole atom would be the size of two football pitches, but the "weight" would be all focused in that volume the size of a bottle cap.

Outside the nucleus, what "fills" the remaining part of the atom? That is to say, outside of that bottle cap-sized volume, what is in the volume the size of two football pitches?

Nothing. Emptiness.

99.99999% of an atom is complete emptiness.

_Electrons_ , which spin on orbitals, can be considered mass-free waves in according to the laws of _Quantum Physics_ [4].

So if 99.99999% of an atom is complete emptiness, all the matter of the universe, which is made up of atoms, is 99.99999% complete emptiness!

Everything around us is complete emptiness, or better, everything around us is 99.99999% empty.

If we dig deeper, we will find that inside the _nucleus_ there are waves, forces and energies, and that mass is nothing more than an expression of energy according to the famous formula, E=mC2; we therefore find that the nucleus is energy.

Thus, all matter is 99.99999% emptiness and the remaining 0.00001% is energy.

What we see, feel, perceive around us, everything is empty... with a little bit of energy... everything around us, the whole universe, "does not exist", namely, is _virtual_ , "created by ourselves", starting with a little bit of energy.

Everything is made of emptiness.  
This means that we are also made up practically entirely of emptiness.

\- _There is no matter. What we call matter is actually energy._ \- (A. Einstein).

With our senses, we perceive _force fields_ generated by electromagnetic forces, that is, _manifestations_ of _electromagnetic waves_. What we see is reflected/transmitted light, namely _electromagnetic waves_.

Therefore, everything around us is nothing more than _electromagnetic energy_. When the _force fields_ of these _electromagnetic energies_ come into contact with our sensory perceptions, our senses generate an electrochemical signal that reaches the brain, which then generates our perception from the information received.

The same applies to sight: when light, namely _electromagnetic waves_ , enters the eyes, it is transformed into an electrochemical signal from the eye's retina. This signal, passing through the optic nerve, reaches the brain. which generates our perception from the information received.

Everything we perceive is generated by our brain.

Thus, the universe that we perceive, in which we live, is created by our brains; we create it ourselves.

The brain creates what we see and what we hear from electrochemical signals.  
The brain creates what we feel from electrochemical signals.  
Everything that we perceive is created by our brain.

Once these signals arrive at a certain area of the brain, how does the perception of the world occur? That is, how do we create the fantastic television that we are currently admiring? In what area of the brain is it created?  
So far, no one has been able to provide an answer to these questions.

It is therefore natural to ask ourselves: if the world in which we live is our interpretation of _electromagnetic phenomena_ , how can we be sure that we're interpreting it correctly?  
The truth is, we're not.

The Universe that Universal Consciousness has created is far wider and far more complex than what we can perceive, and so we cannot correctly interpret the Universe with our limitations. Some aspects going beyond our physical perceptions can be imagined while others cannot, as they fall outside of our capacity to imagine or comprehend.  
If we could understand all aspects of the universe, all the mysteries of science would become simple, solvable equations.

With the example of the three friends and their world of two spatial dimensions, we have endeavoured to imagine the unimaginable: the existence of spatial dimensions outside of our four-dimensional view.

Here is the beauty of it: none of these dimensions exit!  
The four visible dimensions and all the other imperceptible dimensions do not exist!

The universe does not exist!

In other words, the universe is a _Virtual Reality_. The reality in which we live is a _Virtual Reality_.

While we perceive some aspects of this _Virtual Reality_ , there are many others which we do not. Among these imperceptible aspects are many that we can imagine, identify, study and create mathematical models of... but there are also aspects of _Virtual Reality_ that we cannot imagine and, as in the case of Mr. Angle, they elude us.

In all respects, all aspects of _Virtual Reality_ are virtual.

The _Virtual Reality_ in which we live, namely the reality made of emptiness and _electromagnetic energies_ , of perceptible and imperceptible dimensions; this reality in truth does not exist - it is, in fact, virtual.  
Energy, space, and time are virtual.  
Everything known and unknown is virtual.

True reality, the only thing that exists, is Universal Consciousness.  
Universal Consciousness is true reality; everything else is virtuality.  
Universal Consciousness is.

### Virtual Reality from Our Point of View

Until now we have talked about visible and perceptible dimensions without giving even an approximate definition.

Consider the following illustration for a general idea of the types of dimension with which an individual interacts:

Il. 5: Virtual Reality from our point of view

S: _spatial_ dimensions (our three perceptible dimensions and all others imperceptible);

T: _temporal_ dimensions (our perceptible unidirectional dimension, and all others imperceptible);

E: _energy_ dimensions (those that interact with us, and those that do not interact);

M: _mental_ dimensions (the three known ones, conscious, unconscious, and subconscious, and the other unknown ones);

extra-M: _Extramental_ Dimensions (including _Universal Knowledge_ and all others).

The parts of _Virtual Reality_ concerning the _physical_ part of an individual can be defined as follows:

  * _Visible Virtual Reality_ is the four-dimensional Virtual Reality as it appears to our eyes, i.e., with three spatial dimensions and a one-dimensional temporal dimension.

  * _Interactive Virtual Reality_ is the Virtual Reality that interacts with our senses. It therefore includes, in addition to the four-dimensionality of Visible Virtual Reality, all of the energies that create the force fields that interact with an individual.  
Force fields are _manifestations_ of energy phenomena. While such energy phenomena are neither visible nor perceptible, their force fields are. Without going into detail, examples of a force field include gravitational fields, electric fields, or magnetic fields, the energies that generate them can be gravitational potential energy, electric charges, or magnetic dipoles.

  * _Perceptible Virtual Reality_ is the Virtual Reality that our consciousness perceives. Therefore, in addition to the four-dimensionality of Visible Virtual Reality, a mental dimension must be added that includes all conscious, unconscious, and subconscious brain activity.

An individual's spiritual components ( _Spirit_ , _Soul_ , and _Mens_ ) have _manifestations_ on some dimensions listed above, but also have components belonging to different dimensions.

In this text, when we talk about " _Our Virtual Reality_ ", we refer to _Perceptible Virtual Reality_ and _Interactive Virtual Reality_ all together; that is, any dimension that is perceptible to or interactive with an individual.

We will refer to other dimensions that neither fit into _Our Virtual Reality_ nor the _Extramental Dimensions_ as " _Unknown Dimensions of Virtual Reality_ ".

### Genesis

Virtual Reality, that is, the universe in its entirety as we understand it, was created by Universal Consciousness for the sole purpose of knowing itself.

Similar to an individual who needs a mirror to see, identify, and understand oneself, so too has Universal Consciousness created Virtual Reality to know itself.

The Big Bang, the genesis of the universe, the moment of creation, _is_ the moment of the appearance of Virtual Reality, and so it _is_ the moment of the appearance of time, space, and energy.

The genesis of the universe never "was", the genesis of the universe "is"; as previously stated, time does not actually exist: the genesis and the destruction of the universe take place at the same instant.

From our perception, living in a Virtual Reality, subject to "virtual" laws of physics and composed of virtuality, the universe lasts billions and billions of years, the planets millions and millions of years, and so on. This is all only because we are in this Virtual Reality; if we were not, we would see the genesis of the universe and its disappearance at the same time.  
This means that at the same moment that virtuality is created, also time, space and energy are created within that explosive energy that generates the universe: the Big Bang.

For a moment let's go back to temporal thinking of _Our Virtual Reality_.

But all this virtuality, all the immeasurable energy that gave shape to the incalculable mass of the universe, where does it come from, if "before" nothing existed outside the Universal Consciousness?

The virtual universe is Universal Consciousness itself.

Universal Consciousness creates the Virtual Reality which is nothing more than Universal Consciousness itself.

It seems like complex reasoning, but it is not.

Let us return to the example of the individual who looks in the mirror to know himself; that individual creates his mirror image, but that image is the individual himself.  
The individual is neither doubled nor split in two.   
The individual creates the image of himself, a "virtual self", without effort, without issue, with the sole _will_ to mirror himself. Exactly the same thing happens for Universal Consciousness: Universal Consciousness created Virtual Reality, namely the universe, simply by using the _will_ to want to know itself.

Therefore,

_reality is Universal Consciousness, while Virtual Reality is a "reflection" of Universal Consciousness._

From the optical definition of reflection[5]:

_reality is Universal Consciousness, while Virtual Reality (which is a "reflection" of Universal Consciousness) is Universal Consciousness itself, not a part of it._

To summarise, Virtual Reality does not exist, but at the same time, Virtual Reality is Universal Consciousness.  
When first approaching this theme, this concept may seem paradoxical, but it is not.

In Our Virtual Reality, the terms "everywhere", "nowhere", "always", and "never" take meaning. But in reality, where time and space do not exist, these terms have no meaning.

In Our Virtual Reality, Universal Consciousness is everywhere.

The reader should not make the mistake of thinking that, because the whole universe is Universal Consciousness, we human beings, as _a part_ of the universe, are a part of the Universal Consciousness.

No one individual is _a part_ of Universal Consciousness but is _wholly_ the Universal Consciousness. Even an ordinary ant is _wholly_ the Universal Consciousness.

The concept that the whole universe is _wholly_ the Universal Consciousness and that any part of the universe is _wholly_ Universal Consciousness is not a new concept.

Think of fractals and their "self-similarity" structure: the fractal itself is found in every part of the fractal.

This concept is extremely similar to the concept of the _Holographic Universe_ of the extremely important scientist David Bohm.  
A notable property of holograms is the following: given a laser beam that capable of creating a hologram, any part of that laser beam can generate the same complete hologram.

Similarly, in any part of Virtual Reality, be it the entire universe or the single ant, one finds ( _the entire_ ) Universal Consciousness.

### Modifications to Virtual Reality

Reality, that is, Universal Consciousness, does not change, does not mutate.

Virtual Reality, however, does change.

To aid comprehension, the reader is suggested to keep the example of the individual mirroring himself in their mind: the reflected image can change if the shape of the mirror is changed.

Any part of creation possessing an Individual Consciousness potentially has the ability to change Virtual Reality or a part of it.

In general, whether willing or not, whether aware of this ability or not, all parts of creation with Individual Consciousness are capable of changing Virtual Reality, even if only minimally.

A change to Virtual Reality can be minimal or important; the smaller the change to Virtual Reality, the easier it is to make such a change; the more important the change to Virtual Reality, the more difficult it is to make it.

The ability to make important changes in Virtual Reality depends on various factors: a developed Individual Consciousness (although this is not strictly necessary), the ability to draw on large amounts of energy, and other factors which are still not entirely clear.

Let's see some examples.

A small or secondary change to Virtual Reality could be involuntary influence on the measurement of sub-atomic particles, where the researcher's willingness to measure affects the measurement itself. This phenomenon is very well known among quantum physicists.

A slightly more important change to Virtual Reality might be a voluntary or involuntary change to physiological function; such a change could have important consequences, e.g., in the case of psychophysical stress (involuntary change) generating illness, or in the case of a period of intensive meditation (voluntary change) generating a psychosomatic cure for an illness.

A still slightly more important change to Virtual Reality might be psychological treatment using NLP methods, where in a single session the patient voluntarily, under the guidance of the therapist, changes a distorted view of an event which has caused a phobia or another type of psychological problem[6].

These three examples relate to comparatively small changes in Virtual Reality caused by human beings.  
Human beings are able to perceive, outside of their mental activities, only four space-time dimensions and have limited perceptions of Virtual Reality, and are therefore not capable of making important changes to it.  
In fact, in Our Virtual Reality, which is made up of a temporal dimension, three spatial dimensions, and at least two energy dimensions (maybe many more), we do not perceive these dimensions in the same way; human beings are incapable of perceiving any energy dimension, even though their _manifestations_ are noticeable (for example, force fields).

The inability to perceive energy dimensions is an important limitation to the ability to change Virtual Reality.  
Indeed, one can intuit that if human beings were capable of perceiving energy dimensions, their ability to change Virtual Reality would be much greater.  
Strictly speaking, this assertion could also be false because it does not take into account many other factors which may arise.

It must be also be added that certain spiritual entities with relatively low consciousness, but who are capable of perceiving energy dimensions have greater ability to change Virtual Reality than a human being with elevated consciousness has.

These latest dissertations on hypothetical situations are pointless.

In actuality, human beings are capable of accessing energy dimensions indirectly, but this subject comes out of the scope of this text.

Rather, one of the aims of this text is to increase the readers' Individual Consciousness, permitting them to acquire a greater ability to effect change within the Virtual Reality.

Do not make the mistake of thinking that living beings in the plant or animal worlds are incapable of changing Virtual Reality: lack of intellect does not imply a lack of own consciousness!

The plant world may appear to us a little trivial at first glance, but this is not so; it is much more complex than we think. To see this, one need only think that humans share up to 60% of their DNA with certain plants.

The "unknown" complexity of the plant world is well-known by shamans all over the world who draw from it information, guides, and teachings through ascetic practices, with or without the use of entheogenic substances ( _Entheogen_ chapter ⇒ ). 

##  Science

We all owe so much to science.

Science generally comes with only positive connotations: genius, intuition, stubbornness, organisation, knowledge, application, determination, and any number of other virtues.

Science, with its own language, mathematics, is the true champion of humanity's recent evolution.  
The discoveries of science have given rise to all of the wonders considered "indispensable" today, but unthinkable before science itself brought them to light and the applied sciences brought them into our lives.  
Imagine being able to travel through time and visit one of our distant relatives who lived a couple of centuries ago, and try to explain the most taken-for-granted item in our lives today: the electrical light. Our relative would never believe us if we told them we could come home in the evening and light up every room with a simple flick of the wrist!

Science should be the admission of ignorance, awareness of the limits of knowledge, and the continuous search for the best answer with the latest available knowledge[7].

Although the concept of science is extremely positive, supposedly intelligent individuals who perform science, that is, scientists, are often guilty of immodesty. Although some important representatives hold up their hands in admission that science is (still) powerless to explain certain phenomena, other scientists persevere, defending scepticism in some cases, or antiquated physical-mathematical models in others, even when such models have been proven wrong.

An obvious example where obtuse scientists defend scepticism is when talking about lunar phases in agriculture: there are no physical models or mathematical definitions; the idea that lunar cycles affect agricultural crops appears blasphemous in their eyes.  
The inexplicable effects of the moon phases are part of those phenomena of nature that human beings have learned over the millennia, but that official science looks upon with scorn. For millennia, human beings have cultivated the earth according to the lunar cycles because, using purely empirical methods, they observed that better results are obtained by following the phases of the moon.  
Official science says no: this is all false because it is not scientifically explainable! As if human beings, over millennia, from the most scattered areas and diverse cultures of Planet Earth, have drawn the erroneous conclusion on the lunar cycles, having been deceived by an improbably fortuitous series of results on crops lasting millennia[8].

There are, however, cases where science still fails to provide an explanation for certain phenomena, but, because it has become comfortable, it continues to use its practical aspects.  
One example among many is antimatter. Over the last twenty years, much research on cancer drugs has been carried out using PET systems (Positron Emission Tomography), whose supposed physical principle is based on the annihilation of a free electron with a tracer positron (anti-particle of electron)[9].  
It is a shame that antiparticle and antimatter are not yet scientifically well defined; many question marks surround the subject and is still currently a subject of research.  
This means that PET systems are based on a phenomenon that is still partially a mystery to science, but science is careful not to advertise this, given the large amounts of money circulating in oncological and pharmacological research.

In other cases, science recognises that it does not yet have an adequate explanation for the phenomenon, but still continues to use outdated and incorrect models for the simple reason that they work in many cases.  
An example is the force of gravity, that phenomenon to which we are all subject which "pushes us down". In 1687 Newton defined the law of universal gravitation as a force that is created between two masses placed at a certain distance, but to this day it is not known how the gravitational attraction is created and on what it physically depends.  
To make up for the weaknesses of Newton's theory, Einstein developed a new theory in 1915, where gravity was no longer a force, but a property of matter to deform space-time. In more recent years, string theory has proposed another physical model for gravity, introducing the graviton, a sub-atomic particle which provides the property of gravitation.  
Science admits that we are not yet there: conceptual doubts, discrepancies and gaps remain.  
Nevertheless, the applied sciences allow satellites to orbit and perform fantastic space missions by implementing complicated calculations-based projects using approximate physical models of gravity.

In some cases, science invents non-existent theorems, paradigms, or models, simply to return calculations or experiments that would otherwise be incorrect. Take the invention of _Hidden Variables_ , for example, which could just as easily be called "Invented Variables", or the physical model of Wave-Particle Duality in quantum physics, mentioned in the paragraphs _The Wave-Particle Duality in Brief_ ⇒ and _The Invented Variables_ ⇒.

In other cases, science admits its limitations and its inability to understand phenomena, but persists in retaining erroneous models even when they do not produce effective results. The example most closely concerning us is the brain, to which we refer to the next chapter (⇒).

This text has no intention of discrediting science, which has given so much to the modern world. Rather, it hopes to encourage the reader to form a certain mental flexibility, to question anything that challenges common logical sense, and not to blindly believe what one hears or reads, instead always evaluating other theories and possible alternative explanations.

A developed Individual Consciousness is, by definition, the source of free and independent thought, even if it sometimes collides with established beliefs such as religion or science.

Independent thought is the opposite of what societies want: the objective of society is to shape the thoughts of the people, that is, to control the thoughts of a multitude of people.

Some theories will be proposed in this text; some new, others less so. Many of these theories are unsubstantiated by science due to various limitations, both comprehensive and methodological, as we will see later. There will of course be obtuse people who will point the finger, expressing scepticism, forgetting that science itself uses approximate physical models and that we live in a reality regulated by inaccurate physical laws.

## The Brain

In recent years, science has achieved impressive results in interfacing certain cerebral functions to electronic and electromechanical equipment.

More and more funds are devoted to scientific research on brain interfaces, that is, machinery that interprets the "signals" leaving (or entering) the brain.

In spite of this, when it comes to what happens inside the brain is concerned, science is in the dark.

We saw in the _Manifestation and Science_ paragraph (⇒) the statement of Professor W. J. Freeman, neuroscience luminary, on science's lack of understanding of the fundamental link between the microscopic and macroscopic aspects of the brain.

### The (incorrect) Local Storage Model

Official science's macroscopic model of brain function is the _local storage model_ , according to which the brain stores information in certain zones of the brain, and each zone of the brain is used to perform a certain task.

This model was born from the fact that when carrying out certain activities, electromagnetic signals caused by brain activations are detected in certain areas of the brain. It was therefore believed that each area of the brain is dedicated to a particular function; for example, if you are playing music, the brain will activate the areas dedicated to music.

The main logical reason why the _local storage model_ cannot be correct is that numerically there would be no room in the brain for all memories and all learned abilities. Our brain is about 1.3 Kg and consists of approximately 100 billion (1011) neurons and one million billion synapses (1015); although these numbers may seem astronomical, they really are not.

Probably only people who work with digital memories can quickly realise the amount of data needed to store a memory; others will need to make more of an effort to imagine this.

A trivial memory, e.g., "yesterday's shopping at the supermarket", is surrounded by thousands of details, and each of them would need millions of neurons to be stored: the clothes that you wore, the bags you brought, where you parked the car, the people you met, the fruit you bought, the cheese you chose, the people with whom you stood in line at the counter, the money you paid, the feelings that you felt when you got back in the car, and so on. Every detail has hundreds of sub-details: the faces, the clothing, the build, the gait, the voice, the characteristics of the people you met; the fruit that you looked at, what you touched, what you chose and what you put back, the quantities and prices of fruit that you bought; the brands, the offers, the expiration dates, the flavours that you imagined when you were buying the cheese. And from those sub-details, we can also remember other descriptive details, such as colour, texture, smell, maturation, size, temperature, and other details associated with each item you have selected.

And so on... even those tiny details you don't think you remember have been memorised, and a good therapist could bring them back with a regressive session.

We must realise that the brain does not have a synapse for apples, one for mozzarella, one for rice... for each object, a very large number of synapses are required. In fact, a neuronal synapse which can be thought of as an entity's primary storage and can be considered approximately as a binary entity: the passage of the action potential (bio-signal) through the synapse could be considered a "1" binary while the absence of the passage of the action potential as a "0" binary[10].

If we, therefore, consider a synapse to be a binary digit with a binary number, to specify any object with the use of synapses, you would need to use a binary number with a very high number of binary digits, which is to say, lots of synapses. For each object, we should have an elevated number of dedicated neurons for the colour of the object, including all the different shades and tones of the colour itself. We should have other neurons to memorise information about the shape of the object, the dimensions, and the irregularities in its form.  
We should have neurons to store information regarding surface roughness, sensations to touch, temperature.

During a well-done regressive session, a patient who is reliving their memories is also remembering the thoughts, impressions, or fantasies that went through their heads. In the example of the memory of "yesterday's shopping at the supermarket", a person might remember the taste they imagined while choosing a certain food. All of these details should be memorised somewhere in the brain according to the _local storage model_.

Let's again take the example of the memory of "yesterday's shopping at the supermarket". Let us consider the huge number of synapses needed to memorise a simple object; this and much other information should be stored for each item purchased during the shopping - an incalculable amount of information to memorise, even without considering that "yesterday's shopping at the supermarket" is just one of many memories in life.

It would take an innumerable amount of memorised data to binarily memorise all the information of the memories of an entire lifetime. While the number of synapses and neurons within the brain is remarkably large, it is impossible to think all of this information can be memorised... especially considering the brain serves many other complex functions besides storing memories.

To justify the objective impossibility of the brain's ability to store an entire life's worth of memories, some speculate that memories are simplified and that only some fundamental details are stored. According to believers of this theory, when recalling a memory, the brain reconstructs the memory from these few key details.

If this were true, when storing the memory, the brain would need to execute a complex algorithm in order to identify which details of the memory are to be considered fundamental, therefore requiring storage, while all other details would be discarded. If such a theory were true, the brain would require an even more complex algorithm to be able to reconstruct the memory from those few fundamental details stored without entering imagined information... thus the less fundamental details are stored into the brain, more difficult is to reconstruct a coherent memory[11].  
It is not difficult to guess that if this theory were true, there would be no common memories, as the brains of all people who would share the same experience would reconstruct the memory differently by virtue of having different algorithms[12].

Let us recall again that with regression, in the hands of an excellent therapist, we can access with precision very small details of our memories, in a way that is completely coherent and consistent with memories shared by other people.

This analysis has failed to take into account that neurons do not only serve to store memories but also to manage the various sensory, psychomotor[13], bio-physical, etc., activities, all of which are extremely complex. This would leave little available space in the brain for the allocating memories activity, thus rendering the classical idea that memories are stored in the brain even more absurd. We should also consider very complex brain activities such as the activities of the mind; that is, consciousness, sensation, perception, thought, intuition, reason, and will[14] \- all activities that would require a very complex neural network in order to take shape, that is, a huge quantity of neurons.

We should also add the processing of the five senses, whose complexities are still unknown: we do not even have the faintest idea how and where the brain creates the images that we perceive from bioelectrical signals coming to the cerebral cortex.

No, when it comes to the _local storage model_ , the numbers simply do not add up.

The _local storage model_ becomes even less valid when we consider the animal world, such as the amazing abilities of the Octopoda order, commonly known as octopuses, who, with a nervous system that is very small compared to ours, should not be able to carry out any activity defined as intelligent.

In fact, all neuroscience researchers agree that if humans had brains a thousand times smaller than their current size, weighing only 1.3 grams with 108 neurons and 1012 synapses, we would not be able to do anything but vegetate. One wonders, then, how an octopus, with a nervous system with a number of neurons to the order of 108, demonstrates such acute intelligence, capable of solving logical and complex problems, as well as being capable of controlling bodily shape and colour mutations requiring complex brain control.

Again, the numbers just don't add up.

Even the less prepared reader will have realised that the _local storage model_ of the brain is incorrect.

There are other models that have been developed to try to understand how the brain works. One of these hypothesises that the number of neurons and synapses might be sufficient if each memory were to employ logic for the association of information stored previously in the other memories; in this case, it would not be necessary to store all the information of the memory, but only references to previously-stored memories.  
A rough example: if the purchase of some bananas had been stored in the upper-left area of the occipital lobe, the memory of bananas' colour stripes refers to the memory of some similar stains stored years before in the centre-right area of the occipital lobe, while the memory of the shape of bananas refers to other shapes seen months previously allocated in another area of the brain; the memories of the bananas' other details would be scattered in other areas of the brain.  
Thus, in order to be able to store and remember a relatively uncomplicated memory such as this, one must access various areas of the brain for reference. A scarcely complex memory would require the activation of all areas of the brain, so that memory would no longer be localised in a part of the brain, but spread throughout the whole brain.  
This model is in sharp contrast to the _local storage model_ , according to which each memory should be allocated in a specific area of the brain, which is supported by measurements of electromagnetic fields of brain activations.

