In our preceding log, we described the core dynamics of an exercise- or ‘practical application’- described in the Master Monograph #6 from Degree 4, which is designed to lift the member to Cosmic Consciousness, described as a ‘state of infinity and eternity.’

This exercise is very much an exercise in guided imagery- because the whole exercise is involved in a subject, in a state of self-induced deep relaxation, using guided imagery to lead him to visualizing himself progressively leaving his body, rising out of the body, above the earth, beyond the galaxy, until he has the ‘impression of being immersed in the cosmic ocean and having become one with all the planets and stars” surrounding him.

Is this really Cosmic Consciousness- or is it a feeling of the immensity of space generated by a relatively simple visualization?

In AMORC Unmasked, I warn about this type of phenomena, when I say, speaking of the divine fire, a symbol of the fiery nature of the Divine Presence.

Again, I do believe there is a divine fire, but it is not really to be found, in my opinion, by visualization. Too often, visualization is a way of cheating oneself of direct experience by substituting an image, forged in hypnosis, from what it represents, which must be forged by wakefulness, by the experience of