Aware of the impossibility of the brain's ability to storing all the memories, some supporters of the _local storage model_ embrace this theory, which states that "the brain can memorise because it is able to forget", thus leaving room for future memories. This is one of those cases when an incorrect model leads to other incorrect sub-models.  
Memories remain, they are not lost. Although you may be under the impression that you have forgotten some of your rarely-accessed memories, nothing is forgotten. Most of the memories and their many details remain.  
Excepting pathological cases, the brain does not have the ability to forget one memory to make room for another; otherwise, such forgotten memories would no longer be recoverable in any way.  
As already mentioned several times, with appropriate regression techniques, even memories so remote that they might seem forgotten can resurface, with all the details just as they were stored in the memory.

It must be emphasised that regression, properly and professionally done, cannot be re-lived by a patient in a hypnotic state. A hypnotic state (from the Greek "hypnos", or "sleep") is not an ideal state in which to revive memories in a precise manner. Hypnosis is a methodology for inducing a _"drowsy" altered state of consciousness_ , where the patient's perceptual channels are reduced to minimal function and the patient is also highly suggestible; this makes hypnosis a useful methodology for many therapeutic purposes, but not for regressions.

In order to perform a regression optimally, the patient's perceptual channels must be as active and receptive as possible, that is, inducing an _"alert" altered state of consciousness_ , which constitutes the opposite of a hypnotic state.

A person in an _ordinary state of consciousness_ , that is, in a condition where personal consciousness is in its "normal" state, can "not remember" a memory or "remember" it incorrectly for various reasons that we will not discuss in this text. Bringing such a person into an _"alert" altered state of consciousness_ , and then properly performing a regression, the same memory will emerge, exactly correct.

If the memory that emerged in an _altered state of consciousness_ is not precisely consistent with what was stored, then an error of method has occurred; that is, _altered state of consciousness_ was improperly induced or an inappropriate _altered state of consciousness_ was induced.

### Extramental Dimensions

Researchers who embrace the _local storage model_ of the brain, reinforce their beliefs by holding up brain activities detected by machines according to the activity the subject is performing and deducing from them that knowledge of that activity is stored in certain areas of the nervous system identified by those machines. The reality does not quite match up with this, but it seems that science remains obstinate in refusing to evaluate other hypotheses.

Long-term memory is not localised in the brain, but in other dimensions that we will call _Extramental Dimensions_.

The brain activity detected during the performance of certain activities is not due to neural circuits "activating" in order to provide memories so that the subject performs the desired activity, as is erroneously believed, but rather are _manifestations_ of access to other dimensions where the memory is located.

Karl Lashley spent 35 years of his life trying to figure out where the brain stored a certain memory. Starting from the '20s, Lashley carried out an extremely long series of experiments, which should have ended the discourse surrounding the validity of the _local storage model_ , shelving any theory in favour of it.  
The idea behind Karl Lashley's experiments was that. if a memory was stored in a certain part of the brain, with a targeted lobotomy it would be possible to "surgically" remove that memory.  
The following figure is a simple illustration of the supposed effects of a lobotomy targeted at the area of the brain where the memory of the "blue house" is lodged, according to the _local storage model_.

Il. 6: targeted lobotomy in according to the _local storage model_.

In the most representative series of experiments, Karl Lashley took a number of rats and taught them the path of a complex maze in order to reach an area with cheese. According to the _local storage model_ , to which Lashley referred, the memory of such a path should have been stored in a specific area of the rats' brains.

With no way of discerning the part of the rats' brains of rats in which the memory was located, Lashley was forced to remove large portions of the brain. Lashley subdivided the rats into several groups and performed a lobotomy on a different part of the brain for each group, so that the rats belonging to a certain group had all received the same kind of lobotomy, which differed from the other groups' lobotomies. Lashley did not exclude any part of the brain from lobotomy within these groups.

According to the _local storage model_ , all rats belonging to at least one group should have surgically forgotten the path of the maze to reach the cheese. In other words, the rats belonging to the groups whose lobotomies did not affect the parts of the brain where the memory of the maze path was stored would necessarily remember the path; while the rats belonging to the groups whose lobotomies did affect the parts of the brain where memory of the maze path was stored would necessarily forget the path of the labyrinth have previously learned.

Unfortunately for Lashley, the fact is that the experiments did not achieve the intended result: after a recovery period following the cruel lobotomy, all rats of all groups remembered the path of the maze to reach the cheese.

The only argument that could be attributed to this result was that the memory of the maze path was not localised in the rats' brains.

With this, the shaky _local storage model_ should have been sunk then and there: memory is not localised within the brain.

In the early 1980s, the neurologist Dr John Lorber examined more than 600 cases of patients who, due to various pathologies, had a reduced volume of brain mass. Some of these patients were apparently very normal people, with a normal life and an IQ above 100. Among the various patients, a young English student stood out; he not only had a normal social life but was one of the best students within mathematics department of his university. Dr Lorber wrote of him: - There's a young student at this university ... who has an IQ of 126, has gained a first-class honours degree in mathematics, and is socially completely normal. And yet the boy has virtually no brain ... instead of the normal 4.5 centimetre thickness of brain tissue between the ventricles and the cortical surface, he has just a thin layer of mantle measuring a millimetre or so. -  
Of course, neither the memory nor intelligence of that boy is housed in the brain, as that boy is practically brainless.

If neither memory nor intelligence resides in the brain, the only conclusion one can reach is the introduction of a new model to explain the functioning of the brain is needed.

### Holonomic Brain

The _Holonomic Brain_ physical model, presented by K. Pribram and D. Bohm, is the model closest to how the brain truly functions.

This model posits that memory storage is not local, but rather that the brain functions as a holographic network.

The basis of this theory was put forward by D. Gabor, while holographic mathematical memory was developed by his colleague, P. J. Van Heerden, in 1963.  
Experiments by Braitenberg and Kirschfield in 1967 supported the idea that memory is not localised in the brain.

The brain's functioning is a complex extension of the _Holonomic Brain_ model. Even if we were to devote many pages to a description of the brain's functioning, because of our four-dimensional space-time perception, we would not be able to fully understand it. We shall therefore introduce the following simplified model, which uses different and elementary concepts:

First, what we know as long-term memory is not localised in the brain, but in other dimensions that fall outside of our current understanding, which we can call _Extramental Dimensions_.

The brain does not store memory, but rather stores the memory of how to access memory in the _Extramental Dimensions_. For simplicity's sake, one can think of the brain as storing the "coordinates" of the _Extramental Dimensions_ that correspond to memory.

The direct consequence of this is that a lobotomy can never erase a memory, because the memory is not localised in the brain. However, the "coordinates" of the _Extramental Dimensions_ can be deleted; in this case, the memory remains intact in the _Extramental Dimensions_ , but the brain may lose the knowledge of how to access the memory, as shown in the following illustration, taking the example of the "blue house".

Il. 7: targeted lobotomy, post-surgery temporary effect.

Thus, in Karl Lashley's experiment, lobotomising the part of the rat's brain which is activated during the memory of the maze path to the cheese does not delete the memory of the path to the cheese, but rather erases the _Extramental Dimensional_ coordinates to the memory; therefore, the memory of the maze path to the cheese remains intact in the _Extramental Dimensions_.

During the recovery phase, the brain accesses memories associated with the memory of the path to the cheese, thus recovering the lost coordinates, which will then be stored in another cerebral location. The following illustration shows how the "coordinates" of the "blue house" memory are retrieved via the memories of the gate and the tree next to the blue house, memories associated with one another in the _Extramental Dimensions_.

Il. 8: memory recovery after a targeted lobotomy.

If this were not the case, that is, if the path to the cheese were stored in the brain (as in the _local storage model_ ), this memory would be permanently lost with the targeted lobotomy.  
In this case, the memory would not be recoverable via other memories due to the uniqueness of the area of the brain storing the memory. In fact, in the analyses preceding the lobotomy, the memory areas of all items connected to the memory to be erased would activate, causing them to also be targeted by the lobotomy, and therefore being lost along with the memory.

The hypothesis that memory is housed in _Extramental Dimensions_ also addresses the problem that arises when one considers the insufficiency of the number of neurons and synapses necessary to store memories in the span of a lifetime. In fact, housing memory "coordinates", however complex such coordinates may be in terms of electromagnetic activations, is decidedly cheaper in terms of synaptic requirements than memorising the fundamental elements of all details of a memory and other memories connected to it.

Brain activations that are detected with technological equipment when recalling a certain memory are a kind of electromagnetic activity that generates access to the _Extramental Dimensions_ in which the memory is stored.  
The memory is then received by the brain and processed.

The brain temporarily stores only a few details of short-term memories, which it uses in various processes; all long-term memories are localised in _Extramental Dimensions_.

Our brain is not the hard disk; our brain is the hard disk manager.

As the space-time dimensions of the Visible Virtual Reality are shared by all living beings (the corporeal parts) of the created Virtual Reality, so too are the _Extramental Dimensions_ shared: it is not only the memories of the individual that are housed in the _Extramental Dimensions_ , but the memories of all living beings, and therefore also all knowledge.

Some define " _Universal Consciousness_ " as the global sum of knowledge housed in the _Extramental Dimensions_ [15].

Human beings are structured in such a way that in an _ordinary state of consciousness_ , we can only access (involuntarily) the zone of _Extramental Dimensions_ in which we store our memories. Therefore, in an _ordinary state of consciousness_ we cannot access _Extramental Dimensional_ areas where other individuals (or entities) store their memories and knowledge, as we do not know where they are located and how to access them.

Take for example a stranger who crosses the street and asks us to go and get a letter left at his house. Without any additional information, we cannot access to this unknown house because we do not know its location, nor do we have the keys to access it, even though his house is in the same three-dimensional virtual space shared by all. Similarly, we cannot access other people's knowledge, despite being located in the same _Extramental Dimensions_.

All of this is true in an _ordinary state of consciousness_ , the ideal state for allowing us to live, experiment, and fully enjoy the experience of everyday life... but in an _altered state of consciousness_ , things change and access to _Universal Consciousness_ becomes possible.

## The Human Being

One of the topics I was most interested in at the beginning of my journey was understanding how the human being was structured. I felt that human spiritual structure needed to be redefined in order to appropriately cultivate spirituality.  
I found too many discordances and confused definitions of "spirit", "soul", and "mind" provided by science, philosophy and various religions, both ancient and modern.

In my personal research, which began at an early age, I was repeatedly confronted with contrasting and very unclear concepts regarding human beings' spiritual sides, or rather those constituent elements of the human being not considered physiological elements. Within both scientific texts, sceptical of the spiritual point of view, and in religious texts, particularly New Age texts, I have always had difficulty finding definitions of what animates living beings, namely the essence of life itself, how it is defined and whether something else besides it exists.

Some scientific texts tend to define the wonderful activities of microscopic cell life as "chemical reactions".

To look inside a cell is to be fascinated by the activities that take place unbeknownst to us: from the energy production of the mitochondria, which powers all functions of the cell to the cleaning efforts of the lysosomes, which degrade and digest foreign elements; from cell reproduction by cell splitting, which involves many complex actions, to many other activities, all of which are perfectly designed, organised and orchestrated, certainly not randomly. Not every element within the cell is inert, gravitated, and immobile on whatever side of the cell; on the contrary, every element within the cell is engaged in its own activity, somehow conscious of what it is and of what it must do to survive and to ensure the survival of the cell until the end of its own life.

Every element within the cell is not inert, gravitated, nor immobile on whatever side of the cell; on the contrary, every element within the cell is engaged in its own activity, somehow _conscious_ of what it is and of what it must do to survive and to ensure the survival of the cell until the end of its own life.

Although cellular life is a part of every living being, the living being is unaware of it... that is, life at the cellular level has its own consciousness, quite distinct from Individual Consciousness.

I remember that a few days after I met Pragnil, I spoke to the son of the man who later became my shaman master. I was doing a sort of amateur anthropological investigation into aboriginal beliefs; it was the dawn of the Anandayana project.

"...

I asked M. what the Shipibo believed regarding the constituent parts of human beings before the arrival of Christianity; he said to me, - My father explained to me that we, the shamans, work with the spirits to heal the spirits of the sick, but there is nothing that we can do with souls - .

..."

What M. told me left me speechless: the ancient Shipibo creed clearly differentiated "spirit" from "Soul"; this confirmed the recent studies I was conducting on ancient Eastern and Middle Eastern religions... I did not expect such confirmation from the mouth of an indigenous person from the Amazon jungle.  
Above all, I did not expect that a middle-aged person from that village could tell me about the beliefs of an age-old people: indeed, for several decades the area had been invaded by Christian churches that, with their cults, had already greatly confused the beliefs of the local indigenous people... for this very reason, from there I would shortly embark upon a journey into the heart of the Amazon rainforest in search of intact cultures in order to deepen my studies.

A body, a mind, a spirit, and a soul.  
This subdivision is a bit crude but it is helpful to give us an idea.

Depending on the reader's culture, they may associate the reading of the words "spirit" and "soul" with common images possessing certain characteristics forged both by religions and popular beliefs.  
Maybe the word "soul" is associated with an entity residing in an ill-defined location in the heavens, merely awaiting the conception of an individual for it to slip inside; or we associate it with ourselves, in an unspecified eternal form, reincarnating in various lives, awaiting god's final judgement, which will award eternal joy or eternal damnation.  
The word "spirit", on the other hand, is mistakenly used as a synonym for "soul" by some modern religions; also for this reason, many people have never even considered that it could be something different.  
Or perhaps you associate the word "spirit" with spiritual entities wandering in the Earth, some benevolent, others less so.

"...

In the late afternoon, when the temperature drops before sunset, I like to walk barefoot outside the village, enjoying the pleasant feeling that the soft warm red soil gives underfoot.

Yesterday afternoon, walking just outside the village, I saw Pragnil in the distance on my path, helping a lady carry buckets of water. I came over, we greeted each other, and we started talking. Speaking of the experiences I was having in the village, I touched upon espiritu; Pragnil asked me whether I had asked myself the meaning of espiritu.

..."

"Espiritu" ("spirit" in the Spanish language) is the spiritual entity that Shipibo shamans associate with any form of living being of the animal and vegetable kingdoms.

In the following days, I dedicated my moments of reflection to seeking to understand the concept of the spiritual parts of the human being; I wanted to have some basic knowledge before resuming the topic with Pragnil... but it wasn't a question of days as I had expected.

It took years of various and varied experiences and in-depth study, not to mention enlightening conversations with Pragnil, before I reached a degree of understanding of the spiritual parts of the human being... this concept continues to be the subject of deeper study.

## Spirit

All living beings are made up of cells, animated by that _conscious_ life force mentioned previously.

_Spirit_ [16] is the living essence of what everyone knows as life. Additionally, all members of the vegetable kingdom are alive; many activities similar the ones briefly mentioned in the chapter _The Human Being_ ⇒ are found within plant cells, while other activities are specific to the life of the plant in question: amazing processes of growth and survival coded into their DNA dictate the behaviour and growth of the various cells.

Vegetables also get sick and can heal. There are even studies that have shown that plants experience what we define as pain and suffer due to environmental changes.  
No one would dare to claim that vegetables are not alive; this should be a point of reflection for some vegetarians and vegans.

But what is _Spirit?_

It is virtually impossible to clearly and accurately interpret the structure of _Spirit_ in the _Unknown Dimensions of Virtual Reality_ , that is in the dimensions beyond _Our Virtual Reality_ (see chapter _Virtual Reality from Our Point of View_ ⇒). The impossibility of interpreting this is once again down to our own limitations. However, it is possible to provide simplified ideas of what _Spirit_ is and what it does.

_Spirit_ is a spiritual entity that _manifests_ itself in _Our Virtual Reality_ as a vital element of every living species.

The consciousness of life within cells is the _manifestation_ of

Spirit.

Without _Spirit_ , all living beings would simply be inert accumulations of organic material.

This means that neither we humans nor any other form of living being, would really make sense without _Spirit_.

Note: The reader is invited to review the _Manifestations of Entities with Other Dimensions_ ⇒.

As mentioned, the manifestation of _Spirit_ in _Our Virtual Reality_ is the conscious energy that makes all microscopic activities within the cells of living beings possible. In other words, all the various conscious activities that take place in a physiological system are brought to life by _Spirit_.

But not only that.

Spirit.

_Spirit_ also manifests itself at the psychic level. Those mental activities that psychologists call the _unconscious_ mind are largely manifestations of _Spirit_ at the mental/psychic level. _Spirit_ also manifests itself by generating some of the mental activities included in the definition of the _subconscious_.

More cognitively elevated mental activities generated by manifestations of _Spirit_ , outside of those relating to _conscious_ , such as emotions and instincts, are defined in psychology as the _unconscious_ , while less cognitively elevated mental activities generated by manifestations of _Spirit_ are defined in psychology as the _subconscious_ , that is, activities which automatically or semi-automatically regulate and synchronise physical and physiological activities.

From the perspective of the average individual, the mental manifestation of _Spirit_ contributes to restlessness and generates confusing and disconnected thoughts; those thoughts that yogis seek to calm with traditional meditation.

In fact, those innumerable, seemingly confusing thoughts have a very precise meaning and utility: they stimulate thought that is then considered by the rational part of our mind (the manifestation of an entity that we will call _Mens_ ).

Grand ideas, strokes of genius, and big discoveries all have origins in these seemingly confusing thoughts.  
That is, the source of so-called "strokes of genius" is _Spirit_ ; individuals who tend to have a greater number of "strokes of genius" are not more intelligent individuals, but rather possess a more developed _Spirit_ component, a greater intuitive ability to grasp the archetypal meaning of past information, and a mind that is open to accepting new information.

In an _altered_ , or _non-ordinary state of consciousness_ , it is possible to give greater voice to _Spirit_ , allowing for its abilities to be extended by enabling it to access and pass on information to which it does not have regular access (see paragraph _Thought, States of Consciousness, and Archetypes_ ⇒).

_Spirit_ is not the generating source (of the archetypes) of "strokes of genius".   
As mentioned, _Spirit_ has the potential to access, tap into, and pass on certain information residing in _Extramental Dimensions_ when the individual is in a given _altered state of consciousness_.

To gain an idea of the source of "strokes of genius", that is, their primordial origin which is utilised by _Spirit_ in an _altered state of consciousness_ , it is necessary to take a closer look at what _Spirit_ is.

Many ancestral cultures had, and some retain, belief in the concept that nature on our planet possesses a certain spiritual structure. Some cultures call this spiritual structure Gaia, others the Great Spirit, or Pachamama, or Madre Selva. The common concept is that of a spiritual component that governs the perfect balance of nature on Planet Earth.

As was often the case, the ancients, with socio-cultural structure simpler than today's, had an _ordinary state of consciousness_ very different from our present one; this made them more receptive to the archetypal messages that surrounded them in their _ordinary states of consciousness_ , but above all in their _non-ordinary states of consciousness_.

The ancients possessed insights stemming from archetypal information, which gave rise to somewhat correct concepts; these concepts were never subjected to further study, research, or investigation, thus remaining freely interpretable. These free interpretations, containing little actual knowledge, gave rise to far-fetched beliefs, where the correct part of the initial concepts has become blurred. When such beliefs were then paired with other senseless beliefs, they became the basis of religious beliefs and superstitious rituals.

Today, intellectual progress and our thirst for knowledge, combined with the strong base of established functional logic rooted within us, would stimulate us to seek answers to mysterious concepts, if we had easy access to new archetypal information as the ancients had. Unfortunately, however, our minds are perpetually clouded.

A popular Italian saying goes, - he who has teeth has no bread, and vice versa -.

Nowadays we live in a society that constantly controls our minds, and most people do not even realise it (chapter on _Socio-religious System_ ⇒). Our developed minds are perpetually clouded and we cannot pay attention to the archetypal messages that surround us. Science is glorified despite it flaunts scepticism for what it does not understand, and it reduces ancestral knowledge a priori to useless superstitions when it is inconvenient (chapter on _Science_ ⇒).

Exactly as the ancients perceived, there is a link between us and nature, or better, between us and any other living being which, as every living being, is endowed with a _Spirit_ component.

Every form of life on earth, whether from the animal world or the plant world, has a _Spirit_ component that, as we have seen, manifests itself in _Our Virtual Reality_ (even if it does not possess spatial components) and also in other dimensions.

In _Our Virtual Reality_ , with our five senses, we perceive other forms of life as separate entities from ours: we perceive each living as individual entity separate from all the others.  
In other dimensions, some _Spirit_ 's components of all living beings are (indirectly) connected to each other, generating a kind of "spiritual network".

Humans have an Individual Consciousness and, when analysed as part of a group, have a collective consciousness; lions have a consciousness of their own and, when analysed as pride, have a collective consciousness; ants have a consciousness of their own and, when analysed as part of an ant colony, have a collective consciousness; a certain type of tree has its own consciousness and, when analysed as part of the forest, has a collective consciousness. Even the various _Spirit_ each have their own consciousness and, when analysed in the "spiritual network", they have a group consciousness.

It is exactly this group consciousness of the "spiritual network" of _Spirit_ i that gives rise to what the ancients called _Pachamama_ in Andean cultures, _Madre Selva_ in the cultures of the Amazon, _Great Spirit_ in the American Indian cultures of North America, and so on. In this text we will identify _Gaya_ as this "spiritual network" of Spirit, recalling the name of the mother goddess of all lives in Greek mythology.

I like to give a figurative example, as crude as it is, of _Gaya_. The following example does NOT match reality, which from the writer's perspective is indescribable in an _ordinary state of consciousness_ , but provides a simple figurative example:

we want to see _Gaya_ as a huge tree, representing the collective consciousness of the "spiritual network" of all the _Spirit_ of the planet Earth. Such an enormous tree has an infinity of leaves. Each leaf represents the consciousness of a _Spirit_.  
With a little wind, each leaf comes slightly into contact with the leaves close to it, and this represents the physical contact of the five senses that a living being can have with another living being.  
Outside any physical contact, each of the leaves is connected and is potentially in communication with all other leaves through the sap of the tree.  
When a life ends the arc of its existence, the leaf detaches from the enormous tree, falls close to the tree itself, biodegrades, and is absorbed into the ground; from the ground, the enormous tree absorbs what remains of the leaf: the consciousness of _Spirit_ is always a part of _Gaya_ , both when the living being is alive (the leaf on the branch), and when the living being is dead.

From the point of view of _Spirit_ , death is the state in which _Spirit_ no longer manifests itself at the cellular or intellectual level, and nothing more.

The details of what happens to _Spirit_ 's consciousness of after death, beyond the previous figurative example, is still a subject of research.  
Nevertheless, there is nothing dramatic in the cessation of the existence of _Spirit_ : a person dies, some manifestations of _Spirit_ cease to function, but the consciousness of _Spirit_ was and always remains part of _Gaya_.

At all time, an innumerable number of living beings whose _Spirit_ is a constituent part of _Gaya_ are born and die. Gaya is seen as a unique element, the various consciousnesses of _Spirit_ are a part of it, and the innumerable succession of deaths and births of living beings are the fundamental dynamics of _Gaya_.

The true shamans of the Amazon[17] state that their knowledge of how to use plants for healing purposes, were not passed down orally, but was acquired during shamanic rituals through "spirits of master plants".

Sceptics have always mocked this kind of statement, despite never being able to provide a valid explanation for how shamans knew how to prepare and use specific medicines obtained with certain combinations of plants. Many sceptics claim that shamans have experimented over the course of millennia to find the right concoctions... However, if one uses a bit of logic and common sense, they will understand that this statement is nonsense: in the Amazon rainforest, there are roughly 40,000 types of plants[18], some of them poisonous: combining only two plants gives rise to 1,600,000,000 possible combinations, some of which are lethal; therefore, the thesis that shamans have learned through experimentation has no basis in reality, also because it would take about 135 years simply to count up to this number[19].

Yet despite all this scepticism, pharmaceutical companies and cosmetic companies have always profited from precious shamanic plant knowledge (further detail in annotation _The Mystery of the Origin of Yage_ ⇒).

Some shamanic cultures speak of a "master plant", a plant with the ability to communicate, teach, and transmit information.

As mentioned above, each _Spirit_ possesses its own consciousness. A so-called "master plant" is a plant that possesses _Spirit_ with elevated consciousness.

The "master plant" par excellence of the Shipibo shamans is the Ayahuasca plant. A true shaman has the ability to bring an individual into an _altered state of consciousness_ in which the individual can receive guidance from a master plant. While a bogus shaman in the Amazon rainforest, known by a term that is not sufficiently negative, ayahuasquero (read 'aiawaskero' , one who administers ayahuasca), can only produce a hallucinogenic journey devoid of teachings.

Seeking to find a logical explanation to shamans' statements regarding the origins of their knowledge, Jeremy Narby suggests[20] the idea that communication between individuals and plants may take place through an exchange of biophotons released and received by cells (see annotation on _The Relativity of the Near-death of Mens_ ⇒).

Just as for the brain, where the detection of electromagnetic activities in cerebral areas is not an indication of the processing of memory by the brain, but rather is a consequence of access to _Extramental Dimensions_ , the biophotons emitted and received by cells are not the same messages that are exchanged between different _Spirit_ , but rather are the manifestation in Our Virtual Reality of the activities of the _Spirit_ that occur in other dimensions.

We have said that all _Spirit_ are indirectly connected to one other through _Gaya_.  
In the _Holonomic Brain_ chapter (⇒) and the annotation on _Storing Memories in Extramental Dimensions_ (⇒) it is hypothesised that the _Extramental Dimensions_ containing memories and knowledge could be holography in atemporal dimensions. Since this idea is neither falsifiable nor demonstrable, we cannot know the form in which Universal Consciousness is stored, housed, and written.

Nevertheless, since Universal Consciousness is theoretically accessible by all _Spirit_ (and _Gaya_ ), it can be assumed that the _Extramental Dimensions_ have "compatible" dimensions with those in which _Gaya_ resides. Indeed, a _Spirit_ with high individual awareness can access and draw information Universal Consciousness.

The explanation for the origin of shamanic knowledge is, then, an obvious consequence of the above, taking into account the socio-cultural structure of a true shaman which provides him with an _ordinary state of consciousness_ different from that of an ordinary individual, as well as his familiarity with the management of _non-ordinary states of consciousness_ , during which he can indirectly access the Universal Consciousness.

In an ordinary individual, the confusional succession of ideas that emerges from the unconscious part of the mind could be replaced by extremely useful information yet unknown to humanity, were it the will of _Spirit_ with its own elevated consciousness, if such a _Spirit_ 's individual were in a psychophysical state to permit this.

_Spirit_ , unlike _Soul_ , cannot access large amounts of energy; on the contrary, in critical conditions, it can barely provide enough energy for our body to survive.

Ascetic practices such as yoga or martial arts, meditation, a healthy diet (and cosmetic routine), conscious sexual activity, that is, all of the healthy habits recommended for your Anandayana, are practices that help _Spirit_ to rebalance energetically.

_Spirit_ , like every individual, can increase its consciousness by living new experiences. Experiences of _altered states of consciousness_ ' are an excellent way for a _Spirit_ to develop its own consciousness.

As _Spirit_ has limited access to energy and generally does not possess an elevated own consciousness (in the case of the majority of _Spirit_ ), _Spirit_ is incapable of effecting major change within Virtual Reality.

As mentioned, the consciousness of life at the cellular level is a manifestation of _Spirit_ in Our Virtual Reality. _Spirit_ can have spikes and crashes in energy. The effects of these spikes and crashes are reflected in our bodies and health.

When _Spirit_ is in poor, disturbed, or stressed condition, for any reason, its energy levels fall. Its manifestation also has repercussions of various kinds in Our Virtual Reality both at the physical (lowering of the immune system, hormonal dysfunction, etc.) and the psychological (difficulty concentrating, mental fatigue, lack of lucidity, etc.) level.

Conversely, a sudden increase in _Spirit_ energy could establish a period of excellent health and physical condition, even so far as inexplicable recovery from serious illness.

"...

While chatting with J. and R. and the son, M., this afternoon, I asked J. how curandero[21] works. He answered: - there are diseases of the body that require doctors, there are diseases of the psyche that require psychologists; we shamans work only on the espiritu[22], although we sometimes also act as doctors... -

..."

A true shaman is able to cure a patient by energetically rehabilitating their _Spirit_.

The causes of _Spirit_ energy highs and lows are manifold: from the individual's harmful lifestyle, including (but not only) prolonged periods of exposure to stress or absent or negative spiritual conduct, up to constant poisoning of the body with poor dietary choices and the use of toxic beauty products/pharmaceuticals.

This means that if we mistreat our bodies, _Spirit_ suffers energetically, resulting in physical problems.

Our physical health is a cause and effect of the health of our spiritual part, _Spirit_.

_Spirit_ requires spiritual and physical care so that its manifestation as our body's vital energy remains in good condition.

If we wish to speak of spirituality as the cult of _Spirit_ 's wellbeing, above all it is important not to neglect appropriate physical activity and a healthy lifestyle.

Those who neglect or deny their own bodies love and care are not following a complete spiritual path.

Without caring for one's own physique, there can be no complete spiritual treatment; likewise, to properly care for one's physique, one cannot neglect the spiritual aspect.

It is difficult to imagine a serene, happy person who is in worse physical condition than usual. This means that a spiritual journey in search of serenity cannot exclude attention to one's physical and psychological wellbeing.

**The foundation for building one's own Anandayana lies in understanding the spiritual importance of maintaining a physically healthy lifestyle.**

## _Soul_

Having always been fascinated by Oriental beliefs, I always wondered whether the spiritual part known by many religions as "soul" existed and whether it was a part in itself, with its own consciousness.  
I always wondered what might happen to the "soul" at the moments of death and before birth. Whether the existence of a heaven, a hell, and a purgatory was possible. Or if the "soul" was aware of the presumed various stages of the reincarnation process, seeing we as human beings are not aware of the "soul"'s past lives.

To help the reader to form an idea, _Soul_ [23] is the spiritual entity closest to the Buddhist concept of "soul".

The most important point of the concept of _Soul_ that the reader must understand is that, contrary to almost all modern religions, the human being should not be identified with the _Soul_ residing within the individual. In fact, unlike _Spirit_ , _Soul_ has very little to do with the human being.  
There is no manifestation of _Soul_ in human being, neither at physical level nor at mental level.

_Soul_ has access to an almost infinite amount of energy; the human being does not.

_Soul_ reincarnates; the human being does not. In fact, we have no awareness of our _Soul_ 's past and future lives. Whatever happens to _Soul_ after our death does not matter to us, because we will be dead.

Whatever kind of life one makes, whether as a saint or as a perpetrator of atrocities, whatever virtues or sins one cultivates, to _Soul_ , absolutely nothing changes.

In theory, _Soul_ may not even be present in the human being, and it would make no difference to us.

A basic feature of _Soul_ is that it has no temporal dimension and none of our spatial dimensions. This not only means that time does not affect _Soul_ , which from our point of view could be considered eternal, but that _Soul_ does not really have the concept of time.

Recall that our temporal dimension is part of the Perceived Virtual Reality (see paragraph on the _Virtual Universe_ ⇒), which is not real; the appearance (i.e., creation) and disappearance (i.e., destruction) of the universe as we know it happen in the exact same instant for those who do not possess our temporal dimension.

From our observer's viewpoint, living in a virtuality with our temporal dimension, all of the _Soul_ existing in this moment, incarnate or not, were present at the time of the formation of the Virtual Reality, and therefore at the creation of our dimension of time, and will be present at the moment of our dimension of time's destruction, should such a moment ever arrive...

Thus, the concepts of "young souls" or "old souls" do not exist; all _Soul_ are the same "eternal age", just as any other entity that does not possess our same temporal dimension.

It is said that _Soul_ does not possess the physical dimensions of Perceived Virtual Reality (the temporal dimension and the three spatial dimensions), but that thanks to its energy capabilities, the _Soul_ manages to experience life in Our Virtual Reality by entering a human being, for the sole purpose of entertaining itself.

Exactly, the _Soul_ 's only purpose is to entertain, to enjoy itself: it enters an individual and lives the experience of his life without intervening, no more or less than we do when we sit on the couch in front of a television showing a biopic. The _Soul_ truly enjoys living as a spectator of the experience of human life.

This is precisely the case. _Soul_ undertakes a remarkable energetic effort to enter a human being and experience life in the human virtuality, with enjoying itself as its only task.

All this may seem simplistic, but it absolutely is not.

We should derive an extremely important message from the _Soul_ 's very existence: the importance of entertaining and enjoying oneself; the importance of play (see _A Game for Adults_ ⇒).

For a _Soul_ , being inside a human being is an important experience to raise its consciousness.

For a _Soul_ , enjoyment is the value of one's own existence: fun considered in its purest conception, like that of a child playing: it has fun and learns at the same time.

Hence, a _Soul_ is inside a human being to enjoy itself, to gain experience and, consequently, to raise its own consciousness.

The _Soul_ is a spectator in the human being's life, nothing more.

It would seem that from the _Soul_ 's point of view, the most beautiful and intense moments are the birth and death of the human being.

It is not yet clear why, but Soul can only be inside bodies with a certain genetic structure; it cannot be inside a crab, for example.

### Reincarnations

_Soul_ have chosen the human beings in which to experience life, and inhabit them all at once.

The concept of a _Soul_ passing from one body to another is our concept, because we are closely related to the dimension of time.

_Soul_ has no temporal dimension, meaning it experiences the lives of all of its chosen human beings at the same time, regardless of whether for us they are past, present or future lives. To put it bluntly, _Soul_ "tastes" the births of all its chosen human lives simultaneously, and at the same time the moment of the deaths of all of its chosen human lives.

As a logical consequence, therefore, all beliefs based on the temporal succession of the lives of human beings of a certain _Soul_ fail.

The conceit that the successive _Soul_ reincarnation depends on the behaviour of the human being in which the _Soul_ resides during its past life does not make sense.

The idea that anyone "pays" in the present life for their "wrongs" in the in the past one, or, as in the Hindu concept, that good behaviour in the "present life" leads to a better life in the subsequent reincarnation, is false. These are all bedtime fairy tales.

As mentioned above, the conceit that there are young or old _Soul_ also falls down: all _Soul_ are the same indeterminable age, eternal from the point of view of Our Virtual Reality.

_Soul_ improves its consciousness through the experience of reincarnations, but this happens simultaneously: births, deaths and all the experiences of their chosen human beings' lives[24].

It follows from this that the number of _Soul_ was, is and will always be unchanged.

Some members of the New Age school of thought disagree with this idea, considering the population of the earth to always be increasing: according to these people, "new souls" have been formed to make up for the demographic increase. A simple example graph can help believers in such ideas understand the concept of reincarnation, always bearing in mind that the _Soul_ has no concept of time:

suppose, for simplification purposes, using random numbers, that in the year 2100 the universe ends, and that at this moment, all _Soul_ are incarnate within the 10 billion human beings on earth. In previous years, with a smaller population, it is a simple fact that not all _Soul_ were incarnate. If ☺ indicates one billion human beings and each of the following symbols ♥ ♣ ♠ ♦ ♚ ♛ ♜ ♝ ♞ ♟ indicates a billion _Soul_.

### Further detail on _Soul_

_Soul_ has access to virtually unlimited energy and, in theory, is be capable of effecting immense change within Virtual Reality.

The reason that _Soul_ never makes and will never make changes to Virtual Reality is that a superior entity watching a system as an observer would never intervene to change that system's course.

As an example, think of animal documentary makers: they may film years of a gazelle's life, but the documentary maker would never do anything to prevent a lion from preying on the gazelle to which he devoted time and effort.

With regard to _Soul_ 's dimensions within Virtual Reality, it would appear that _Soul_ is aware of a large number of dimensions, but does not have access to all of them. _Soul_ chooses to observe the experience of human life, therefore experiencing our four space-time dimensions, but it is not bound to them; in fact, from our point of view, the _Soul_ simultaneously lives different lives spread over different areas of our temporal dimension.

To clarify the role of _Soul_ in the human being, I like to take the example of a travelling car: the human being's life is the journey that the car is travelling. _Mens_ is leading the car as a conscious part, chatting and trying to understand _Body_ and _Spirit_ ; _Body_ is sitting in the front seat because of physical problems and is constantly complaining of one ache or another. _Spirit_ is sitting in the back seat; _Mens_ and _Body_ cannot see _Spirit_ but can hear it. In fact, it talks continuously, not leaving a second of silence (as unconscious mind does). _Spirit_ has a mobile phone that allows it to be in communication with other _Spirit_ travelling in other cars. _Soul_ is also sitting in the back seat, but it is as if it wasn't there. _Soul_ is silently enjoying the journey, admiring the various views that come along, but never says anything, even when asked: whether it is there or not makes no difference.

In another car which is going on another trip, perhaps a month after the previous car's journey, we see a similar situation: another _Mens_ and another _Body_ sitting in the front seats, and in the rear seats, another _Spirit_ and the same _Soul_ that was in the previous car. In other words, the exact same _Soul_ is travelling in two (or more) cars travelling different routes at different historical points... but for _Soul_ , these two (or more) trips occur simultaneously.

Why _Soul_ exists in Virtual Reality and how it was formed is difficult to say, but I would like to show a passage from my diary:

"...

The visions of the ritual of the last night were spectacular, especially the one about the creation of the universe: the beginning, with its emptiness, the silence, no movement, with neither emotions nor feelings, even this beginning was fantastic; then, as if in slow-motion, an extremely intense light coming from a point-like location, millions of colours coming from that same point... and that light carried huge energy, which invested in me, millions of sensations, emotions... a continuous wave that scattered everywhere, bringing with it energies, colours, dimensions, and universes where before was the fantastic nothing. I cannot properly express the vision, but the memory of it alone moves me to tears. And then _Soul_ , like excess reagents from a chemical reaction.

..."

_Soul_ came from Creation as an excess reagent. In creating Virtual Reality from itself, the Universal Consciousness has brought forth _Soul_.

Let's shift our observation point, placing ourselves in Our Virtual Reality, thus having "time" as a temporal dimension, that is, a single unidirectional axis.

Do not make the mistake of thinking that all _Soul_ entities have elevated consciousness by virtue of the fact that they have existed since the dawn of time; this is not the case.

It is probable that all _Soul_ will have elevated consciousness by the end of their reincarnation cycle[25], but it is impossible to know at what point in their cycle a certain _Soul_ is. Therefore, at any given time in Our Virtual Reality, there are some _Soul_ with an elevated level of consciousness, and others with a low level of consciousness.

## _Mens_

The mind is a complex set of cerebral activities that form the psychological structure in a developed brain, which is studied by psychology and treated pharmacologically by psychiatry.

Although philosophers, scientists, medics, and paramedics have been studying the mind for millennia, it remains a mystery to modern science: how and where the mind is located within the brain remains completely obscure.

A classical, though limited, definition of the mind could be the sum of all functions of the _conscious_ (sensation, rational thinking, intuition, reason, will, and memory), _unconscious_ (spontaneous thoughts, emotions, instincts), and _subconscious_ (less cognitive mental activities) brain.

The definition of the spiritual entity _Mens_ (from the Latin word for "mind") is even more complex than one could believe and must be introduced step-by-step.

Firstly, considering the analysis of the brain structure which should, academically speaking, give rise to the mind, the concept of the _local storage model of the brain_ is erroneous, as we have seen in the chapter on _The Brain_ ⇒ .

In order to define and explain any physical phenomenon, it is necessary to correctly model the phenomenon; with an incorrect model, the physical phenomenon will never be completely defined and, at best, inconsistencies, paradoxes, and inexplicable phenomena will emerge.

Science, with its erroneous model of brain functioning, is obviously incapable of studying and explaining how and where the mind is located within the brain.

In fact, the "cerebral activities" of the conscious, subconscious, and unconscious do not occur in the brain, but in dimensions of which we are unaware, which we have called Extramental Dimensions (see chapter on _Virtual Reality from Our Point of View_ ⇒).

Knowledge, understood as a set of learned, elaborated-upon, and memorised thoughts, is also allocated in the Extramental Dimensions.

In addition to performing activities related to the body's functioning, activities governed by the subconscious, the brain "processes" those memories known as "short-term" (which are accessible quickly) and manages the systems for accessing long-term memories.

_Mens_ ' own consciousness, which roughly corresponds to the individual's conscious, is bound as a form to Our Virtual Reality by the constructs of the individual's _ordinary state of consciousness_. That is, _Mens_ is aware of Our Virtual Reality, but has a spiritual structure constituted in other dimensions: this is the uniqueness of _Mens_ as a spiritual entity.

As an example, think of a little boy playing a simulation video game: when the little boy assumes familiarity with the video game, a part of the boy's mind believes that it is in the virtual reality created by the game and coordinates the movements of the young boy to accomplish actions inside the video games, but that part of the boy's mind is not physically inside the video game.

Therefore, although _Mens_ has the potential to develop and experience other dimensions, it does not do it, because it is bound to Our Virtual Reality.

_Mens_ develops its own existence through experiences evoked by the life of the individual in Our Virtual Reality, thereby acquiring its own consciousness through life and the knowledge of the world in an _ordinary state of consciousness_ ; any _altered state of consciousness_ causes _Mens_ to be disorientated and uncertain.

The _ordinary state of consciousness_ is the ideal state in which to best live life's experiences in Our Virtual Reality.

As mentioned, _Mens_ as an entity develops in dimensions different from those in Our Virtual Reality, which are to us imperceptible and incomprehensible.

The manifestation of _Mens_ gives rise to most of _Conscious_ ' mental activities (sensation, rational thinking, intuition, reason, will and memory).

The _Unconscious_ ' mental activities (spontaneous thoughts, emotions, instincts) are largely due to the presence of _manifestations_ of _Spirit_ , although _Spirit_ develops in dimensions imperceptible and incomprehensible to us.

The _Subconscious_ ' mental activities are the result of a union of _manifestations_ of _Spirit_ and _Mens_.

_Mens_ and _Spirit_ share some of these imperceptible and incomprehensible dimensions in common, meaning _Spirit_ and _Mens_ can somehow communicate with one other through archetypes, both consciously and subconsciously. Exchanges of information between _Spirit_ and _Mens_ in an _altered state of consciousness_ can be extremely interesting from a spiritual research and experimental point of view.

New knowledge gained by the individual is stored by _Mens_ in a part of _Universal Knowledge_.

Unlike _Spirit_ , which theoretically can draw upon all of the Universal Knowledge, _Mens_ can only access a very limited area of Universal Knowledge corresponding to the knowledge previously gained by it.

_Mens_ easily accesses its knowledge, which is localised within Universal Knowledge, when the individual is in an _ordinary state of consciousness_ , while it struggles to recover its knowledge in any _altered state of consciousness_.

Il. 9: mind, _Spirit_ , _Mens_ , and Universal Knowledge

While knowledge recovered by _Mens_ does not pass through any filtering, the information recovered by _Spirit_ in an _altered state of consciousness_ is passed to _Mens_ in the form of archetypes, meaning it is up to _Mens_ to rework the information to make it comprehensible to the individual through its manifestation... subsequently, when the individual returns to an _ordinary state of consciousness_ , comprehension of such a message depends entirely on the individual's mental development (see paragraph _Non-Ordinary States of Consciousness_ ⇒)[26].

The dimensions of Universal Knowledge are not dimensions where _Mens_ and _Spirit_ develop, meaning access to it requires a small amount of energetic effort. Successful access to Universal Knowledge, and by extension the recovery of any information, is never certain.

With regard to _Mens_ , the easiest knowledge to recover from Universal Knowledge is the knowledge that is most frequently accessed (always in an _ordinary state of consciousness_ ).

With regard to _Spirit_ , drawing upon Universal Knowledge is not an easy task. First, the individual must be familiar with _deep states of altered consciousness_ and a number of set conditions must be fulfilled, which we will see later (see paragraph on _Thought, States of Consciousness, and Archetypes_ ⇒ and later). 

## Other Spiritual Entities

Any other spiritual entity that interacts with our lives (should one exist), both when manifesting itself and relating to us, covers at least one of the following two cases:

  1. it is an entity with little consciousness of its own, and/or

  2. it is an entity that benefits from interacting with us.

Whatever those entities are, whether they are "angels" that appear to us in a dream, "demons" that manifest their-selves, the "virgin" who performs a "miracle", "sprites" who cause mischief, or a god who somehow opposes our needs, in any case, those entities interacting with us by necessity falls under at least one of the two cases mentioned above.

As in the case of _Soul_ , a spiritual entity with an elevated consciousness of their own would never intervene with the existence of entities other than itself such as human beings.

## Death in Brief

"...

The two weeks on A. Island flew by. Pragnil and I stayed with a small Aymara community outside the tourist circuit: friendly people and simple food. The weather was wonderful, warm days under the cobalt blue sky and pungent air 4000 meters above sea level; frosty nights spent under 6 heavy blankets. Days spent walking in absolute silence, long reflections in that desert landscape, interspersed with meditations. The silence in some parts of the island is surreal, to the point that a chirping bird or a ruminating cow can be heard in the distance. We brought leftovers from breakfast with us, so that we didn't have to interrupt the heavenly tranquillity to return to the village for lunch. I took advantage of the lunch breaks as an opportunity to ask Pragnil for opinions and clarifications on different topics; I obtained impressive clarifications on the themes of death and the post-mortem.

..."

Religions have always used the concept of death and the post-mortem to subjugate their faithful by leveraging fear, credulity, and obvious ignorance.

Religions incite fear in their own followers, and fear of the ruling god, with the idea that if such a god is displeased with a certain believer's life conduct, he will punish him with a terrible post-mortem, be it hell or reincarnation in an unworthy body. To this end, religions create psychological reprisals that force the believer to venerate this god and to beseech it to honour them with the coveted award of a better post-mortem.

To earn this coveted prize, followers usually give up some life's pleasures, limiting themselves in terms of variety of experiences, and depriving themselves of fully enjoying their time on this planet. Depending on the creed in question, moral restrictions imposed by religion can range from simple dietary restrictions to austere lifestyles, including the negation of healthy sexuality.

It's not necessary to mention that anyone who lives with imposed or self-imposed deprivations, negations, or limitations of any kind, already knows deep down that she is not entirely happy... sooner or later, disturbances and resentments will emerge, creating significant psychological issues, which generally result in psychosomatic problems of any types.

Life's only purpose is happiness: if there were a god to judge the work of human beings, the most serious, capital sin would be precisely this: voluntarily choosing to deprive one's own life.

The only positive aspect, if we must find one, is that by creating a fear of god, and as a result generating a fear of death, religions provide a reason for living to their followers, which main goal is to gain a better post-mortem; individuals with low Individual Consciousness, without an end goal to and rules of conduct for their existence, would not know how to live and would be perpetually depressed: psychological dependence and suicide would be the order of the day. Unsurprisingly, countries with high levels of education also have high suicide rates: people are not taken in the religions, atheism spreads more radically, and individuals who are educated and intelligent but possess Low Individual Consciousness, having neither rules dictated by religions nor hope for the post-mortem, can find no reason for their existence.

There is a simple reason that society clings so tightly to religion: under the guise of providing instructions for earning the best post-mortem, religions provide rules that lead the faithful to the complacency of god; and by monitoring a large group of believers who follow these rules, religions thus render society more controlled and more controllable.

One of the many reasons that a person who is acquiring greater Individual Consciousness automatically turns away from religion is really a change in how they view death: death begins to no longer scare them.

The moment of death, complex though it may be, is nothing so terrifying: it is part of a cyclical process of Virtual Reality, completely natural and essential for Virtual Reality itself to remain self-sufficient as we know it.

Let's better analyse what happens to a dying person's consciousness, to get an idea of what we perceive when we die.

We have seen that the _Conscious_ mind of an individual is practically the manifestation of _Mens_ ; hence, what _Mens_ "feels" at the time of death is approximately what the person who dies feels.

At the time of death, the Virtual Reality perceived by the individual dissolves.

In those few moments as death arrives, Virtual Reality begins to dissolve and the individual tastes an existence beyond Virtual Reality; we could define them as "nirvana moments".

During those moments, the dying person might experience a general feeling of joy, a perfect tranquillity, a feeling of freedom that goes beyond the physical concept.

So death should be a wonderful, interesting, fascinating, and exciting moment for the individual, and it can only be so if the dying individual is psychologically prepared for death.

Unfortunately, in this society it is very difficult to be prepared for death.

From an early age, we were raised to be terrified of death: we grow up learning only to associate death with the grief of missing the dead, or with the physical pain of a violent death.

Changing one's concept of death is not easy; it requires much work to break down the walls of ignorance built by society and religion.

Changing one's concept of death also means changing what the concept itself makes us feel. The work we must do is to _transcend_ the effects of our incorrect beliefs through reflection, introspection, and knowledge: once we understand the psychological mechanisms in which the fear of death has been instilled, such fear will dissolve.

One could draw an analogy with the concept of the pain of childbirth instilled by society and religion. The great monotheistic religions teach that god, in order to punish the disobedience of the first woman, decided to punish the entire female gender by creating labour pains (what a loving god!).

Since childhood, women have been brought up with the idea that childbirth is extremely painful by divine decision and that there is no alternative to the suffering... with this conception, the woman obviously experiences tremendous pain when the moment of labour arrives. In NLP it would be said that "the woman has been psychologically programmed to suffer more than necessary by her own socio-religious culture impressed upon her throughout her existence".  
Despite all of this, there are women[27] who manage to transcend the concept of pain in childbirth, rejecting the stories propagated by religion, focusing their expectations only on the extraordinary moment of giving birth to a human being.  
Such women in state postpartum declare that they suffered much less than they had expected. In NLP it would be said that "such women have psychologically reprogrammed themselves": indeed, such women succeed in transcending the obsolete religious legends with which they have been indoctrinated throughout their lives.  
There are even some rare cases of women who manage to orgasm during labour.  
Are these special women who are able to elude divine will? No; they are women who have deliberately prepared themselves to experience wonderful labour and who have transcended the effects of misguided indoctrination, thus changing a moment of immense pain into a moment of incomparable pleasure.

Transcending the pain of labour, like transcending anything else rooted within ourselves, is not an easy task, but it is possible.

Transcending is never easy, but if some women manage to transcend the indoctrination of pain in childbirth, at least partially, thus succeeding in suffering less and enjoying the miracle of birth more, there is no reason why all women should not be able to succeed (excepting pathological cases).

Anyone who manages to correct their incorrect interpretation of death, thereby transcending the fear instilled in them by their socio-religious system, will be able to enjoy those "nirvana moments" at the moment of death.

Those "moments of nirvana" are not "moments", but an eternity.

With the previously-learned ideas, we can briefly summarise what happens at the moment of death:

The triad of _Mens_ , body, and _Spirit_ ceases to exist as such.

_Spirit_ is reinstated in the _Gaya_ , as explained in the chapter on _Spirit_ ⇒ . The _Spirit_ -less body begins a slow process of biological degradation.  
_Mens_ enters into an eternity, where it relives the individual's entire life; although this experience lasts for eternity from the perspective of _Mens_ , from the perspective of an observer in the Perceived Virtual Reality (for example, all living beings outside of the dying person), the experience of _Mens_ lasts a very short time equivalent to one Planck time unit[28]. In this eternity experienced by _Mens_ , _Mens_ itself ceases to interact with any other form.

In the midst of all this, __Soul__ is enjoying the spectacle of death while simultaneously enjoying the experience of the end of others' lives which are perceived by us as being in other time periods. It would seem that the moment of birth and the moment of death are the _Soul_ 's favourite experiences.

The death of the individual involves _Mens_ in an interesting dynamic, which must be analysed both with the eyes of _Mens_ and the eyes of an observer outside of _Mens_ but within Our Virtual Reality (or at least possessing components in the Visible Virtual Reality):

At the moment of death, _Mens_ undergoes a fantastic experience, also lived by the _Soul_ as a spectator:

the manifestations of _Mens_ (the _Conscious mind_ ) cease to exist; Our Virtual Reality, to which _Mens_ was somehow bound, dissolves before its eyes. Space and time vanish, although _Mens_ continues to have access to memories of just-lived life stored in the Universal Knowledge. _Mens_ experiences this dissolution of Our Virtual Reality in a singular manner[29]: every space and every moment extends gradually to infinity[30], giving _Mens_ a feeling of false ambiguity and eternity, during which, by accessing memories lived up until the moment of death, _Mens_ relives the individual's entire life in an instant. In other words, during these temporal and spatial extensions, _Mens_ accesses the life's memories and relives them: every moment of each memory of the lived life also expands, extending to infinity. During that space-time extension, _Mens_ re-experiences every moment of every memory, rejoicing in the pure essence of it.

From the perspective of an observer in Our Virtual Reality, at the moment of death, one may notice the individual's Conscious mind extinguishing and the manifestation of _Mens_ disappearing; manifestations of _Mens_ enter between one quantum of time and the next and between one quantum of space and the next[31].

In other words, _Mens_ , not having its own spiritual structure in our space-time dimensions, while its own manifestations collapse in the area between space-time quantums, experiences time and space as gradually expanding to become infinity.

Universal Consciousness couldn't find a better way to create death!

In the annotation _The Relativity of the Near-death of Mens_ (⇒), the event of space-time expansion as experienced by _Mens_ during the death of an individual is analysed, calling into question the theory of Special Relativity.

# Part II \-   
Our Environment

## Socio-religious System

As mentioned several times, the purpose of the socio-religious system is to ensure that individuals do not increase their Individual Consciousness, for the trivial reason that a person with low Individual Consciousness is easier to control.

### Society

Just a few very effective strategies are sufficient for society to prevent people from increasing their individual consciousness: the creation of distance from the precept of the _Here &Now_ and the creation of false goals.

To keep an individual at a safe distance from the basic conditions for an increase in Individual Consciousness (and from the path of serenity), it is necessary to create conditions that ensure that the _Here &Now_ does not occur:

  * To do this, situations are engineered such that the individual's awareness is in the _"not-Now"_ , projecting awareness into the future or the past: consumer and credit systems are created. The consumerist system is fed as much as possible, rendering unnecessary goods necessary and indoctrinating individuals into the culture of possession, at the expense of that of "being".  
People grow up in a culture of living to buy new, ever improved (and ever less durable) products. To facilitate the immediate purchase of new products, society introduced a credit system: buyers can immediately have the object of their desire (which will not last long) with a deferred payment (which will be long-lasting). Purchase after purchase, credit after credit; people's debts increase dramatically, as do their concerns about not being able to repay them. Within a short time, indebted people live completely overwhelmed by worries of future payment instalments. Awareness, frustrated by these concerns, is projected into the future... diverting minds from the present moment and raising concerns for the future; this is the end goal of society, meticulously planned and perfectly executed. Not to mention that the mental stress caused by this uncertain situation can cause psychosomatic illnesses, even serious ones.  
Even for those who manage their debts well, society has also created a system of deadlines to project people into the future: car tax and other taxes, the bills, course fees, and so on, always peppered with the fear of forgetting them.

  * Cases of individual awareness being in the _"not-Here"_ have ramped up since the existence of social networks. People post their own thoughts and moments online under the pretence of sharing them with others, while the real reason is to feed their ego with a spasmodic search for the reader's approval. One no longer goes on holidays to enjoy the moment and the place, whether with relaxation or adventure, but to take photographs and "share" them... in doing so, awareness is estranged from the position to which the body is assigned by sharing something that has now passed, thereby losing the _Here &Now_.  
Even worse is when awareness is completely estranged by reading the thoughts or events of people in our social-network: shut up on the bus, underground, or any other place, we are surrounded by beauty, including humans close to us, and our awareness travels elsewhere, to virtual pseudo-realities that do not exist.

The strategy of false goals is based on the _alpha male model_ as interpreted by human society, according to which men are in eternal competition with one another to be the dominant male of the group. While in animals the alpha male has control of the group and priority over the group's food and females, in humans, for social and physiological reasons (women have a menstrual cycle and not an estrous one like animals), this model tends to be unconsciously interpreted as the quest to excel in society. The antagonism for the alpha male role is undoubtedly an animalistic recall that we have segregated into unconscious primordial instincts.

Feeding this unconscious primordial need and rendering it of primary importance is the easiest way to divert people from their spiritual journey. Thus, society has seen fit to create _status-symbols_ to define everyone's social and economic position within society: type of vehicle, type of dwelling, clothes, gadgets, and so on.

Modern feminism born in the last century, in addition to its various positive aspects, has led women to also participate in this competition for the alpha role, or rather for _an_ alpha role within society.

You dedicate your life to work, you try to prevail over others, to obtain a goal (or status symbol) that raises your position.

Having goals, whether they are noble or not, is not the real problem. The real problem is in the obsessive pursuit to achieve goals, which makes one loses awareness of the path to that goal.  
If one loses the Here&Now along the way, achievement of the goal is meaningless, especially if the goal is not a noble one.

Almost all of us have achieved a social status symbol at least once in our lives: undoubtedly, one feels a certain happiness, but that happiness turns out to be ephemeral... within a short time, that fleeting happiness is replaced by the nascent desire for a new status symbol. We buy a car and after three months we want another one, we get a salary increase and after two months we want another one, we buy a mobile phone and after a month we want a more powerful one.

The status symbols put forward by society are _false goals_ , created to divert people's attention from the Here&Now.

The system created to control people is ingenious and cunning.

The ideal way to control a flock of sheep is not to have a good shepherding dog; it is to have sheep that control themselves.

People in societies are both controlled and controllers at the same time, with a very few puppeteers pulling the strings... in real terms, the society which is guilty of controlling and limiting Individual Consciousness is ourselves.

### Religion

Almost everywhere on our planet, we grow up with religious indoctrination, which has little to do with science, spirituality, or the reality of the things like the ancients approached to: modern religions are based on fairy tales contrary to the history of the religion itself; stories which were written and then manipulated by people who have had nothing to do with true spiritual research... even the clergy of many modern religions have lifestyles opposite to the teachings of the messiah(s) of the religion itself.  
Despite everything, there are still an incredible number of people in the world who blindly believe in religion and, even worse, make important choices and restrictions in their lives to adhere to the rules of their beliefs.  
Considering religious belief from an external point of view, it is almost surreal that rules imposed in remote times, when humanity was different from the present, are still in force and applied to individuals who are different from one another: simple analyses such as this should suffice to encourage a religious follower to re-evaluate his own creed.

Through indoctrination, religions have controlled populations since the dawn of time.  
The control implemented by religion has the same purpose as society's control: to divert populations from the Here&Now to prevent them from evolving spiritually and developing Individual Consciousness.  
Unlike society's control, which is based on ego and echoes of primordial instincts, religion's control is based on credulity, spiritual poverty, fear, and a deficiency of logical fortitude on the part of followers. It relies on the unconscious fear of the unknown; in this case, death.

Some religions more than others, with the false excuse of raising the value of the human being's spiritual part (about which they do not even have the faintest idea), encourage the faithful to deny their own bodies. They renounce their bodies, some aspects of which are interpreted negatively, with certain natural needs of the body being classed as sins, causing suffering and the concept of sinful desires. In this way, religions create an even more flagellating sense of guilt in their believers and establish psychological prohibitions that cause uncomfortable hardships in life.  
The believer becomes a victim of their own religion because of their own body... a true hell!

On the other hand, anyone following their own Anandayana understands well that they are a _Mens_ , a _Spirit_ , and a body, and thus unconditionally accept their own body, taking care of it; attending to its needs, necessities, and desires; enjoying its pleasures and accepting its negative moments, such as illnesses and injuries... simply put, those who follow their own Anandayana love their own body.

Most religions attach human characteristics to the entity they define as "god". Some of these characteristics are far from noble, such as harshness, rage, inflexibility, and so on.

Practically all religions dictate behavioural norms, lifestyles and religious rituals for their believers, who adhere to such precepts to appease their god.

Religions assign god the role of supreme judge over the final destinies of human beings: sooner or later, god will judge the outcome of single individuals' earthly lives... and given that believers are well-informed of god's less noble characteristics, an awe of god, or rather the fear of god's judgement, is consequently created. If god is pleased with the believer's earthly life, it will reward them with a pleasant, eternal post-mortem, which is a future reincarnation into a better life, or a place in paradise in the heavens above, or in an earthly resurrection.

Religions carry both positive and negative consequences for people.

The most significant negative consequence was probably unexpected by the founders of individual religions. Believers, who are indoctrinated into the dogma of an existence after death, live their entire lives following regulations and precepts that they would not have otherwise followed, for fear of god's judgement. The believer then leads a life of restriction, projected into the future, hoping for god's future grace and making choices oriented towards god's satisfaction. In this way, the believer creates their own hell on earth, and spends their whole life without realising that they could have lived their heaven Here&Now.

### Seeing the System's Control

Religioni e società manipolano la vita di tutti noi, che lo vogliamo o meno.

Magari non si è religiosi, ma vivendo in una società religiosa, lo stile di vita viene in qualche modo modellato a seconda della religione o religioni del luogo dove cresciamo.

Sin da quando siamo piccoli ci viene inculcato quello che è sbagliato e quello che è giusto. Le scuole, i genitori, i mass media, ci danno la fittizia convinzione di essere in un mondo libero, ma assolutamente non lo è. Ci dicono come vivere, come vestirsi, cosa mangiare, per chi votare. Ci vogliono pure dare una visione per la felicità: la carriera, i soldi, sesso, il consenso degli altri, ma in realtà creano ostacoli ad un eventuale sviluppo spirituale.

L'unico modo per riuscire a vedere il controllo del sistema socio-religioso è uscire dal sistema per un certo periodo. Con un punto di vista esterno, si riesce a vedere e capire tutta l'organizzazione del sistema di controllo. Rimanendo invece dentro il sistema, le capacità di analisi sono limitate e, ad analisi circoscritte si trovano risposte alternative, tali risposte perderebbero invece di validità con un'analisi globale del sistema.

Alcune persone riescono a intravedere il controllo società-religione pur rimanendo dentro il sistema: in ogni modo la visione risulta distorta, non chiara e fallace.

Per avere una visione chiara, bisogna quindi uscire dal sistema, purificarsi da tutte le strutture mentali che ci hanno inculcato e indottrinato, raggiungendo così una propria libertà di pensiero. Da quel momento si riuscirà a vedere l'intera stupenda organizzazione di controllo.

Una volta acquisita una pura libertà pensiero, guardando la gente dal di fuori del sistema, sembrerà incredibile ai nostri occhi vedere come alcune persone intelligenti e colte all'interno del sistema si facciano condizionare dal controllo senza rendersi conto di essere controllate... e poi ci verrà in mente che anche noi eravamo nella loro stessa condizione. Puoi gridare quanto vuoi, puoi allertare i singoli in qualunque modo, poi spiegare le ragioni o cercare di fargli aprire gli occhi, ma sarà tutto invano, non ti ascolteranno. L'unico modo per vedere il controllo è uscire dal sistema e liberarsi delle strutture psico-culturali: questi, come altri processi di acquisizione di coscienza, sono processi che una persona deve fare da solo, nessuno riuscirà mai a farlo per un'altra persona.

### The Illusion of Eternal Life

Since the dawn of human existence, there have always been those who, in one way or another, have been lost to a completely mistaken goal: obtaining eternal life.

All living beings in Our Virtual Reality have one common feature: there comes a certain moment when they cease to exist.

In Our Virtual Reality, death is an essential part of Planet Earth's (and the universe's) equilibrium, and we can do nothing but accept this. The search for possible eternal life is simply foolish, and as a result leads only to disorientation, disillusionment and a confusion of one's spiritual path.

Eternal life: there are those who have sought it through the sciences and those who pursued it studying ancient esoteric beliefs, but in most cases, people crave it for their entire lives, being led astray by the promises of a religious creed.

The promise of eternal life is probably the most devastatingly damaging aspect of religion, although the majority of people are unaware of it.

Religions rely on ignorance, credulity, fear, and the spiritual misery of people.

In general, religions promise to those who follow certain behavioural rules, certain lifestyles, and certain religious rituals, that when they die, their own _Individual Consciousness_ will be worthy of an eternal post-mortem existence, which may be rebirth in paradise, with or without a body, a passage to an ill-defined spiritual entity in an ill-defined location, or a succession of reincarnations in better lives.

### The Consciousness of the Spiritual Entity in Religions

Modern religions generally associate only one spiritual entity with the individual generally known as "soul" or "spirit", not distinguishing between the two terms.

The majority of believers do not stop to dwell on the fact that among religions' various promises, there exists no clause mentioning their own _Individual Consciousness_.

Religions speak of the dead individual's "soul" (or "spirit") going to heaven, to some kind of limbo, or reincarnating.  
If this "soul" (or "spirit") is something that reincarnates or that was in the presence of god, or that will live in post-mortem with others like it, the "soul" (or "spirit") must have a personal consciousness; otherwise, it would be equivalent to a stone.

Followers of religions should dwell on the concept of the "soul"'s (or "spirit"'s) consciousness: is this consciousness of the "soul" (or "spirit") the same as Individual Consciousness or is it a separate consciousness?

It must be emphasised that the eternal post-mortem inculcated by religions is always linked to the believer's Individual Consciousness in order to leverage their weaknesses and fears: religions tell their followers - if you do this and that, _you_ will deserve eternal post-mortem - . It is precisely that _you_ that is the connection to the believer's Individual Consciousness (an _ordinary state of consciousness_ is also implied).

Even when religions speak of "soul" or "spirit", they are certain to draw completely erroneous assumptions: any spiritual entity of which they speak, whether "soul" or "spirit", carries with it the consciousness of the individual, which will live in the post-mortem for eternity... But _Spirit_ , and above all, _Soul_ , have their own consciousnesses distinct from that of the individual.

Let us suppose for a moment that this concept expressed by religions is true; that is, that the eternal post-mortem is of the believer's Individual Consciousness, and in an ordinary state of consciousness. In this case, once one understands that memory is not housed in the brain (chapter on _The Brain_ ⇒) but rather in an Extramental Dimension, there is reason to suppose that the individual would have some memories, some knowledge, an understanding, or at least a perception of the spiritual world, of their own existence before life, and of the "divine" (whatever entity may be for those who believe). The lack of such knowledge or memories could only be justified if one believed that at birth the eternal spiritual component was also created, but this would attribute divine parenting skills to the woman. [32]

Even believers in the classical concept of reincarnation of the soul have an incorrect idea of death. According to such a concept of reincarnation, the soul passes from one individual's body to the body of another individual with another independent Individual Consciousness, so that the reincarnating soul does not carry with it the Individual Consciousness of the deceased person. Believers in the classical concept of reincarnation should reflect on why one should suffer their whole life for a later life that has nothing to do with the previous one: in fact, if Individual Consciousness ends with death and a new Individual Consciousness begins after reincarnation, the two individual consciousnesses have nothing in common; if the two individual consciousnesses do have something in common, the Individual Consciousness of the most recent individual should have clear memories or knowledge of his previous life and possess a similar character profile. [33]

If believers in the eternal post-mortem are convinced that the eternal spiritual part has its own separate consciousness, distinct from Individual Consciousness, and with which one has never anything to do, why suffering all life to make the eternal spiritual part gaining eternity?  
As altruistic as a person could be, could he ever renounce for the rest of his life all of life's pleasures, a chance to be fully happy, and to have all kinds of experiences, purely to please an unknown person on the other side of the world whose Individual Consciousness will never have anything to do with his Individual Consciousness? Surely not, so why do it for a spiritual part that would have a distinct consciousness from his own?

If believers of whatever faith reflected appropriately, they would conclude that whatever happens, their Individual Consciousness ends with death.

The most ruinous consequence of religion is its control of believers with the hope of the post-mortem, leading them to restriction and suffering in their current life and, above all, distracting them from the fundamental point for living peacefully and fully: the philosophy of the Here&Now. This topic is taken up in the _Here &Now_ chapter ⇒, highlighting the fact that believers project their hopes and efforts into the future, ignoring the concept of the Here&Now and thus letting the serenity of the present slip by.

Anyone pursuing the ideal of eternal life requires an immediate awakening of their Individual Consciousness so that they can take control of their own life and begin to live it properly.

Seeking to live one's life to the fullest, taking advantage of every moment to be happy, Here&Now: that is the easiest way to begin to accept that one day you will cease to exist.

## Family

"...

while chatting yesterday with Pragnil, I mentioned, in a critical and vaguely ironic tone, that - J. lives with his wife, his children, the children he had with another woman during his current relationship, and the children his wife had with another man during their current relationship... -, Pragnil promptly replied - Did you feel any negative vibrations in that family? -. I was stunned, silent in my thoughts... no, in fact, it may have been one of the families where I felt the best atmosphere.

..."

Children are generally both the main reason for and the most delicate part of a family.

Everyone would agree that the ideal environment in which to raise children is a quiet, respectful, peaceful one. Any alteration of this ideal environment, even if temporary, carries negative consequences for children, however small they may be.

Unfortunately, creating a quiet family environment is an arduous task dependent on certain factors that can scarcely be controlled. Irrefutable evidence of this is the statistics on the failure of the nuclear family: many, many parental couples are separated, and a multitude of adults present psychological problems of every magnitude due to traumas that occurred within the families in which they grew up.

One can only come to an obvious conclusion: the family, as it is formed in the majority of modern societies, does not work.

In a general and rough manner, in our societies, the family is formed by a couple of adults in a relationship who decide to follow the canons of society: they create a nuclear family in a home where they raise children.

Il problema è che per definizione, la relazione di coppia tra due adulti è in continua mutazione. Il singolo individuo, chi più chi meno, cambia col tempo.

The problem is that by definition, the relationship between the two adults in the couple is constantly changing. The individual, more often than not, changes with time. Think of the person we were a decade ago. Two individuals, being separate beings, change in different ways, the consequence being that problems in the relationship begin to arise with the passage of time.

The couple must, therefore, make constant efforts to maintain the relationship, agreements, and compromises made previously. Even if these efforts are successful, there are consequences: the energies taken to maintain the couple's relationship are taken from attention paid to the children. Not to mention what happens when these efforts are not enough to maintain the couple's relationship: the best scenario is separation, which signals the start of a hellish ordeal for the children, beginning with the division of the family and following with the problems of separated parents, child management, and new parents' families. The worst case is when parents do not separate and create intolerable situations for their children's delicate psyches, causing trauma that at best is patched years later with extensive psychological treatment.

The couple's relationship is, therefore, the ruination of the family environment[34].

Centuries ago, the family was not created by a couple's relationship, but by convenience or an agreement between the spouses' families... marriage for "love" is relatively recent thing. In some cultures today, arranged marriages statistically function better than "love" marriages: when there is no couple relationship, marriage functions better.

Of course, arranged marriage cannot be promoted: every human being must have the freedom to choose his or her own destiny.

So if one's first priority is the serenity of the environment in which your children are raised, you should probably review the concept of family.

# Part III \-   
Forging Anandayana

## Egos

Within the system, only children of a certain age manage to have free thought, but this does not last long. Just as the child begins to create their own form of thought, socio-religious control begins to act. Entering into contact with other living beings, the child begins to build its first _Egos_ , that is, the psychic structure that we create for contact with the people around us, in order to be accepted and to be part of the system.

Egos are necessary for survival in society, a psychologist would say. But the problem is that Egos are shaped according to society's behavioural models.

When Egos take on too much importance, one lives to feed them, nullifying the individual's true nature. The approval, acceptance, and admiration of others are fuel for the survival of each Ego; one learns to think and act as others want and in a way that pleases others... the more you feed the Egos and the more the Egos grow, the bigger they get and the more important they become to the individual... until the individual thus loses their true nature and capacity for independent thought. We begin to like what others like and we behave as others like; we dress as others dress, we do what others do.   
As soon as one tries to differentiate oneself from the system, they are branded as nonconformist, and isolated and denigrated.

It is not easy to create independent thought. It would seem that the system was perfectly designed to nullify any attempt at forming independent thought.

In school textbooks and in the news disseminated by the media, only one version of the facts is always proposed, which automatically becomes the right one; many people do not even dwell on the notion that there could be a second version of the facts, another side of the story. Unfortunately, even those who try a second version of the facts, are rarely able to get a clear view, being in the middle of the system. Then there are also the conspiracy theorists, that is, those who see an alternative version of the facts controlled by strong powers (deep state included); they are led astray by the confounding effects of the system, which causes exaggerated distortions to their perspectives.

### Knowing Your Egos

Egos are formed in the psyche of individuals to facilitate interaction with society's various situations: we create an Ego for family, one for work, one for friends, and so on.

We can think of Egos as masks, all a little different from each other, that we wear depending on the situation. The purpose of these Egos is adaptation to society.

We have seen how within societies in which we grow up, being happy means making money, having a brilliant career, being admired, being successful, having a cherished family, acquiring increasingly valuable status symbols, having a good circle of friends, and possibly having fame.

This all requires Egos for interaction with people, simultaneously this all feeds the Egos themselves. These Egos, which were created for society, rely on society itself for support.

Whenever we receive approval from any part of society or reach a goal imposed by society (see _Socio-religious System_ ⇒), we feed one of our Egos and consequently experience a feeling of ephemeral happiness.

But these Egos need continuous and repeated support: a vicious circle is created, turning people into eternal chasers of ephemeral happiness due to the existence of Egos. Procuring this ephemeral happiness is both a waste of energy and a diversion from more important and nobler goals.

From a spiritual point of view, Egos' negativity arises from the moment at which the individual identifies with them, which happens when one overfeeds an Ego, causing it to assume undue importance; when Egos become too many and too important, the individual loses his true identity.

Some people consider Egos parasites of the individual, which come into play as the individual starts to become a puppet, reciting roles and scripts to please others and to oneself be pleased by others.

It would be inappropriate to see Egos as parasites at the psychic and energetic levels: we ourselves create them and feed them with our psycho-energetic efforts, meaning that we ourselves are the generating cause of our ills, even if one can point the blame at the socio-religious system.

Seeing Egos as parasites may generate a psychological excuse to justify laziness in acting against them.

Growth in Individual Consciousness occurs at the same time as the destruction of Egos, or at least the loss of their importance.

Most people are a part of society, so there is nothing wrong with having Egos so long as they are moderate and the individual is aware of them.

  * Egos must be moderate: Egos must not generate any form of frustration or stress; Egos should be accepted and experienced by the individual as if they were a game.

  * The individual must be aware of own Egos: when an individual is aware of own Egos and understands their purpose, he will be best able to manage them, training them without causing harm and without feeding them with ambition or other poisons.

The individual must be aware of own Egos: when an individual is aware of own Egos and understands their purpose, he will be best able to manage them, training them without causing harm and without feeding them with ambition or other poisons.

Love for oneself is the simplest method for limiting Egos.

The _Who am I?_ exercise, performed in a _state of deep concentration_ , is a tool which may help to improve one's relationship with one's Egos (see chapters _Who am I?_ ⇒ and _Meditation_ ⇒).

### Who am I?

"...

After the morning downpour, with the air a little cooler and the red earth turned to slippery mud, I stopped to greet Pragnil and went to walk along the inner paths. I knew that the further we went, the deeper into the jungle we got, and the more a contemplative silence would fall... today I wanted some stimulus from Pragnil, so I asked him for advice on what I could contemplate during the walk. He told me, - Who am I? - ...I was a little taken aback, but then he added - ask yourself who you are... Who am I? Am I my job? Am I my soul? -. I immediately commenced with this contemplation; I was so submerged in my thoughts so that I did not realise how much time had passed until it began to get dark... I had so many useful reflections, one after another; a lovely experience. I really needed it, and I think Pragnil knew that.

..."

The contemplative exercise that Pragnil suggested is certainly valid and should be repeated multiple times until a satisfactory result is achieved.

Once we become aware that we are not our work, that we are not what we wear, that we are not what we possess, that we are not any of the various masks that other people paint on us, and we are not any of the other masks that we wear in different circumstances within society, then we can start to detach ourselves from various Egos that are unnecessary and harmful to our spiritual path.

It is not an easy exercise; some people experience strong emotions when they get rid of their harmful ties to Egos.

Some Egos will be destroyed, demolished, leaving nothing of them remaining. Other Egos will be kept as they will come in handy in everyday life unless you wish to pass on to life as a hermit. The Egos that we decide to keep will be detached from our being; they will no longer be part of our skin, but more like inactive clothes that we wear in case we need them; they will therefore no longer be psycho-energetic parasites, but rather masks to wear to our liking.

By practising _Who am I?_ calmly and consciously, we automatically acquire more individual awareness and, leading us to understand who we are: we are Universal Consciousness in the Reality that manifests itself in Individual Consciousness in the Virtual Reality.

## Self-love

Self-love is a general definition for any activity that can be practised for one's own Anandayana.

Any activity that is good for the individual is a form of self-love.

To love oneself, one must practice acts of love aimed at oneself. When practising such acts, one feels oneself recharging with positive vibrations.

There exists a multitude of acts of self-love, such that listing them all is impossible: any spiritual practice, physical practices that make us feel good, behavioural guidelines that give us joy, attention to our diet to keep us in shape, and so on.

Your Anandayana is a journey of self-love.

Self-love is selfish. Selfishness is not the antithesis of altruism; on the contrary, selfishness is a precursor to altruism in the case of love: you cannot love others if you do not love yourself first.  
This maxim is also inherent in Jesus Christ's famous words of the Gospel - _thou shalt love thy neighbour as yourself_.[35]

When we truly love ourselves, we do not seek the approval of others; it no longer matters what others think of us. When we truly love ourselves, our love saturates any need for external approval.

When we truly love ourselves, ambition also loses importance, as ambition is generally a search for the attention of others, as well as fuel for Egos... Thus when we truly love ourselves, we love ourselves for what we are, and then one begins to repudiate the masks of Egos, that is, what we appear as in the eyes of society.

When we truly love ourselves, we know what we like and what we need, and we do not allow ourselves be influenced by the likes of others.

When we truly love ourselves, we don't need status symbols to validate ourselves; on the contrary, every piece of belonging that is not strictly necessary is only a burden.

When we truly love ourselves, we are happy being alone and in solitude; your relationships with others exist only to share, not out of necessity.

When we truly love ourselves, Egos become useless and consequently disappear or minimise.

Loving oneself means taking care of oneself, of all of our conscious parts: body, mind and spirituality; neglecting any of these three parts would cause care of the other two to be in vain.

As we have seen, _Spirit_ is closely related to mind and body, meaning that spiritual care, i.e., cultivating one's own spirituality, can be done in two ways:

  * directly: with ascetic practices such as yoga or meditation, or with ceremonial rituals (see _Entheogenic Ceremony_ ⇒);

  * indirectly, taking indirect care of _Spirit_ : avoiding stress and other mental negativity, practising aerobic and anaerobic physical activities, maintaining conscious sexuality, and caring for one's body in terms of nutrition, cosmetics, and rest.

### Nutrition

"...

It took me a while to accept the diet imposed by J. : I did not understand why I needed to stick with yucca, rice, and banana... how does ingested food relate to the Ayahuasca experience, and how can it affect the shamanic study of a plant? at first these questions troubled me, and J.'s answers seemed to me to be based only on superstitions, and not even very ancient ones. These disturbances raised doubts surrounding my reason for staying in the Amazon... then, without even trying, I understood: my body and my spiritual part needed to tune and synchronise, and to do this they needed to achieve a certain level of purification... I now feel an obvious difference in my mental and physical state, but above all, I notice that the shamanic rituals are becoming more and more effective, more meaningful, and deeper.

...

Pragnil reappeared today; it had been several days since he was last seen. He told me that he had gone to visit someone in C., a community a few hours away by boat. After mentioning to him my progress with the most recent rituals, I asked his opinion on maintaining the strict diet that I am following; Pragnil replied - cleansing diets only make sense because you are being poisoned during other periods -.

..."

Given that internal cell life is a manifestation of _Spirit_ , any physiological/biological malfunction is both a cause and effect of a _Spirit_ problem.

Therefore, an imbalance of _Spirit_ leads to malfunction within cells. Such poor cellular functioning, whether short-lived or extended over time, may either not have any consequences or cause genetic modification, thus potentially very risky.

Acquiring Individual Consciousness and knowledge of _Spirit_ is essential to maintaining better health.

Conversely, physiological malfunction due to external factors causes energy problems in _Spirit_.

_Spirit_ can recover its state of well-being in several ways. Given a long or short period of time, _Spirit_ can self-regenerate, especially if its consciousness is sufficiently elevated. Through ascetic and spiritual practices, one can help _Spirit_ regenerate so effectively as Individual Consciousness is elevated, and _Mens_ , _Spirit_ and body are in harmony with one another.

There are cases where _Spirit_ struggles or fails to recover to a state of well-being despite a physical problem being in a state of healing, or having yet to occur. In such cases, a real shaman will be able to quickly resolve the situation.

One possible external factor that can generate a physical problem with which we can intervene is improper nutrition.

We read a lot about what we need to do to ensure a proper diet.

L'importanza di ingerire del cibo di qualità è ovvia: tutte le cellule del corpo muoiono, alcune hanno una durata di vita di pochi giorni, altre molto più lungaThe importance of ingesting quality food is obvious: all cells of the body die; some have a life span of a few days, others much longer[36]. Dead cells are replaced by new cells, which are produced using substances ingested with food.

From our viewpoint, a manifestation of _Spirit_ is the conscious life at the cellular level; it is extremely important to provide the proper nutritional elements to cellular life, and taking a macroscopic view, to the body's physiological system.

If we look at the history of dietetics, we will see that healthy eating advice has had continuous reassessments and contradictions, based on new scientific (or not-so-scientific) discoveries.  
We all agree that ingesting toxic elements causes needless physical fatigue, but there is no need to blindly follow diet regimens designed according to the latest trend, because, as the history of dietetics teaches, this diet's efficacy will soon be disproved by a new future theory.

Each individual's body is different from others'. What may be harmful to someone may not be harmful to someone else.  
For many people, vegetarianism and veganism are ideal diets, while for others they are not. Some people need to assimilate animal proteins, while for others endogenous proteins are more than enough to maintain perfect physical equilibrium, even when practicing sports at the competitive level.

Everybody would need to learn to understand what foods are right for own body.

Our own body tells us which foods to take in and which to avoid. In order to listen to our body, we need to develop a certain sensitivity. This sensitivity is a result of refinement undergone over the course of one's spiritual journey: as Individual Consciousness is acquired, so too is awareness of all the components of "oneself", allowing various sensitivities to be refined; in this case, improvement of the perception of bodily messages pertaining to which foods are most suitable for us.

Ascetic practice of yoga with full awareness is especially useful for refining all bodily sensitivities and improving perception of the messages sent by the body.

### Cosmetics

The popular saying "you are what you eat" has a ring of truth; in fact, most of the substances that make us up have their origins in assimilated food. It is important not to inadequately and excessively intoxicate our bodies. If it is important to eat well, using appropriate cosmetics is even more so; particularly with regard to suitable cleansing and personal hygiene products, which will be defined here as cosmetic products.

Fortunately, not all orally-ingested poisons are assimilated, thus entering the body's circulation: some are neutralised by enzymes present in the stomach, while others are evacuated with faeces.

The skin also possesses defences against the absorption of harmful substances to avoid poisoning the organism. Unfortunately, however, this defence system is not as efficient as that of the digestive system and, proportionately, fewer harmful substances are blocked or neutralised, allowing others to penetrate and be absorbed through the veins.

Minimal basic knowledge is necessary in order to be able to choose cosmetic products with the least amount of harmful substances. This applies not only to cosmetics and cleansing products but also to any other product absorbed by the skin, such as sunscreen, moisturisers, toothpaste, etc.

Unfortunately, the information we receive from various sources is inconsistent and conflicting.  
Some information in circulation is distorted by those with an economic incentive not to disclose studies surrounding a particular product's harmfulness, such as pharmaceutical/cosmetics companies or food industries.

As always, anyone curious must listen to all sides of the argument and form their own idea.

In principle, it can be asserted that the simpler and more natural a cosmetic product is, the less harm it causes.

There are many debates surrounding the possible toxicity of detergents, which are present in shampoo, toothpaste, and liquid soaps. Meanwhile, real soap, for example, defined as a product of the saponification process, seems to have no contraindications when used moderately and can be used to cleanse the entire body, including hair and teeth

Our body is subjected to physiological stress when it is forced to eliminate toxic elements and recover from poisoning.

As the functioning of the body is a continuous cause and effect of the state of _Spirit_ , poisoning of the body constitutes an emergency of _Spirit_.

Limiting the absorption of toxic elements is equivalent to caring for _Spirit_ , and so is an indirect form of spirituality, not secondary to other ascetic practices.

Understanding the importance of proper nutrition and mindful cosmetics (including cleansing products) is one of the first steps in the initial process of following one's spiritual journey. It makes no sense to seek spirituality in any other way if one persists in poisoning one's body.

### Rest

It is necessary to love our bodies and satisfy its needs and necessities.  
You should never deprive yourself of good rest.

Providing the body with adequate rest is essential for one's Anandayana.  
It is difficult to be in a good mood when you have rested little. It is difficult to follow the precept of Here&Now or to maintain a certain level of attention or awareness when you are deficient in rest.

Each person has their own rest needs. There are periods when we need to sleep more and other periods when we need to sleep less. There is no need to fixate on quantitative sleep standards; one needs to listen to one's own body and provide the necessary amount of sleep.

Sleep quality is also important. In general, the lower the quality, the more prolonged the sleep must be in order to rest well.

Depending on habit and culture, each person needs certain qualities in order to rest well: in Asia, many cultures sleep on the floor with only a thin mat; for most people in the rest of the world, this standard would not be enough for a decent rest.

Buddhists in many countries misconstrue the Buddhist saying, - _luxury is poverty_ \- [37], convincing themselves that the faithful in search of spirituality should sleep on rigid beds, with an absence of mattresses and soft thicknesses. This prescription can be good for those who are able to rest on such beds, but for believers accustomed to otherwise, it is pointless physical torture.

It is also necessary to indulge one's body when it requires further rest during the day. Whether it is a few minutes' nap or a more prolonged rest; whether it due to physical, mental, or any other kind of fatigue; time should be made to accommodate this need.

Salvo in casi particolari, bisognerebbe evitare droghe soporifere per facilitare il sonno e altre sostanze nocive per combattere l'esigenza corporea di riposo.

Excepting special cases, soporific drugs to facilitate sleep and other harmful substances that combat the body's need for rest should be avoided. Poisoning the body to stimulate or remedy its need is generally wrong.

Deficiencies in rest lead to unnecessary physical complications and lower immune defences, not to mention the many other physical problems that they can cause.

## Beauty

A fool seeks to seize beauty and then becomes sad when the beauty, once momentarily conquered, dissolves in their hands.

Beauty is not to possess; it is only to appreciate.

The beauty of joy.

Se riuscissimo ad affinare le nostre capacità recettive, riusciremo a notare la bellezza ovunque.

If we can refine our receptive abilities, we will succeed in seeing beauty everywhere. In order to refine one's receptive abilities, one must, first of all, regain authority over our tastes. Living in modern societies, we tend towards conformism due to our Egos; that is, others have control over our tastes. In order to be accepted by others, we must adapt our tastes to the tastes of others. A typical example of conformism is fashion: we deem those wearing clothes that were in fashion a few years ago ridiculous, without stopping to think that we once wore those clothes, and that in two years we will be mocking people for dressing how we are dressed today.

In order to regain authority over our own tastes, we must cripple some of our Egos, limiting them and making them less important. In this way, one becomes less conformist.

The next step is to refine our own concept of beauty based on our own experience, appreciation, and tastes; not based on the opinions of others.

Refining our concept of beauty takes practice: at first we can limit ourselves to narrow areas suitable to us, and then subsequently expand our field for appreciation... for example, if you have an affinity with mathematics, you can discover the beauty of the Schrödinger equation; if you have a penchant for flowers you can scrutinise the different shades of colour until you admire its geometric textures.

As one practices beauty appreciation, one will develop greater sensitivity, and be filled with joy every time they admire beauty.

As we acquire more sensitivity to beauty, we will discover the beauty of simple things, and we will find beauty everywhere: the little things around us that we took for granted, nature that we never scrutinised, sensations that we did not feel... everything is intrinsically imbued with beauty.

We will reach the wonderful situation of being able to find joy anywhere and anytime simply by looking around, Here&Now, and finding beauty everywhere. There will no longer be any need to look for beauty: beauty is always around us and within us; we need only notice it.

In this way, we appreciate life's beauty.

The appreciation of beauty is a spiritual practice: we are filled with joy when we practice it; it gives us an internal gust of vitality, regenerating our Anandayana.

## Here&Now

All Anandayana philosophy is based on the simple concept of the _Here &Now_.

The concept of the _Here &Now_, the basis of Buddhist philosophy, is one of the keys to shedding light on the path of happiness.

In this text, little mention of the term _awareness_ is made; instead a term which is in certain respects analogous is used: _Here &Now_, which implicitly refers to an awareness applied in time and space, emphasising the importance of being alert and fully aware in the present moment (Now) and in the surrounding space (Here).

A person who is evolving spiritually will note that their own awareness diverts more and more into the "here and now": they devote less attention to the past, with its regrets, anger, sorrows, melancholy, giving increasingly less importance to things that have already happened, especially links to negative aspects of the past.  
The desire to project to the future also fades, so that projects, deadlines, fears, and insecurities become ever lighter weights.

It is clear to those on a spiritual path, although difficult to put in writing, that everything that causes distraction from the Here&Now is spiritually harmful. All dispersions of time, thoughts, mental energies, emotional energies and psycho-spiritual energies to the past or the future are totally useless, if not outright harmful, as are the psycho-energetic efforts made in order to be present in spatial locations other than one's own[38].

We can see the concept of the "Yin and Yang" dualism intrinsic in Our Virtual Reality, in which the positive and the negative are intrinsic to one another: time and space were created in order to experience life in the best way -– Here&Now - but at the same time, the past, the future ("not-Now"), and the space outside of the present position ("not-Here") are features of Our Virtual Reality itself that can cause negativity.

Only with continuous awareness of the Here&Now can an individual understand serenity along their own Anandayana path; in every part of it, in every place ("here"), and in every moment ("now").

Comprehension of serenity automatically leads to an understanding of how the concepts of "path" and "goal" merge: the meaning of "path _to_ serenity" is lost, and the individual finds themselves on their own "path _of_ serenity".

### The Deception of Goals

The precept of the Here&Now is the key to the success of a spiritual path, and to the development of Individual Consciousness.

As mentioned in the _Socio-religious System_ chapter ⇒ , a populace in which individuals possess high Individual Consciousness is a population that is difficult to control. To prevent people from increasing their Individual Consciousness, society and religion have invented a very intelligent system to divert individuals from the Here&Now.

The union of religion & society instils in us the idea that we must create goals and work hard to achieve them, so that we must always be projected into the future, focused on the end goal. Society puts forward various goals, such as career promotions, the achievement of higher status, or the purchase of coveted goods, while in religion the goal is the grace of god for a pleasant post-mortem.

The only reason for the existence of a goal should be to create one or more paths, nothing more. A goal must not be the objective; the objective should be how to walk the path.

Whatever path one follows, the important thing is to find serenity in every step (Here) and at every moment (Now) of the path itself. Even if one does not reach the goal, it does not matter; you will have already obtained what you needed along the journey.

The goal is not important; what is important is the path, or rather, knowing how to walk the path according to the precept of the Here&Now.

There is nothing wrong with choosing a promotion, membership of a prestigious club, or the purchase of a new car as a goal. However, the goal must not be the objective of the journey. Depending on the chosen goal, the individual's chosen path depends on a myriad of factors: type of work, social relations, the society in which the individual is located, the commitments they have, family duties, etc... Whatever path one chooses, whether it stays the same or changes over time, nothing matters. It doesn't even matter whether we change jobs in the future, sign up for another club, or buy a motorcycle instead of a car: the goal doesn't matter. What matters is that we manage to be fully aware of the Here&Now along the way, following our Anandayana.

### Here&Now in religion

In contrast, the view within religious creeds differs. The concept of the Here&Now is only applicable to a few creeds. Buddhist philosophy is the largest movement to put forward this concept, but it has clearly been lost as Buddhist philosophy has become the Buddhist religion; to see this, one need only goes and sees the religious practices of majority-Buddhist countries and examine adherents' hopes for the ultimate future.

Whatever the goal of a religion, be it paradise, reincarnation, rebirth on earth, in heaven, or on another planet, the rules of the path for obtaining it are fixed, unbreakable, and identical for every individual: there is no personalised path for individual believers in the religious field. This goal is the final objective and is of primary importance, while adherents' states of mind during the journey to reach the goal are not even of secondary importance; indeed, in some creeds, the more sacrifices one makes in the form of suffering and deprivation, the better.

The word "spirituality" is rarely applicable to the religious field, and certainly, the concept of the Here&Now is even less so.

While an individual without religious belief can follow their own Anandayana inside modern society, ignoring the deceptive messages that it provides, an individual faithful to a religious creed will not be able to create their own Anandayana unless he is somehow able to modify his indoctrination, creating a form of belief that is free, flexible and adaptable to a spiritual path. By definition, Anandayana is structurally incompatible with the typical concept of religion.

## Thought, States of Consciousness, and Archetypes

An _altered state of consciousness_ is a temporary situation that can allow the mind to perceive conditions beyond the structural limitations of Our Virtual Reality.

In an _altered state of consciousness_ , it is possible to open perceptual channels that enable one to clearly receive and perceive the archetypes structured in dimensions beyond those of Our Virtual Reality; as long as such _altered state of consciousness_ remains, everything is clear: one is able to reason, understand, interpret, and reconstruct concepts based on the messages of the archetypes structured in other dimensions.  
Unfortunately, once the mind returns to an _ordinary state of consciousness_ , the fundamental structures that help the mind to analyse and reconstruct those same thoughts that we were able to formulate while in an _altered state of consciousness_ are lost... after returning to an _ordinary state of consciousness_ , almost everything perceived during this _altered state of consciousness_ loses meaning, unless serious research is done to try to interpret what we understood in the _altered state of consciousness_ within Our Virtual Reality.

A banal example from a geometrical perspective: supposing that in an _altered state of consciousness_ , one can see a vector of eight spatial dimensions, which is described by eight versors; once back in an _ordinary state of consciousness_ , we can comprehend only three of those eight spatial dimensions: it is geometrically impossible to try to visually describe the eight-dimension vector with only three versors of Our Virtual Reality.

By the _archetype_ of a thought, we refer to basic information in its purest and primordial form.

The mind "forms" the thought starting from the archetype, gradually adding features, from the most fundamental ones which are innate to our nature, such as the colours of each part of the thought, up to subjective traits, such as the accent of the pronunciation of verbal expression of thought.

For ease of understanding, we can imagine a thought as a sphere built by the mind. The archetype is the nucleus, that is, the central part. The mind begins to build the sphere in layers, starting from the core. Among the first layers around the nucleus, the mind associates colours with the archetype. Sounds, shapes, sensations, emotions, concepts, words in various languages, pronunciations, accents and so on follow, up to the outermost layers of the sphere, that is, the subjective characteristics of the one who is formulating the thought.

Il. 10: thought structure

### Stroke of Genius

By "stroke of genius" we refer to that sudden spark that can arise from our thoughts; an idea or an understanding that appeared as if by chance. It can be a brilliant idea, a long-sought solution to a problem, a headache remedy, a new understanding or an inspiration that opens new doors for us.

The "stroke of genius" passes through the _Spirit_ , whose psychic manifestation is unconscious and part of the subconscious minds ( _Spirit_ chapter ⇒), but the Spirit is not who creates the "stroke of geniuss" 's archetype.

In a specific _altered state of consciousness_ [39], _Spirit_ "finds" the archetype of the "stroke of genius" and makes it available to the mind, or better said, to the conscious part, to _Mens_.

Only a prepared mind can receive and process such an archetype: such a mind must be receptive and free from ill-placed logical structures; for this reason, few people are capable of producing a "stroke of genius".

The archetype of the "stroke of genius" that comes to one's mind can have various origins, such as a master spiritual entity, which may be a _Spirito_ of a given plant, or its origins may be a direct extrapolation from the Universal Knowledge.

However, in an ordinary individual in an _ordinary state of consciousness_ , the mind does not even consider potential archetypes that _Spirit_ could pass. It is for this reason that an _altered state of consciousness_ is essential for an ordinary individual to receive a "stroke of genius"... or rather, it is a necessary but not wholly sufficient condition. As mentioned above, the person must have an excellent intuitive ability to grasp the archetypal meaning of received information, as well as mental openness to accepting it.

* * *

**Note to the reader:**

_Ordinary and Altered (or Non-Ordinary) States of Consciousness will be defined later in the text. These States refer to certain conditions of the triad of Body, Mens, and Spirit.  
While reading the following chapters, keep an eye on Fig. 12: depth of the state of consciousness in the annotation Graphic of State of Consciousness ⇒ .   
We will see that an Ordinary State of Consciousness is the ideal state in which to live the experience of life; while brief, sporadic, opportunely, and properly induced Altered States of Consciousness can be important experiences for forging one's own spirituality and could help one to both build and follow their own Anandayana. We will distinguish between Superficial Altered States of Consciousness and Deep Altered States of Consciousness.  
We will see how in a Deep Altered State of Consciousness, a Stroke of Genius may arise, while for a Mystical Experience, one needs not only a deeper altered state of consciousness but also either a Meditative State of Consciousness or an Entheogenic State of Consciousness, which, whilst being very different from one another, can achieve equivalent spiritual results.  
It should be noted that for forming and following one's Anandayana, there is not a requirement for spiritual experiences in Meditative or Entheogenic States of Consciousness; nevertheless, such spiritual experiences shape the living individual's Anandayana, forming and fortifying a solid spirituality.  
Having said that, it should be emphasised that anyone who manages to achieve a Mystical Experience through a Meditative or Entheogenic State of Consciousness undergoes a psycho-physical-spiritual upheaval that categorically deeply affects the individual's very existence._

* * *

### Non-Ordinary States of Consciousness

We pass from an _ordinary state of consciousness_ to a _non-ordinary state of consciousness_ , also called an _altered state of consciousness_ , when sensory perception is in any way changed and the mind is not following ordinary structures of functioning as a consequence.

There are a variety of _altered states of consciousness_ , from the most superficial, such as during sexual intercourse, while watching certain types of advertising on television, or when we are focused on reading, up to deeper ones such as a hypnotic state, a meditative state, or a state induced by consuming certain drugs.

An _altered_ (or _non-ordinary_ ) _state of consciousness_ may take place in different contexts, among the most interesting of which are within the cultural, therapeutic, ludic, and spiritual spheres.

This does not mean that a _deep state of altered consciousness_ is more useful than a more superficial _altered state of consciousness_.  
>

Even if it is true that the mind has easier access to more archetypes from more distinct sources in a _deep state of altered consciousness_ , one must consider, too, that the mind while in a _deep state of altered consciousness_ changes one's way of formulating thoughts, and the thoughts formulated in the _deep state of altered consciousness_ are lost, forgotten or filtered when the mind returns to an _ordinary state of consciousness_.  
A _deep altered state of consciousness_ unlocks the limiting barriers of Our Virtual Reality, opening up to the mind to other dimensions that it can access. After returning to an _ordinary state of consciousness_ , one's mind struggles (or is unable) to rework those perceptions, ideas, and thoughts had in the _deep altered state of consciousness_.

People upon returning to the _ordinary state of consciousness_ , commonly declare - I thought I was formulating elaborate and sophisticated thoughts during the _deep altered state of consciousness_ , but now I don't think it was real... - but actually it was real!  
It was real, but the mind was functioning in a different way, and the memories of such thoughts are untranslatable by the mind once back in an _ordinary state of consciousness_.  
A simplistic and improbable example: suppose that in an _ordinary state of consciousness_ , Mr. Pinco only knows the Italian language and, while experiencing a _deep altered state of consciousness_ , he formulated logical thoughts in Greek, a language completely unknown to him. Once Mr. Pinco's mind has returned to an _ordinary state of consciousness_ , all memories of those thoughts and concepts formulated in Greek are now inaccessible, as Mr. Pinco's mind does not have the knowledge to translate them and cannot link memories in Greek to complete meanings. Mr. Pinco might now say - ah! During the _deep altered state of consciousness_ , I thought I knew and could think in an obscure language, but that is not possible; it was all an illusion/dream/imagination/fantasy... ".

There are various factors that determine the type _altered state of consciousness_ depending on the type of induction. We will only deal with a few specific cases.

The most common methods of achieving a _deep altered state of consciousness_ in the search for a "stroke of genius" are meditation and the use of entheogenic drugs (see _Entheogens_ ⇒).

While obtaining a "stroke of genius" via meditation requires considerable effort, a lot of practice and probably a switch to a life of sobriety, the use of _entheogenic drugs_ is simpler and more direct.  
This is how The Beatles received the inspiration for Revolver and subsequent albums while taking LSD, while Dr. Kary B. Mullis states that without his hallucinogenic experiences he could never have created PCR, the invention that earned him the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1993. Shamans around the world acquire knowledge about natural plants and medicines by taking natural entheogenic drugs.

We possess tools that, when used sporadically and conscientiously, allow us to briefly experience a _deep altered state of consciousness_ , which is a fundamental step for the spiritual awareness and spiritual growth of an individual.

_Altered states of consciousness_ are fascinating and useful for certain purposes, but one should always keep in mind that the _ordinary state of consciousness_ is the ideal state in which to rejoice in life, to experiment with and fully enjoy the experience of everyday existence.

## Meditation

Let us recall that the same mystical experiences that dwell within an _Entheogenic State of Consciousness_ which is achieved via the initiation of an _entheogenic ceremony_ , can be experienced without the use of _entheogenic_ substances, through ascetic practices such as meditation (Il. 12: depth of the state of consciousness in the annotation _Graphic of State of Consciousness_ ⇒).

We define a _Meditative State of Consciousness_ as a _deep altered state of consciousness_ obtained via the "precise" method of meditation.

The "precise" method of meditation, in a nutshell, consists of nullifying the mind's activities, emptying the mind of every thought.

Below we will use the words _meditate_ and _meditation_ to refer to the "precise" method of meditation, while we use the words _deep concentration_ or _focus deeply_ will refer to any other type of "meditation" (which are in actuality not really meditation) proposed by gurus, religions, meditation centres, or monasteries.

\- _The mind can do nothing for meditation. Just as light and darkness cannot come into contact, so too is the case for mental activities and meditation; meditation is the absence of mental activity._ \- [40]

\- _If you are following a meditating methodology, you are not meditating._ \- [41]

_Focusing deeply_ on your breath; on a point of the body; on an imaginary point; on any energy or centre of energy; on an entity; or on any other thing can be an excellent relaxation exercise, a good way to commence deep reflection, or an interesting method with which to begin a hypnosis or psychological therapy session, but it is not the "precise" method of meditation.  
_Deep concentration_ is an excellent exercise for increasing concentration capacity, developing one's level of awareness, and can even serve as a preparatory exercise before beginning meditation.  
Even observation of the mind's emptying of thought is a form of _deep concentration_ , albeit closer to the "precise" method of _meditation_.

We should remember that everything around us is Virtual Reality; all of Our Virtual Reality is the Virtual Reality that we perceive and interact with, and to _focus deeply_ on any one element of it is akin to anchoring oneself to it. Even when one focuses on something that does not strictly belong to Our Virtual Reality but is somehow bound to it through our knowledge or beliefs, e.g., an energy point or an emotion, it leads us to always anchor ourselves to Our Virtual Reality.  
When we _focus deeply_ on any part of Our Virtual Reality or anything else bound to it, our mind somehow cannot abandon the psychological constructs which block a _Meditative State of Consciousness_.  
While practising _meditation_ , that is, emptying one's mind, the mind has no way to anchor itself to anything in Our Virtual Reality, giving one the opportunity to access a _Meditative State of Consciousness_.

Many psychotherapists, including hypnologists, who use _altered state of consciousness_ methods on patients, before or during induction into the _altered state of consciousness_ , use methods very similar to those indicated above for _deep concentration_ , i.e., methods based on breath control and concentration on any object.  
In real terms, those who practice methods of _deep concentration_ believing themselves to be "meditating" are self-inducing a state similar to hypnosis (or self-hypnosis).  
If a practitioner of a _deep concentration_ method manages to achieve a _deep altered state of consciousness_ , they may also have all sorts of visions or hallucinations though they are quite different from a mystical experience.  
Indeed, the mind, when brought into a _deep altered state of consciousness_ by such methods of _deep concentration_ , reaches a pseudo-hypnotic state and is left to its own devices (without a guide of a hypnologist)... the mind, wandering in its own fantasies, experiences, or cultural knowledge, can thus create a lucid dream, interpreted by the practitioner as a vision or hallucination. A lucid dream has nothing to do with a mystical experience.  
This is demonstrated by the fact that those who report such lucid dreaming experiences never claim to have had illuminations on new knowledge but instead tell of visions that confirm theories they already knew or at least had heard of.

Achieving a _deep altered state of consciousness_ by the precise practice of _meditation_ requires constant practice drawn out over years, ideal living conditions, an advanced stage of Anandayana, and remarkable individual abilities, uncommon in consumer and capitalist societies, where time is considered as money.  
Even with consistent and proper meditation practice, always carried out without expectation, following all the indications of the case, no one can guarantee a practitioner a possible mystical experience. Nevertheless, the practitioner will benefit from the many other positive aspects of the constant practice of _meditation_ : increased concentration, increased awareness in a broad sense, a clearer view of the world, deeper wisdom, and greater familiarity with practising the Here&Now. It is also an easy way to gain useful insights and eliminate stress, which is a contributing cause of many diseases.

### Meditative Research

The search for genuine mystical experience through the practice of _meditation_ is certainly a noble pursuit.  
We shall call people who dedicate their lives to this purpose _Meditative Researchers_ ; researchers in that the search for a mystical experience means entering a sector which has not been properly defined.

The achievement of a mystical experience through a _Meditative State of Consciousness_ is a long, gradual, and completely uncertain path: those who succeed in living such an experience are few.  
Unlike _Entheogenic Researchers_ , _Meditative Researchers_ do not incur serious risks, precisely due to their long and gradual path: time works in favour of _Meditative Researchers_ , allowing them to psycho-spiritually adapt to new experiences as their path progresses.  
_Meditative Researchers_ who have mystical experiences can over time develop mental abilities which allow them to interpret the things they have experienced in _Meditative States of Consciousness_ when in an _ordinary state of consciousness_ , though always only in an approximate way.  
Nevertheless, these natural psycho-spiritual adaptations developed by the _Meditative Researcher_ have obvious recursions which influence the _Meditative Researcher_ 's social life: with the passage of time, the researcher, transcending any issues relating to their Anandayana, will take on a life of minimalism, leading him to isolate himself from society to seek more contact with nature and with himself.

This eventual lifestyle of the _Meditative Researcher_ is quite different from the life of artificial austerity lived by some religious people who shut themselves up in communities or monasteries, depriving themselves of some life's pleasures, always in a group so that they may support on one another.

## Drugs

**Important note** : the reader assumes all responsibility in the case of possible use of illicit substances.

Drug: a word that inspires fear.

The mass media, schools, religions, and the entire socio-religious system in general constantly repeat to us that the word "drug" is synonymous with sin, evil, danger, degeneration, and death.

They told us stories of people whose lives were in disarray because of "drug" use, people who destroyed their lives and those of their loved ones to enter a dead-end tunnel. People enter into this damned dependency due to an initial difficult situation, only to then find themselves in a severely degenerate situation with almost no way out.  
The socio-religious system, has forcibly imbued so much negativity into the word "drug" that when we hear it, an internal alarm bell sounds, putting us on alert and inciting fear; it has a stronger effect than even the words "nazism", "terrorism", "murder", "massacre", and other words with extremely negative meanings.  
From an early age, the socio-religious system indoctrinates us to believe that "drugs" must be avoided at all costs... stay away from them... never take them... the consequences are well-known and irreversible: inevitable physical and psychological addiction that brings certain suffering to the unfortunate addict and their loved ones, if not serious permanent mental damage or death.

In Europe it is typical to see a smiling father pat his son on the back for having a hangover, as sign of approval to have spent an evening like an "adult" getting drunk with his friends, and to then see the same father fly into an incandescent rage at the knowledge that his son has consumed marijuana.

Let us quickly dispel this false and nefarious myth by clarifying a couple of concepts.

The term "drug" is defined as a psychoactive (or narcotic) substance capable of inducing phenomena of dependence, tolerance, and addiction.  
Coffee and tobacco are drugs with psychoanaleptic properties, thus being in the same drug family as cocaine. Alcohol is a drug with psycholeptic properties, thus being in the same family as opium.  
In modern societies, the vast majority of people commonly drink coffee, tobacco, and alcohol, which are by definition drugs, making the vast majority of people "drug addicts" by definition.

It is scientifically proven that the potential for physical and psychological dependence with alcohol, tobacco, and coffee is greater than that of LSD, marijuana, MDMA, mescaline, and poppers.

When it comes to drugs, the potential for direct physical damage should not be underestimated. Physical damage caused by alcohol (liver, cardiovascular system, stomach, oesophagus, intestines, pancreas, brain) and tobacco (cardiovascular, lungs, skin, stomach, brain, bones, reproductive system) is greater than that caused by LSD, marijuana, ecstasy, and MDMA.

The only difference between "legal drugs" such as alcohol, tobacco, and coffee, and "illegal" ones is that the former are socially acceptable drugs and sources of large economic revenue.

In these absurd legal and cultural divisions between legal and illegal drugs, one must consider that some "illegal drugs" may have important therapeutic uses, such as in the case of marijuana in cancer patients. Fortunately, things are changing, and some nations are legalising therapeutic use of certain "illegal drugs", including LSD for the terminally ill and as a treatment for alcoholism.

If many "illegal drugs" are less addictive than socially acceptable drugs, cause less direct physical harm, and have several practical uses, one naturally wonders why they are banned.

### Entheogens

The Greek etymology of _entheogen_ is "that which generates god (or divine inspiration) within".

Some chemical or natural substances, including LSD, DMT, mescaline, DPT, THC, psilocybin, psilocin, harmala alkaloids, and many others, are defined as _entheogenic_ due to the intense spiritual experiences that can be experienced while taking them, even in users who are sceptical unbelievers.

Some might define an entheogenic substance as a hallucinogenic, psychedelic, psychotomimetic, mysticomimetic, oneirogen, psychotogen, phanerothyme compound, or with some other synonym depending on the field in question, be it chemistry, pharmacy, psychiatry, or something else.

Dr. R. Strassman clearly highlights the importance of correctly defining the substance in question with the appropriate term[42]: participating in an "Entheogenic Ceremony" can lead to spiritual experiences (see _Entheogenic Ceremony_ ⇒).

When consumers of _entheogenic_ substances report their experiences, common statements include that they felt connected to "the great spirit", or "the cosmic order", and felt to be "at one with nature". Many experience clear out-of-body-experiences (OOBE). Many consider _entheogenic_ substances to be a powerful tool for entering into contact with the divine.

When _entheogenic_ substances are used in treatments, patients claim to be able to see their lives from an introspective perspective which helped to solve their problems.  
Some people claim to have had real revelations through the use of _entheogenic_ substances, such as Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, or Prof F. Crick, whose discovery of DNA structure, which earned him the Nobel Prize in Medicine (1962), seems to have been the result of an _entheogenic_ trip, or Prof K. B. Mullis, already mentioned above, who has stated that without the use of _entheogenic_ substances he would never have been able to invent PRC, a historical step in biology that earned him the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.  
What is most perplexing is the considerable number of people who claim to have had, by using _entheogenic_ substances, experiences so deep and important that they have changed their lives for the better.  
What is most perplexing is the considerable number of people who claim to have had, by using _entheogenic_ substances, experiences so deep and important that they have changed their lives for the better.

Most of these _entheogenic_ substances act at the neurotransmitter level, although their mechanisms of action are still partially unknown to official science.  
No harmful or toxic effects have ever been found in most _entheogenic_ substances.  
Many _entheogenic_ substances are plant-derived; DMT is even produced by the human body, having a molecular structure similar to serotonin (a neurotransmitter) and circulated in minimal quantities, although the reason why the body produces DMT is not yet understood.  
Other _entheogenic_ substances commonly appearing in nature with a molecular structure similar to DMT are 5-MeO-DMT and psilocin (transformed by our body into psilocybin once taken).

Those who were previously wondering why harmful drugs as coffee, alcohol, and cigarettes are in free circulation in the majority of countries, while other drugs, in this case, _entheogens_ , are not, now have more to ponder: most _entheogenic_ substances are harmless and non-habit-forming, have potential medical and psychiatric applications, are a source of inspiration, increase sensitivity in various respects, and provide significant spiritual experiences and moments of profound inspiration.  
Readers who do not yet have a clear answer as to why _entheogenic_ substances are banned by virtually all the world's governments may find a further suggestion in the statement of Dr Alexander T. Shulgin, a pioneering pharmacologist, who stated the following about his first experiences with mescaline in the 1950s:   
\- ...I learned there was a great deal inside me... in no way whatsoever could it be argued that these memories had been contained within mescaline... I understood that our entire universe is contained in the mind and the spirit. We may choose not to find access to it, we may even deny its existence, but it is indeed there inside us, and there are chemicals that can catalyse its availability -.

Dr. Shulgin certainly had an _entheogenic_ mystical experience. If everyone had such a deep experience with _entheogenic_ substances, very few people would still need religion!

## Entheogenic Ceremony

There is a lot of literature about so-called " _entheogenic substances_ , _Set_ , and _Setting_ ".

Obviously it is not the _entheogenic_ substance that produces spiritual experience or enlightenment. The _entheogenic_ substance is simply an access key to release the mind from ordinary models and ordinary structures, and move from an _ordinary state of consciousness_ to a _deep altered state of consciousness_.

Experience with an _entheogenic_ substance highly depends on the type of person taking it, that is, their culture, background, mood at the time of consumption, expectations, and other factors that, combined, constitute the _Set_.  
A person who is following their own Anandayana certainly possesses all characteristics necessary for an ideal Set, fine-tuned for obtaining mystical experiences from an _Entheogenic Ceremony_.

Dr R. Strassman pays close attention to environment, namely the _Setting_ , in which the _entheogenic_ substance is taken.  
To undergo an _Entheogenic Ceremony_ , one must create appropriate conditions for the celebrant, in line with the specific situation's requirements: whether this be the solitude of a quiet room, or in communion with a meditation room, or the isolation of a rock on a mountain-top, or immersed in nature in a ceremonial centre hidden in the jungle.  
The importance of the environment (i.e., Setting) is fundamental and should never be underestimated.

We define an _Entheogenic State of Consciousness_ as a _deep altered state of consciousness_ in which the ideal conditions of " _entheogenic_ substance, Set, and Setting" occur, that is, ideal conditions for an _Entheogenic Ceremony_.  
In an _Entheogenic State of Consciousness_ can an individual have an authentic mystical experience.[43]

That is, in order to have a mystical experience during an _Entheogenic Ceremony_ it is necessary to have in place all ideal conditions for the "entheogenic substance, Set, and Setting".

Only with an _Entheogenic_ or a _Meditative State of Consciousness_ can one succeed in breaking the patterns of Our Virtual Reality, in understanding its constructs, and in gaining access to unthinkable dimensions, such as, for example, parts of the Universal Knowledge, and even can one succeed in achieving the notorious "Enlightenment"; these experiences constitute possible mystical experiences.

### Entheogenic State of Consciousness

An _Entheogenic State of Consciousness_ provoked by an _entheogenic Ceremony_ generates a condition that is not yet completely clear to anyone: the individual loses the concepts of space and time, which, as we have previously seen, are virtual. Mental structures change and the mind begins to think differently, following logical patterns which are completely indescribable in an _ordinary state of consciousness_.

Mystical experiences obtained in an _Entheogenic State of Consciousness_ change the life path of those who experience them, providing inspiration and guidance. Most of these mystical experiences take place in the form of visions, that is, images appearing in the mind.  
Science fails to understand where and how in the brain the reproduction of images captured by our eyes and transmitted by the optic nerve occurs; science flounders even more in attempting to understanding the reproduction of the images that occur in an _Entheogenic State of Consciousness_ in dark surroundings, when there are no significant signals coming from the optic nerve.  
Although science has no form of plausible theory, it arrogantly labels such images emerging in a dark environment during an _Entheogenic State of Consciousness_ as emerging memories or the result of a confused mental state, rejecting a priori explanations from other sources such as shamans, who have devoted their lives to the unorthodox study of _entheogenic_ substances.

An authentic shaman is generally a person who hasn't been subjected to the socio-religious indoctrination typical of so-called "civilized" societies; hence, an authentic shaman has formed a mentality free of those constructs designed for individual and collective controls.  
An authentic shaman is generally a person who hasn't been subjected to the socio-religious indoctrination typical of so-called "civilized" societies; hence, an authentic shaman has formed a mentality free of those constructs designed for individual and collective controls. An authentic shaman usually grows up in close contact with nature and feeds on generally healthy products. An authentic shaman spends his entire lifespan practising rituals in an _Entheogenic State of Consciousness_ , so who better than a shaman to recognise and describe an _Entheogenic State of Consciousness_?  
But no, science, despite its great ignorance in the field, takes no source but its own assumptions into account. If this behaviour were personified into an individual, such a person would be labeled with adjectives such as closed-minded, foolish, and ignorant.

Nonetheless, pharmaceutical firms and others besides have benefited from the knowledge of shamans: several products with roots in shamanic knowledge have been chemically synthesised for commercial purposes.

However, when assessing shamans as an authoritative source of information, some considerations must be made.  
While the healing abilities of shamans could be defined by sceptics as phenomena of patient self-healing induced by psychological suggestion, the knowledge that shamans acquire in _Entheogenic States of Consciousness_ is not so easily waved away by unbelievers. Despite what the shamans themselves claim, science denies that the origins of shamanic knowledge have their roots in _Entheogenic States of Consciousness_ , despite having no evidence to justify this denial.  
During an _Entheogenic Ceremony_ [44], shamans claim that they come into contact with spirits; with the "Divine"; "Madre Selva"; "Pachamama"; "The Great Spirit"; or "Gaya", depending on the culture to which they belong.  
In the chapter _Spirit_ (⇒) we saw how Universal Knowledge is potentially accessible to all living beings.

The details of the origins of shamanic knowledge are still a mystery that cannot be fully understood due to the limitations outlined above but they are likely to be attributable to the same dynamic seen in the _Stroke of Genius_ chapter ⇒ .

Among the various pieces of shamanic knowledge of "mysterious" origin is the recipe for the well-known Yage (or Ayahuasca), brew for use as an _entheogenic_ substance by the indigenous people of the Amazon; we refer the reader to the end-of-text notes _The Mystery of the Origin of Yage_ ⇒ .

### Entheogenic Research

In the end-of-text notes _The Mystery of the Origin of Yage_ ⇒ , we will see why the recipe for Yage may not have originated from a series of attempts at combinations of endemic plant species.

The recipe for Yage recipe is one example of many showing that age-old shamanic knowledge is the result of research that takes place outside of Our Virtual Reality; research that we will call _entheogenic research_.

The true Amazonian shamans, who are for all intents and purposes _Entheogenic Researchers_ , declare that it is the spirits of the plants themselves that provide information on how to find, grow, prepare and cook them, including information on rituals and the uses of plant preparations. Although these statements may seem ridiculous to a sceptic, the fact remains that there is no reasonable alternative explanation for some of the knowledge held by shamans.

Although an _Entheogenic Ceremony_ and _entheogenic research_ have an _Entheogenic State of Consciousness_ in common, they are two very distinct things.  
The _Entheogenic Ceremony_ is a spiritual ritual, whether customary or sporadic, aimed at increasing Individual Consciousness.  
_Entheogenic research_ consists of venturing into unknown dimensions in search of information capable of enriching humanity or even simply the researcher themselves.

_Entheogenic research_ is a noble activity, but also a dangerous one that is not advised for "adventurers" or the "curious"; it is not without serious risks, ranging from mental sanity to life itself.

The _Entheogenic Researcher_ is a person with highly developed Individual Consciousness; serious, wise, and courageous, and more than capable of assessing the various dangers that may arise. The _Entheogenic Researcher_ develops mental capacities that enable him to interpret, albeit approximately, the experiences of an _Entheogenic State of Consciousness_ in an _ordinary state of consciousness_.

No guidelines for _entheogenic research_ exist; regardless of the type of _entheogenic research_ one wishes to undertake, it is imperative that one is accompanied in their _Entheogenic State of Consciousness_ by a spiritual supervisor or master experienced in the field.

## Transcending an Obstacle

Obstacles to a comprehensive spiritual path - in this case, one's own Anandayana - cannot be denied, repressed, or suppressed; if one tried, they would achieve the opposite effect: new disturbances would arise and, the desires or distracting elements that one hoped to eliminate as obstacles, would instead be amplified.

We cannot try to hide an obstacle by pretending not to see it; the obstacle will always be there, and unconsciously, our attention will be even more focused on it.

There is only one way to eliminate an obstacle on a spiritual path: to transcend it.

The first step to transcending an obstacle is to identify it.  
We need to understand the obstacle obstructing our path is; to analyse and understand it, in order to be sure of what the effect of transcending it will be.

In order to transcend an obstacle, one must follow a concept first proposed by Osho Rajneesh, and again today by Pragnil:

once an obstacle has been identified, one must accept it and live with it as a natural element. One must indulge the obstacle in an almost maniacal way, repurposing it in all sorts of different ways... there will come a time when the sight of that obstacle, which by then will have been indulged for a lengthy amount of time, will no longer be a problem. Thus, what was once an obstacle to our spiritual path, will no longer be, no longer creating desires or distractions: the obstacle will, therefore, be transcended.

Take for example the two main obstacles to a spiritual path that generally arise within the socio-religious system: money and sex.

In this text, we have dualised the socio-religious system of control by defining it in its two main parts: society and religion, which are intrinsically linked to one another. Each part of the duality causes effects in individuals that can be seen as obstacles to a spiritual path: religion mainly causes sexual obstacle, while society causes money obstacle.

### Money in society

If we properly analyse the various controls that society exercises on people, we will find that the common point is money.  
Sought-after status symbols may be purchased by having financial availability. Career-related desire usually translates into the desire for a higher salary.

If it is true, as some psychologists say, that individuals' Egos extend to their belongings/possessions, then greater purchasing power could potentially lead to the growth such Egos.  
Money is often a discriminating factor, particularly in some Eastern cultures: this job is better than this one if the pay is better; this person is better than this one if they have more money.

Money can be an obstacle to a spiritual path when it becomes the subject of most conversations and thoughts. The more importance one attributes to money, the more of a problem money is. The worst-case occurs when a person begins to make life choices based on money, worse still if such choices are made at the expense of better alternatives setting aside the economic aspect.

The most effective method for transcending the desire to have this much money is to indulge it. You must find a way to make a lot of money... easier said than done.

Many people who reach the state of earning more money than they can spend understand the futility of that means of exchange we call money, thereby they automatically transcend the obstacle of money on their spiritual path.

Having said that, it should be emphasised that there are also people for whom money has never hindered their spiritual path. There are also other people, albeit in limited numbers, who have managed to transcend the obstacle of money by following their own path, without ever needing to indulge the desire to have a large amount of money.

### Sexuality

In one way or another, societies are influenced by religions, which have always claimed to control the sexuality of people through obsolete books outlining the directions for a sexual life which is to god's liking. Thus, willingly or unwillingly, some more so and others less, we have all been subject to mental conditioning stemming from religious belief with regard to sexuality, even those raised in a secular family environment.  
In the best cases, when such negative influences are of a lesser magnitude, individuals do not present problems, but their concept of right and wrong within the sphere of sexuality is unconsciously dictated by the local religious culture. These people likely have minimal imbalances that can lead to normal perversions, if one can use the adjective "normal" in the field of sexuality.  
In the worst cases, that is, when the surrounding environment causes a denied, repressed, suppressed, or otherwise deprived sexuality, the only consequences are constant perturbations, which also result in psychological and psychosomatic problems.

Sex is probably the most common obstacle to a comprehensive spiritual path, as erroneous concepts originating from a socio-religious environment are deeply rooted within us. These erroneous concepts generate psychological limitations, creating desires and disturbances that become obstacles for those who are increasing their own spirituality.

As mentioned above, to be able to transcend an obstacle, one must first analyse it. Self-analysis is the first step in understanding exactly what aspects of our sexuality are creating the obstacle, after which we can move to indulge these aspects. Sooner or later there will come a time when, thinking about these aspects of our sexuality, which will now have been long since indulged, you will find that they no longer create any problems; both desires and distractions will cease to exist; there will no longer be an obstacle to our path. The obstacle will, therefore, be transcended.

Therefore, to transcend a characteristic of our sexuality that we think is preventing, limiting, or slowing down our Anandayana journey, we must first form an introspective analysis in order to properly understand this characteristic. We need to truly understand the problem that this feature causes and analyse the possible future condition that will be reached once this characteristic will have been modified. In this way, we can gain a certain degree of confidence that this characteristic of our sexuality is better off being transcended.

**Caution** : we can and must transcend what we ourselves consider problematic, not what others consider problematic... what others consider problematic, even if it is inherent to ourselves, should not matter to us; that is their problem.

Let's see some examples.  
If we believe that our obstacle is a lack of sex with many people, then we will have to accept promiscuity and have sex with so many people that we can no longer count them all... there will come a time when changing sexual partners will no longer have any appeal to us.  
If we believe that our obstacle is the impulse to imagine people's private parts, then we should spend long periods on nudist beaches... there will come a time when we will look at intimate areas in the same way as we look at any other body part, and there will no longer be any impulse to imagine people's private parts.  
If we believe that our obstacle is the hidden desire to have sex with someone of the opposite sex to our sexual orientation, then we should do it several times... there will come a time when we will only be interested in the sex of our sexual orientation.

Whatever the characteristic of our sexuality creating an obstacle for our Anandayana, transcend it and there will come a time when it will no longer be an obstacle.

It is obvious to expect that transcending one side of our sexuality will lead to a change in the sexuality itself: our sexuality will become more consistent with our spiritual journey.

### Spiritual Sexuality

Healthy sexuality is a fundamental part of an individual's Anandayana: sexual activity must be experienced in a way that is full and respectful to oneself and others, at all stages of life.

Healthy sexual activity has many physiological benefits, especially at the hormonal level; maintaining an active sex life is an important part of caring for one's body and is thus an important part of one's spirituality (see _Spirit_ chapter ⇒).

For healthy sexual activity, one must be aware of one's own sexuality.  
A person's sexuality is a complex and unique aspect, and it changes over time.  
Sexual desire must be nurtured and fulfilled consciously, indulging its specific needs.

The only possible way to walk one's own Anandayana is to experience one's sexuality in a free, natural, and respectful way.

  * Free - because sexuality should be free from any cultural-socio-religious constructs and should be managed at the individual's liberty according to one's own morals and virtues, and not according to the morals and virtues put forward by other sources which do not align with one's own.  
No one should ever intervene with another's sexual behaviour, unless such behaviour is disrespectful to another person.

  * Natural - as sex is part of one's own naturalness and, as such should be experienced naturally; between two people who are attracted to one another, sexual attraction is a natural reaction and should not be dictated by socio-religious timings such as engagement, marriage and the like, but rather from individuals' natural desires.

  * Natural - as the genital organs are body parts just as much as the hands, ears, and eyes are, and there should be neither shame, nor taboo, nor scandal, nor sexual anxiety when discussing or seeing them.  
If we feel perturbed at the sight of sexual organs or when listening to a conversation about them, we need to do an introspective analysis of our own sexuality.

  * Respect for oneself: understanding the phase of sexuality in which we find ourselves, whether it is an exploratory phase, a phase of fulfilment, a liberating phase, or a shift towards a different sexuality; respect your own sexuality, whatever stage it may be in, rejoicing in it without ever abusing it, whatever form of sexuality it may be: heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, or something else.

  * Respect for others:  
\- Never take advantage of the naivety of human or non-human beings, especially children;   
\- Sexual partners must always be aware of their sexuality, sexually mature, and consenting;  
\- Never use violence, unless the partner(s) are consenting.

A sexual act is not solely an activity of the body and mind: _Spirit_ and _Mens_ are also energetically involved.  
All sexual activity initiates a _non-ordinary state of consciousness_ , however mild it may be.  
This _non-ordinary state of consciousness_ is nothing more than the result of psychic manifestations of non-ordinary activities of _Spirit_ and _Mens_ , and physically corresponds to a large number of physiological activities that take place during the sexual act.  
Non-ordinary energetic activities of _Spirit_ result in manifestations that give rise to physiological activities during the sexual act.

Sexual activity is a cause and consequence of a synergy of manifestations of _Spirit_ and _Mens_ , which is still a topic of study. _Spirit_ and _Mens_ feed sexual activity, each in different ways from the other, while at the same time they find a source of nutrition in sexual activity.

Libido is also generated by manifestations of both _Spirit_ and _Mens_.

Orgasm is a source of "energy recharge", particularly for _Spirit_ , while male ejaculation is a form of "energetic emptying" for _Spirit_.

It is still uncertain how _Spirit_ and _Mens_ come into play for female ejaculation[45], whose physiological processes are still subject to scientific study.

In tantric practices and Taoist sexuality, the practice of male ejaculation control is suggested: practitioners learn to separate orgasm from ejaculation.  
Taoism even suggests completely avoiding ejaculation to promote male longevity.  
The benefits of ejaculation control are notable and within the reach of anyone who has the desire to see them: improvements in sexual performance, a more spiritual view of one's own sexuality, a feeling of renewed energy, the experience of a new kind of "dry" orgasm, and immediate and short-term physical benefits.  
Ejaculation control is a practice that requires dedication and is in line with an Anandayana path, as an activity which helps men to improve control over their bodies and minds without depriving themselves of pleasure.  
As the practice of ejaculation control is not just a psycho-physical activity, it must be accompanied by a specific lifestyle and a certain spiritual awareness, in order to avoid psycho-physical problems, especially at the prostate level.  
We invite all those who are following their own Anandayana to experiment with ejaculation control responsibly and consciously.

We have focused more on male sexuality than female sexuality, as for men there is more literature in ancient texts on the spiritual aspect and less mystery from the medical perspective.  
Although we may expect female sexual apparatus to be fully understood by 21st-century medical science, some mysteries still remain; first and foremost, female ejaculation.  
Female ejaculation, known only to a small and lucky percentage of women, is still shrouded in mystery: we are not yet sure how it is generated, we are ignorant of its physiological purpose, and we do not even know why only some women can do it.  
Female ejaculation seems to have no connection with reproduction, but nonetheless it must have links with manifestations of _Spirit_ and _Mens_ ; even in this case, however, our knowledge is limited.

Male and female sexualities are extremely different and complex.

Sexuality is constantly changing over the course of a person's existence and an individual should accept and indulge changes in sexuality over the years.  
Supporting the progress of one's sexuality is not easy. With the exception of a lucky few who were raised in (semi) neutral environments for healthy sexual development, the individual finds themselves constantly clashing between their sexual needs and the incoherences of the system that taught them.

As mentioned above, the Anandayana Project aims to provide a broad understanding of how the universe works, in order to allow individuals to obtain the knowledge necessary to shed light on their own Anandayana.  
Before even conceivable of assimilating this knowledge of the universe and therefore of starting on one's own Anandayana, the individual must acquire a certain knowledge of their own body, their own sex, and a certain awareness of their own sexuality.

### Sexual exploration

It is unthinkable that someone who cannot feel sexual pleasure, someone who is therefore not in harmony with their own body, could find their own Anandayana. Such an individual should begin a phase of exploring their own body in the first instance.  
The phase of exploring one's own body should take place naturally with physical development, from an early age, without taboos.

Masturbation in the exploratory period is extremely important.

If a young man (or woman) intends to fully enjoy healthy couple relations in the future, auto-eroticism from the period of physical development is of fundamental importance: if you do not know your own sexuality, you will never be able to make your partner fully understand it, and you are unlikely to fully understand your partner's sexuality.

With masturbation, the young man learns to understand orgasm and ejaculation, if not control of ejaculation itself.

The young woman has a more arduous task in the exploratory phase. Firstly, the young woman faces strong obstructions on the part of the socio-religious system, leaving little room to build a healthy and conscious sexuality. The young woman is also confronted with a more complex universe than the male one: the exploration of female sexual organs, their functioning, and how to draw the most pleasure from them, are all tasks that are more arduous than those of males.  
Indeed, men learn to experience orgasm and ejaculation immediately. The next step for the man is to distinguish and separate orgasm from ejaculation; such a step, as mentioned above, is more complex and requires more in-depth study.  
Unfortunately, some women, because of the cultural and psychological conditions imposed by the environment in which they live, are unable to reach orgasm. It follows from this that that self-learning of orgasm must occur as a result of self-exploration of one's own genital organs.  
But it does not end here for women. As mentioned above, the woman can further explore her own sexuality in pursuit of female ejaculation. There exists a small percentage of women who are able to ejaculate; those who discovered it by chance and those who discovered it after assiduous exploration. In all cases, if some women are able to ejaculate, it seems that there is no physiological reason why ejaculation shouldn't be an achievable goal for all.  
The apex of knowing one's own sex, from which one can build a truly healthy sexuality, is the same in the female case as in the male: the ability to separate orgasm from ejaculation, or to be able to have an orgasm with or without ejaculation by choice.  
Note that non-ejaculatory orgasm obtained by choice is quite different from non-ejaculatory orgasm obtained by inability of ejaculation.

The socio-religious system, instead of indoctrinating guilt and restrictions, should, in addition to teaching contraception, encourage young peoples' sexual exploration by helping them and their families to understand how natural sexual activity is.  
It should be unacceptable for an individual, man or woman, to become an adult without full knowledge of their own sex... but unfortunately, this is precisely the case for a high percentage of women belonging to cultures hinged on a conservative socio-religious system.

## Play

In chapter on _Soul_ (⇒) we said that _Soul_ does not contribute to our life in any way: _Soul_ is like a passenger; even if we did not have it, nothing would change.  
Nevertheless, _Soul_ teaches us one very important thing: _Soul_ sees the experience of life through our body as an educational and entertaining game.  
The only and most important teaching that _Soul_ gives us is how to interpret our life: always learning and playing.

### Learning

Mahatma Gandhi said:

- _live as if you were to die tomorrow, learn as if you were to live forever._ -

Learning is the activity that feeds any form of psychological, intellectual, or spiritual growth.

Knowledge is an accumulation of learned notions. Knowledge and consciousness are intimately connected:

Knowledge allows one to explore areas hidden by ignorance, which we had in fact ignored before learning to know them; by exploring these areas, we learn more and improve our consciousness in relation to the specific sector.  
Knowledge permits us to have more choices and greater detail about the choices themselves, while consciousness allows us to make the most appropriate choice.  
Consciousness tells us what knowledge is useful for the individual to learn and what knowledge is not. A lack of knowledge makes consciousness useless, or rather makes it only an end in itself.  
The foundation of consciousness is knowledge. You cannot be "conscious" (aware) of anything unless you have first learned something related to it.

The importance of learning is exemplified by Universal Consciousness itself; in fact, Universal Consciousness created Virtual Reality in order to know itself, to learn.

The reason that a person begins to walk their own Anandayana is that they have learned some important notions, and that their own consciousness has allowed them to understand the importance of creating their own Anandayana.  
A person who follows their own Anandayana has decided to continue to learn. Learning is an implicit part of Anandayana.

Learning is growing.

If a person ceases to learn, they stop and are no longer following their own Anandayana.

A person who is following their own Anandayana, exercising the Here&Now, is constantly practising awareness: this is the best way to positively exploit every moment of life, learning at every step.

### A Game for Adults

There is no need to investigate _Soul_ to verify whether or not play is important; just look at a child.

A child explores the world through play, learning, enjoying, and entertaining themselves. A child is serene and finds their own serenity within the game... Anandayana is the path of serenity, so let's play!

Sometimes life us sad, boring or stressful situations, where attempts at serenity are difficult. In such cases, one simply needs to change one's view of the situation: one needs to find the game perspective.  
Simply switching one's view of the situation to a playful aspect is enough to feel pleasant sensations within oneself: peace, tranquillity, relaxation, and serenity. What before seemed negative to us can be seen as positive through the game.

The game helps us to exercise the Here&Now, helping us to relax with what we are doing, always with full awareness... in fact, just implementing the Here&Now into what you are doing can become a game.

The only difference from a child is that the adult is playing a conscientious game, therefore maintaining responsibility for their own actions.

While playing, all the pressures, sadnesses, stresses, restlessness, and oppressions fades away.  
Playing does not mean taking the situation we are in lightly: adults are responsible; playing means letting the harmful negativity slip away.

## Results of Practice

From the most ancient times, man has always sought the secret of happiness.

Happiness and a serene life are the ultimate goals of our existence.

Anandayana is the personal answer for how to realise this purpose.

One cannot know the details of one's own Anandayana until he undertakes it. While following their own Anandayana, the individual modifies and refines it according to their needs and the results that it obtains.  
The neophyte, once they have learned the necessary concepts, begins to modify their own way of seeing their surroundings. Their critical sense is perfected, while the neophyte begins to try to practice activities that make them feel good; that is, they begin to love themselves more. The individual also begins to re-evaluate the most difficult conditions and situations in their life and, changing perspectives, changes negative views into positive ones, looking for beauty and play in simple details.  
In beginning to apply the Here&Now as a daily habit, the neophyte begins to notice immediate improvements on all fronts.  
With these first steps, the neophyte begins to develop their own Individual Consciousness and detach themselves from the collective control of society and religion. This detachment will neither be forced nor consciously willed but will be a consequence of the individual's changes. In fact, the neophyte, beginning to see things in a different way and to develop forms of thinking and feeling different from the community that surrounds it, will automatically distance themselves from certain aspects of the community, first and foremost its control.  
This is the beginning of the development of Individual Consciousness; the beginning of Anandayana, the path of serenity.

The more the individual develops their own Individual Consciousness, the more clear and obvious it is to them how trapped and limited the rest of the community is.  
Developing one's own Individual Consciousness and detaching oneself to some extent from the community does not mean changing one's life, becoming a hermit or abandoning society; it means creating one's own opinions, and taking on a clear vision and a free intellect. Think freely and not as we are told to think; immediately sense the forms and methods of control without anyone else explaining them.  
It follows from this that an individual with high Individual Consciousness and free thought can also gain privileges within society itself over those who remain within the collective consciousness controlled by society and religion.  
Consumerism, imposed models, and status symbols automatically all become futile aspects of life.  
The stress caused by work, the competitiveness of society, payment deadline, and all sorts of other things and situations, slip away without affecting anything.

Due to this, individuals with high Individual Consciousness are able to juggle society's demands without being afflicted by them, effortlessly managing to benefit from their positive sides and avoid the negative ones.

As has been repeated several times, given that each individual is unique and distinct from all others, one person's Anandayana is, in turn, unique and distinct from all others'. No one can teach another person how to create and follow their own Anandayana.  
Nevertheless, there are features common to more or less all Anandayana.

### Common Constituent Elements of Anandayana

  1. Living according to the precept of the Here&Now
  2. Searching for beauty
  3. Searching for play
  4. Practising yoga (or similar spiritual discipline for body and mind)
  5. Practising (precise) meditation
  6. Participating in Entheogenic Ceremonies
  7. Consciously doing physical (aerobic and anaerobic) activities
  8. Caring of healthy diet, cosmetics, and rest
  9. Living in harmony, respect, and love with all living beings
  10. Having an active and conscious sexuality

# Annotations

## The Wave-Particle Duality in Brief

Electrons and photons: two indivisible elementary sub-atomic particles, two bricks of which Our Virtual Reality consists; that is, light, whose smallest unit is the photon, and electricity, whose smallest unit is the electron.

When we talk about electrons and photons, we talk about both particles and electromagnetic waves.

The theory of photon and electron wave-particle duality served to unify the two schools of thought of the great scientists of the '20s: the school that embraced Einstein's though, supported with his studies of the nature of the photon and the electron as a particle, which have mass; while the school of De Broglie argued the nature of the photon and of the electron as waves, that is, massless.  
These two schools of thought were born of the results of experiments performed on electrons and photons that gave exact results in both cases, reflecting all theoretical expectations. But the working hypotheses of the two schools were based on extremely different concepts: the experiments that assumed that photon/electron had weight (a mass) were proven correct, as were the experiments that assumed no mass.  
In the end, both schools embraced the idea of the dual wave-particle nature of the electron and photon, as the only way to set right all of these disagreeing experiments: in some situations, the calculations considered the electron and the photon to have mass were proven correct, while in other situations, the calculations considered them massless were proven correct too, but the absurdity of such a situation is never emphasised.  
Great scientists can never be wrong, so wave-particle duality gives reason to both schools of thought.  
If one pauses to think for a moment, the logical absurdity is more than obvious; it does not take a genius to see it.

Let's take a similar, trivial example: let's suppose that two groups of researchers are studying an animal that has never been seen before; one group of researchers claims to have evidence that this animal is a mammal, while the other group publishes studies that show that this animal is a reptile. Even if this new animal behaves like a mammal in some cases and a reptile in others, it obviously belongs to another class which is neither reptile nor mammal, and nobody would dare claim that this animal is a dual-mammal-reptile. It's obvious.

But for a hundred years now we have been talking about wave-particle duality, despite the fact that it is a logical absurdity; wave-particle duality has been indoctrinated as truth and anyone who has studied science is ready to defend this concept with drawn sword.

The absurdity of the wave-particle model is also evident in the anomalous manifestations of electrons and photons that are inexplicable with physical-mathematical models proposed thus far.

The theory of wave-particle duality was pulled out in order to avoid admitting the limits of official science on the true physical meaning of the electron and photon.

All the expressions and phenomena of photons and electrons that we notice in Our Virtual Reality are only part of a more complex phenomenon, which includes other dimensions that we cannot fully appreciate with our limitations. If one could consider and evaluate the phenomenon in its entirety, their non-particle, non-wave nature would be clear, and mysterious cases of quantum mechanics would be solved.

## The Invented Variables

_Hidden variables_ are abstractions used to render Quantum Mechanics a deterministic theory, justifying (and in turn being justified by) Bell and Kochen–Specker's unsolved theorems.  
Those who defend _hidden variables_ claim that those theorems that would have gone unsolved without hidden variables, are in turn proof of the existence of _hidden variables_.  
This is a ridiculous statement, comparable to the following analogy: suppose there is a theory that asserts that all animals with wings fly; such a theory would be wrong when assessing birds such as penguins and ostriches. Now imagine a group of scientists hypothesising a hidden variable that does not allow such birds to fly... such a group of mad scientists could always assert the fact that penguins and ostriches do not fly as proof of the existence of their hidden variable.

Science is wonderful, indispensable, and fascinating. We all owe so much to science, but at times, those who perform science, i.e., scientists, should be humbler and accept their own limitations.

## Storing memories in Extramental Dimensions

To gain an idea of the space of Extramental Dimensions containing memories and knowledge (Universal Knowledge), we can borrow from the model of Bohm's Holographic Universe: a hologram can store lots of information in the form of a very fine interference fringes (waves); many more than one could store with neurons, in theory.

In Our Virtual Reality, the waves in which information are stored are "mobile"; that is, they disperse in space over time.

If we hypothesised a Virtual Reality without temporal components, we could imagine "immobile" interference fringes, i.e., interference fringes that do not disperse into any space: that information would then be accessible if one knew how to recover those "immobile" interference fringes.  
If that information contained in those "immobile" interference fringes were memories and knowledge, then Universal Knowledge could ("could" being the operative word) be an area of Virtual Reality without temporal components, outside of Our Virtual Reality, where all those "immobile" interference fringes concerning memories and knowledge are accumulated.

Some ways of accessing Universal Knowledge have already been mentioned in this text.

## The Relativity of the Near-death of _Mens_

Special Relativity was postulated by the young A. Einstein in 1905.

In Special Relativity, which obviously develops in Our Virtual Reality, we do not use the separate concepts of space and time (Visible Virtual Reality) but instead speak of the space-time dimension: a superfluous concept for the purposes of this text, but necessary for this annotation.  
Another key concept of Special Relativity is that the speed of light in a vacuum (3x105 Km/s), called "c" is the speed limit in any reference frame of Our Virtual Reality, which is always the same regardless of the point of observation within Our Virtual Reality.  
This speed limit "c" may seem absurd to Newtonian physics: imagine one reference frame in uniform motion compared to another; for example, a person on a train and another person sitting at home watching that same train pass by. If the person on the train fires a projectile in the direction of the train's motion, the person sitting at home perceives the speed of such a projectile as the sum of the speed of the train plus the speed of the projectile as perceived by the shooter. However, if the person travelling on the train turns a flashlight on and off alternately, sending a light which has a speed approximately similar to "c", both people, the one sitting at home and the one on the train, perceive this light at the speed "c". That situation would have been considered as absurd for the classical Newtonian physics, as in according to classical Newtonian physics, the person sitting at home would have had to perceive a light that travels at a speed equal to the sum of the speed "c" and the speed of the train.

In Special Relativity, the difficult concept of the "extended present" is introduced: the concept of "same instant" is lost between two separate observers.[46] Specifically, if the two observers observe a given event, the more spatially distant the two observers are and the more temporally distant what they perceive as the same instant is, the wider the "extended present" is [47]. For Special Relativity the present is no longer an instant, but a timeframe.

In the previous example, where the event is a message of light sent by a person on a train that is perceived by another person sitting at home, an "extended present" of the perceived event by person sitting at home is generated. This "extended present" is appreciable only mathematically because of the limitations of the senses of the observer sitting at home, as the space-time distance between the event source and the observer is minimal.

In another example, typical of Special Relativity, an individual's clock is supposed to go off at the same time as a solar event generates a red light for a second. In this hypothetical example, the space-time distance between the event source and the observer is remarkable; in fact, the individual would see the red light about 8 minutes after turning off their clock: this timeframe is the "extended present" of the observation of such a solar event (8 minutes is about the time it takes for light in a vacuum to travel the distance from the earth to the sun). Thus, the solar event would not take place in the past, but in the present, while its perception would take place in the "extended present".

All of what has just been said is true within Our Virtual Reality, whether it is seen with spatial dimensions and the temporal dimension, or with the space-time dimension.

As mentioned in the chapter _Death in Brief_ (⇒), when an individual dies, Our Virtual Reality for _Mens_ dissolves; that is, the manifestations of _Mens_ in the mind cease to exist[48]. This "ceasing to exist" is short-lived event from an observer's perspective in Our Virtual Reality, while it lasts an eternity from the perspective of _Mens_ , whose spiritual structure does not possess space-time dimensions.

Suppose that, with a hypothetical measuring instrument, one could measure the space-time distance between an observation point joint to _Mens_ and the mind of the dying individual.  
As mentioned previously, _Mens_ , as a spiritual entity with its own structure outside of Our Virtual Reality, is somehow linked to Our Virtual Reality through its manifestations, through which _Mens_ develops its own consciousness by experiencing life through perception of the individual's mind. During death, the events of _Mens_ cease to exist, which is experienced from the point of view of _Mens_ as a gradual, albeit rapid, dissolution of Our Virtual Reality.

Il. 11: hypothetical measuring instrument between _Mens_ and mind.

Regardless of what measurement the observer would obtain at the moments before death with the hypothetical measuring instrument mentioned earlier, at the moment after death, namely at the moment of the disappearance of the manifestation of _Mens_ , the measurement of the space-time distance of _Mens_ would be infinite. To summarise, one would obtain a finite measure of the space-time distance before death and a (fictitious) infinite measure of the space-time distance after death; during the process of the individual's death, the hypothetical instrument would show an increasing measurement. Bear in mind that the dissolution of Our Virtual Reality for _Mens_ happens gradually rather than immediately, however fast it may be.  
Now let's take a look at a particular moment during the death of the individual: when Our Virtual Reality is "almost" dissolved for _Mens_ , just as the last manifestations of _Mens_ in the mind are about to end; that is, when the hypothetical instrument measures the almost infinity between the mind and _Mens_. We'll call this moment _Near-death_.  
Considering an individual's life as experienced through the mind as an immense succession of events for _Mens_ ; the memories of those events feature an "extended present" as the space-time distance between the mind and _Mens_ grows during death; this "extended present" quickly becomes more and more extended and important with the approach of the moment of Near-death.

At the moment of Near-death, the "extended present" of _Mens_ is considerable, and the situation of the _Mens_ is decidedly complex: _Mens_ is located in a large "extended present" in which, however, _Mens_ has almost lost any form of "contact" with Our Virtual Reality, as Our Virtual Reality now being almost dissolved from its point of view; at the same time _Mens_ , more than ever, accesses the memories of the now-extinguished life in the Universal Knowledge. Keep in mind in during this Near-death state, _Mens_ still manifests in the mind of the individual, however weakly, meaning the individual's mind can still access its memories.

When death takes over, _Mens_ no longer has manifestations in Our Virtual Reality and in the individual's lifeless mind. From the perspective of a dead individual's _Mens_. Our Virtual Reality, which _Mens_ previously experienced through its own manifestations, has now become a space-time infinity (from the point of view of _Mens_ ), where _Mens_ will be able to relive for eternity all of the now-ended life's memories stored in the Universal Knowledge... and each of those memories is also expanded to infinity.

There is no scientific proof or even evidence of what has been stated on the dynamics of _Mens_ during an individual's death, as the dead do not report their experiences; on the other hand, we have many testimonies from people who have lived through a Near-death experience.

We must add that it is probable that the whole process of death experienced by _Mens_ explored in this annotation and in chapter _Death in Brief_ (⇒) is not triggered by some biological event of the individual's death, but by some other event independent of the individual's body, although it is not yet clear what this event is or how, why, when, or by what it is triggered. This is evident from the fact that from the moment of Near-death does not always death occurs: in some cases, _Mens_ can return from the nearly infinite space-time of the moment of Near-death, back to its ordinary state of life manifesting in the individual's mind, which is no longer dying. This situation can only be explained by the hypothesised existence of a body-independent phenomenon that triggers the process of _Mens_ death that we examined earlier, without the individual actually being in a state of dying.

Many who have risked their lives in an accident or a similar episode claim to have seen their entire life's memories pass before their eyes, all within the blink of an eye.  
Outside of the extravagance of this statement, even these people themselves have probably never dwelled on the fact that recalling the memories of an entire life, however short and monotonous that life may be, takes much longer than a blink of an eye.  
An explanation for these experiences can be found in what has just been described: for some inexplicable reason, _Mens_ enters a state of death, reaching the moment of near-death, and then returns to a state of life. At the moment of Near-death, the "extended present" that _Mens_ experiences when accessing to information from its latest contact with Our Virtual Reality in the final phase of dissolution is not perceived by other individuals in Our Virtual Reality. As mentioned in the chapter _Death in Brief_ , the dissolution (and subsequent regeneration) of Our Virtual Reality for _Mens_ , from the perspective of an observer in Our Virtual Reality, is an event with an infinitesimal duration equal to Planck Time, so short that the individual cannot even notice it.  
Then, during the "extended present", _Mens_ accesses its memories, which are stored in the Universal Knowledge, and relives them; that huge sequence of memories is compressed and reduced to a duration of an instant (or the blink of an eye) in the manifestation of _Mens_ in the individual's mind. This causes people who have had a Near-death experience to relive many past memories in the blink of an eye; while for _Mens_ , during that blink of an eye, an "extended present" took place, during it appeared to be in an almost infinite space-time in which _Mens_ started to enjoy the memories of the life that was in the process of ending, but did not finish in the end.

Now people who have survived a Near-Death experience will be able to understand how they could retrace so many memories in a very short time.

## Messages from DNA

Some scientists have tried to venture beyond science's shell of orthodoxy, hinting at theses that, seen from a certain point of view, could partially explain the aforementioned statements of shamans regarding the mysterious origins of their knowledge.

For years it has been noticed experimentally that cells emit a photon of mysterious origin. This photon is called a _biophoton_ due to its biological origin.  
Generally a photon is a quantum of light, that is, the smallest unit of light. A photon is mathematically expressed and described with Quantum Physics and the concept of the dual wave-particle applies to photons as for electrons; therefore, although the photon has been recognised by official science for more than a century, it is still unclear whether the photon is a wave, a particle, or something else.  
Einstein himself headed important research and discoveries on photons, including studies on the photoelectric effect, before declaring:

\- we are still a long way from understanding the phenomenon... -

And since then, almost a century later, modern science has not made any significant strides in the study of wave-particle duality.  
Wave-particle dualism serves to return the calculations and placate the restless souls of some scientists, but it cannot ever be said to have solved the mystery of the true natures of the electron and photon.  
As with the electron, then, the true nature of the photon remains a mystery. Even more mysterious, however, is the biophoton, the photon emitted from the cell: we do not know how it is emitted, which part of the cell generates it, what stimulates its generation, or why it is emitted. Practically nothing is known about the biophoton other than its existence.

In any form of life, the DNA contained in all cells of a certain living being is always identical. Whatever the type of tissue, the cell that makes it up has identical DNA to the cells that make up other different types of tissues within the same living being. Therefore, within a given person, hair cell DNA is identical to both tooth cell DNA and the DNA of the cells in the big toe. In any plant, the DNA of the root cells is identical to DNA of both the stem cells and the leaf cells.

Within the DNA of a living being lies the genetic code containing all of the information concerning the life form to which it belongs.  
All the information of a structure is contained in each part of it. This draws a vague parallel between living beings and holograms: any part of a hologram contains the entire hologram's information[49]; similarly, in a living being, even one with different types of tissues, the cells of each tissue contain the exact same DNA that contains all information on the biological structure of the living being.  
Although every cell contains all information on the living being to which it belongs, this cell is not able to exercise all functions of the living being; it must belong to a complex biological system consisting of a large number of other cells, making its own contribution (excluding cases of single-cell microorganisms). The same applies to biophotons: a single biophoton has no meaning if it is not considered as part of an emission of a large number of biophotons.

The genetic code, which is today fully understood, corresponds to about 2% of our DNA. Roughly 98% of DNA is called _non-coding DNA_ [50]; even today, the function of the vast majority of this DNA is unknown.

Experiments show that if DNA is extracted from the cell, the cell itself ceases to emit biophotons. It has therefore been hypothesised that the biophoton has its origins in DNA, or more precisely from living DNA[51], and thus within the presence of manifestations of _Spirit_ (see _Spirit_ chapter ⇒). Some scholars have theorised that non-coding DNA is precisely what generates biophotons.  
A single biophoton has no meaning in itself, being a quantum of light carrying limited information; we can roughly think of a biophoton as a single note. The combined work of all cells in a human body, approximately one hundred thousand billion (1014) cells, each generating a biophoton, could give rise to complex messages in the form of light.

A further theory, even bolder than the previous one, hypothesises that if non-coding DNA has properties of antenna function, rendering it capable of emitting a signal (the biophoton), then it may have another antenna property: receiving signals. The consequence of this would be that cells could both emit and transmit signals.  
The implications of this would be interesting, to say the least. Staying on this theory, when the mind finds itself in an _altered state of consciousness_ , during which the sensory receptors of hearing, sight, smell, taste and touch are altered, the mind would also become more receptive to other types of signals, in this case to biophoton messages.  
Biophoton messages generated by another living being could provide us with information previously unknown to us.  
As a concert is not a set of random notes, likewise a biophoton message would not consist of a causal set of biophotons. A set of 1014 biophotons capable of carrying archetypal information should necessarily be emitted consciously. The conductor for the archetypal message of light would be _Spirit_ , that is, the conscious part of life in the cell.

Unfortunately, the situation is not so simplistic; if the aforementioned theory were complete, messages from one _Spirit_ to another _Spirit_ would be able to be decoded simply by detecting the biophotons emitted from living beings with light sensors and recording the message; after recording a large number of messages, it would be possible to try to decode the messages themselves, thus simulating a Spirit-to-Spirit conversation between technological devices that emit photons and living beings.

As mentioned in the chapter Come accennato nel capitolo _Spirit_ , biophotons are a manifestation of an event occurring in dimensions outside of our four space-time dimensions.  
Non-coding DNA probably functions as an antenna, probably allowed biophotons emitted by another living being to be received, but still, such biophotons would not carry any message. As explained in the chapter on _Manifestations of Entities with Other Dimensions_ (⇒), the real message is in dimensions that we cannot perceive; biophotons are only a manifestation of it in Our Virtual Reality.  
Take for example a man casting his shadow on a wall: the man lives in 3 spatial dimensions, while his shadow is in 2 spatial dimensions and can be considered an indirect manifestations of the man onto the 2 spatial dimensions of the wall; we cannot know all the physical characteristics of an unknown man simply by seeing his shadow.

## The Mystery of the Origin of Yage

As mentioned in the chapters on _Entheogens_ (⇒) and _Spirit_ (⇒), the source of knowledge for the preparation of Yage remains a mystery to science.

When a true Amazonian shaman is asked how the recipe for the preparation of Yage was discovered, he answers in the same way as he would answer if asked the source of knowledge of the use of other medicinal plants. He would claim that - ... during a ritual for the "study of a specific plant", the spirit of the plant that teaches us both preparation of the plant itself for consumption, and use of the preparation as a curative remedy... - .  
As far as shamans of the Amazonian rainforest are concerned, "study of a specific plant", entails a period of several weeks or months in isolation, following a highly restrictive diet, daily consumption of the plant being studied, and undergoing shamanic rituals; this period ends with an entheogenic ritual to enter into communication with the plant.

Among the various mysteries of the origin of knowledge of medicines and other shamanic preparations, the most well-known has undoubtedly been Yage since the '70s.

Yage

, or

Ayahuasca

(we will call it Yage in order to avoid confusion with the name of the plant), is the

entheogenic

infusion used by Amazonian shamans to induce an

Entheogenic State of Consciousness

for a shamanic ritual. Yage is obtained by cooking smashed roots of the Ayahuasca plant and the leaves of the Chacruna shrub (Psychotria Viridis) from 5 to 10 hours.

The main psychedelic molecule of Yage is DMT (N,N-Dimethyltryptamine). DMT, which is similar chemically to the neurotransmitter serotonin, is present in many plants and is also secreted by the human brain.  
No source of DMT will have any psychedelic effect if taken orally; in fact, there are monoamine oxidase enzymes in the human stomach which instantly deactivate DMT molecules, rendering consumption ineffective.  
Inhibitory substances of the monoamine oxidase enzymes do exist; if one takes such substances in combination with DMT, DMT can enter the circulation, reach the brain and cause psychedelic effects.[52]  
The Chacruna leaf is a major source of DMT, and the Ayahuasca root is a source of inhibitory substances of monoamine oxidase enzymes; therefore, only by cooking these two substances can one obtain an infusion capable of inducing an _Entheogenic State of Consciousness_ when taken orally.

The discovery of Yage is shrouded in various mysterious aspects:  
How did shamans discover a substance capable of inducing an _Entheogenic State of Consciousness_ when taken orally?  
How could shamans several centuries ago ever have known of the existence of inhibitory substances of monoamine oxidase enzymes and DMT, when they had not even been discovered by modern science yet?  
How did shamans discover that the Ayahuasca root contains inhibitory substances of monoamine oxidase enzymes, and that Chacruna leaves contain DMT?  
How did the shamans find out that they had to cook the leaves of Chacruna (and not its roots or shrub) and smashed parts of Ayahuasca (and not whole pieces) for several hours to obtain an active oral substance?

Sceptics who do not believe the claims of shamans must find an alternative explanation for the mystery of shamanic knowledge on plant use. The most popular explanation among such sceptics is that of empirical knowledge through trial and word of mouth.  
Sceptics believe that the origin of Yage knowledge is the consequence of a long series of attempts lasting generations.  
It is mathematically easy to see that such a statement is senseless.  
In the Amazon rainforest, there are 40 thousand (4 x 104) different plant species. The combination of any two plant species is taking place somewhere with 1600 million (1.6 x 109) different possible combinations; Yage is just one of them.  
The preparation of Yage takes from 7 to 12 hours, between collecting the plants and preparing and cooking them; the ritual takes from 4 to 8 hours. Thus, considering that each of these 1600 million combinations would take a whole day, trying all possible combinations would take over 4,383,000 years.  
We can exclude the possibility of hundreds of men attempting different plant combinations at the same time: until not so long ago, the communities of the Amazon rainforest were composed of few units and their main activity was not botanical study, but survival. The various ethnic groups spoke different languages; most did not have a writing system, and they were more likely to kill each other than lovingly exchange recipes for hallucinogenic infusions; indeed, wars and cannibalism between different ethnicities were common.

Our estimate of more than 4 million years is just that: an estimate. One would need to take into account that each plant species is composed of different parts, such as roots, the trunk, branches, leaves, seeds, flower petals, flower pollen, and so on, each with different chemical properties. This means that even between just two different plants, various different types of infusion can be made depending on which part of the plant is used, with each infusion having different chemical properties and effects. If it is possible to make not just one, but a number of different infusions with two plants, the estimated time required to prepare all possible infusions obtained by combining all components of all plants in the Amazon rainforest, even limiting oneself to infusions made with two plants, would be much higher than 4 million years.  
A number of as-yet undescribed plant species should also be considered in the estimate. Another factor to consider that would increase the number of combinations is that some shamanic recipes are made with combinations of three or more plants.

How could an elder shaman pass down to a younger one the knowledge of millions of tested combinations and millions of untested combinations? Another factor to consider in our calculations is repetitions of combinations of two same plants over the span of shaman generations.

Another not insignificant factor to consider is that many species endemic to the Amazon rainforest are poisonous, meaning one should keep count of the number shamans who die in an attempt to consume a new preparation made with one of the many poisonous plants; the death of the unfortunate shaman, in this case, would cause the loss of the accumulated knowledge transmitted to him.

All this is to say that claims of sceptics that the recipe for Yage originates from a long series of empirical attempts are colossal nonsense.

## Entheogenic Messages

During an Entheogenic Ceremony, participants receive messages that generally appear in the form of visions.

These messages are not passed through images, words or sensations, but are passed through archetypes.  
The mind of those receiving the message must be capable of interpreting the archetypes of the message so that its meaning is available to the individual in a conceptual form.  
Colours, symbologies, textures, shapes, sounds, and sensations are additional elements at the top level of archetype (paragraph on _Thought, States of Consciousness, and Archetypes_ ⇒). Some (but not all) visions that appear during an entheogenic session are the brain's interpretations of archetypal messages that are received [53]: in most cases, visions do not have a specific meaning in themselves but are significant for the brain of the person producing them. This concept is very clear to a true spiritual master, whether a shaman or a guru; in fact, such a person will never try to interpret the visions of another.

In order to interpret the archetype message as correctly as possible, one must be in a particular psycho-physical-spiritual state; moreover, it is fundamental to be in an _Entheogenic State of Consciousness_ , which breaks through the walls of the conscious psyche and predisposes the participant's mind to receiving the archetypal message, as has been amply described in the chapter _Entheogenic State of Consciousness_ (⇒).  
In any case, one cannot expect to be in ideal conditions for interpreting an archetypal message from one moment to the next simply by entering an _Entheogenic State of Consciousness_.

Intercepting and interpreting an archetype message is not as easy as reading a book. It must follow a period of preparation consisting of a long phase of liberation from all constructs planted in the mind by the socio-religious system; there are several insulating layers that separate our nature as human beings capable of interpreting an archetype message, and our psychological construct: indoctrination, religious indoctrination, ingrained culture, transmitted fears and taught beliefs.

Many of the psychological structures present in people living in modern society are scarce or absent in those such as Amazonian shamans, who were raised in simply-structured societies, far away from the subjugations of modern society, living a life surrounded by simple things and in close contact with nature, in full harmony with it.

## Graphic of State of Consciousness

Il. 12: depth of state of consciousness.

## Endnotes

[1] In paragraphs _The Project_ ⇒ and _Here &Now_ ⇒ the differences in meaning between "to serenity" and "of serenity" in this text are discussed.

[2] from "How Brains Make up Their Minds", 1999, Columbia University Press - chapter on Awareness, Consciousness, and Causality.

[3] "The God Delusion", 2006.

[4] Applying the _wave-particle model_ in _Quantum Physics_ to the _electron_.

[5] In cases of _total reflection_ , the reflected radius and the incident radius are equal.

[6] If psychological treatment using NLP methods is correctly performed, the changes to Virtual Reality ripple through present, future, and past events.

[7] From "Reality is Not What It Seems", "Mystery" chapter (C. Rovelli, 2014).

[8] It has been shown that some of these cultures that adopted lunar cycles for agriculture had no contact with other cultures using the same method, so influence from other cultures can be excluded.

[9] A positron is by theoretical definition anti-matter, or more precisely the antiparticle of the electron.

[10] Strictly speaking, the activation of neurons occurs in a kind of multiple chain reaction. A given number of neuronal synapses, however complex this chain reaction may be, will have a number of possible combinations that will always be less, or at most equal, to the number of possible combinations obtainable if one considered each of those neuronal synapses a binary digit belonging to a binary number. Therefore, in this paragraph, the mnemonic abilities of the brain are overestimated numerically according to the _local storage model_.

[11] "The brain stores only the memory's key information, and then the brain itself reconstructs the details of the memory at the time of access": one can deduce that this is a rather far-fetched theory.

"The brain stores only the memory's key information, and then the brain itself reconstructs the details of the memory at the time of access": one can deduce that this is a rather far-fetched theory. Let's take a rough example as an example of memory: "the bouquet of flowers I gave to my girlfriend for the first date". Let's suppose that the mind only stores key information: 12 flowers, yellow flowers, red card, blue ink, and the words "I love you". According to this erroneous theory, the brain should reconstruct the memory by somehow creating the missing details. Such missing details should be the same (or almost the same) every time the memory is accessed.

There is no algorithm that can be used to complete every puzzle in existence... Similarly, to reconstruct the missing details of a memory, the brain must follow a logical algorithm specific to that memory, not a generic algorithm valid for each memory. Thus, to reconstruct the details of different memories, the brain must follow different algorithms, which is to say, it must perform different actions. Since a certain memory must be the same every time it is remembered, then the algorithm of this memory must always be the same, and therefore the algorithm must be stored as well. This algorithm would need to extrapolate all the infinite details that might emerge in a properly-induced regression through altered state of consciousness; therefore, in the particular case of the above example, from the five main details of the bunch of flowers, the algorithm should extrapolate: the exact words of the message written in the card, the ink stain left by my hand while I was writing, the details of the colours of the card itself, the crease that I accidentally made while I was tying the flowers, the two flowers which were smaller than the others, a fully-bloomed flower, the ribbon that bound them, and so on... the algorithm would need generate a huge amount of details starting from little information; any computer scientist would exclaim - What an algorithm! - at the sight of it.

[12] In addition to the vague and incorrect idea that a brain recreates a memory from a few pieces of stored information, the _local storage model_ has never officially proposed a theory on the logic of information storage in neurons, i.e., an explanation of the form in which the memories are stored.

[13] Even the simple act of maintaining standing balance requires complex retroactive control of the microscopic movements of the articular zones of the ankles, knees and hip, controlled by many muscles, both agonist and antagonist.  
For each microscopic movement, depending on the external and internal conditions detected by sensory apparatus, the brain controls the balance of the body semi-automatically, in a system of unstable mechanical equilibrium. Such a seemingly elementary act is actually analytically complex.  
Some interpretations of the _local storage model_ of the brain predict that all of the activities that we are able to perform, such as walking, running, swimming, activities requiring coordination, playing an instrument, cycling, and so on, are only an accumulation of memories that somehow become semi-automatic, which we access at the moment of the act.

[14] These activities of the mind are still totally shrouded in mystery; nobody has any idea of where in the brain they occur and what brain processes generate them.

[15] To gain an idea of how memories and knowledge are stored in the form of _Universal Consciousness_ in the _Extramental Dimensions_ , please refer to the annotation _Storing Memories in Extramental Dimensions_ ⇒ .

[16] In this text, _Spirit_ (in italics and capital letters) will refer to the spiritual entity described in this manuscript, while "spirit" and "espiritu" will refer to other definitions depending on the creed in context.

[17] The true and authentic shamans of the Amazon are on the verge of extinction, replaced by an abundance of phony shamans who administer hallucinogenic drugs accompanied by local folk songs, thus selling the package "shamanic journey" to tourists.

[18] A conservative estimate.

[19] Devoting 18 hours a day, estimating 2 seconds for the pronunciation of a number.

[20] From "The Cosmic Serpent" (J. Narby, 1998).

[21] Healer.

[22] _Spirit_.

[23] In this text, _Soul_ (italicised and capitalised) it will refer to the spiritual entity described in this manuscript, while "soul" will refer to other definitions depending on the creed in question.

[24] It has been said that events which from the point of view of our four space-time dimensions are eternal, are events that occur at the same moment as the point of view of a reference system without temporal dimensions. We consider events such as the duration of the universe and the duration of the existence of the Soul eternal, insofar as we can estimate a possible start date (the Big Bang) but an end date cannot be estimated with certainty.

For simplicity's sake, it has been stated that from the perspective of an observer not possessing a temporal dimension, events which for us are eternal such as the creation and destruction of the universe and growth in Soul consciousness via reincarnation, are simultaneous events, occurring at the same time.

Of course, logic tells us that the universe cannot be created and destroyed at the same time, and any Soul cannot increase its consciousness via a series of reincarnations taking place at the same time.

The "simultaneous" events of any system that imply at least one change from an initial state A to a final state B differ by a period of time equivalent to Planck's time constant tP equivalent to 5.391 × 10−44 s.

Thus, from the perspective of an observer not possessing a temporal dimension, the duration of the universe is equivalent to tP and the duration of the increase in the Soul s consciousness through a series of reincarnations is equivalent to tP.

[25] The end of the _Soul_ reincarnation cycle occurs at a certain "lapse" of time from the beginning of the _Soul_ reincarnation cycle. This time frame is equivalent to the time constant Planck tP (5.391 × 10−44 s).

[26] Information passed on by _Spirit_ may come from various sources - not just Universal Knowledge.

[27] You can find online videos of women who have extremely pleasant labour, especially with water births.

[28] Roughly 5. 39x10-44 seconds. To get a second one, you would need to multiply this constant by about 20 million billion billion billion billions.

[29] It is likely that temporary passage through other temporal dimensions in the _Unknown Dimensions of Virtual Reality_ contributes to _Mens_ ' experience.

[30] Annotation on _The Relativity of the Near-death of Mens_ (⇒).

[31] Quantum Time, known as Planck Time, is the smallest measurement of time that makes sense: 5.39121x10-44 sec.  
Quantum Length, known as Planck Length, under which does the concept of space lose physical meaning: 1.616252x10-44 m.

[32] Another improbable justification for a potential lack of such knowledge or memories may be that Individual Consciousness is in a _non-ordinary state of consciousness_ when the individual is not in life, that is, in pre-life or post-mortem conditions. If this were true, or even only probable, there should be no legal, moral or religious limitations on experimenting with _non-ordinary states of consciousness_ , as they would be natural conditions of our existence. Analysis of this improbable justification falls outside of the context of the manuscript.

[33] Practices of hypnotic past life regression are devoid of any reliability. Individuals undergoing such a session enter a cataleptic state where all perceptual channels are inhibited and the mind is at the mercy of suggestion and imagination; what one gets is a vivid dream and not regression to a memory.

[34] This rough and general analysis is obviously not true in all cases, but it applies to a large majority of families.

[35] From Christian Bible, Matthew 22:39

[36] The latest scientific research would seem to suggest that the brain also has some ability to regenerate neurons, although only limited numbers.

[37] Those who have transcended the obstacle of "unnecessary consumer goods" in their Anandayana will understand following maxim very well: - _Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty_ -.(Socrates)

[38] Being present in locations other than the physical has recently become a large problem with regards to Here&Now awareness due to extreme abuse of social networks.

[39] See Il. 12: depth of the state of consciousness, in annotation _Graphic of State of Consciousness_ ⇒ .

[40] Osho Rajneesh, The Great Zen Master Ta Hui, Talk #11

[41] Osho Rajneesh, Beyond Enlightenment, Talk #29

[42] From "DMT: The Spirit Molecule".

[43] See Il. 12: depth of the state of consciousness, in annotation _Graphic of State of Consciousness_ ⇒ .

[44] An _Entheogenic Ceremony_ is called by different names depending on the local culture; it is often called a "shamanic ritual".

[45] This is vulgarly called "squirting".

[46] From "Reality Is Not What It Seems", "The Extended Present" chapter (C. Rovelli, 2014).

[47] Unless the two observers have a certain symmetrical position with respect to the origin of the event.

[48] Manifestations of _Mens_ in the mind approximately correspond to the individual's conscious mind, omitting the contributions of manifestations to the subconscious.

[49] Unlike a photograph, where only partial information of the entire contents is contained in any one part, any part of a hologram contains all of the information of the entire hologram itself.

[50] In the '60s, _non-coding DN_ A was known as _junk DNA_ ; the term denotes another example of science making assumptions: science failed to understand a part of DNA and, in order to avoid admitting its ignorance, called it junk.

[51] The origin of the biophoton emission is still uncertain; there are several theories, but none of them has been scientifically proven.

[52] From "The Cosmic Serpent", (J. Narby, 1998).

[53] If the conditions of an Entheogenic Ceremony do not occur (the optimal triad of " _entheogenic_ substance, Set and Setting"), see chapter _Entheogenic Ceremony_ (⇒), visions may not be generated by archetypal messages, but simply by the leisure of the mind.
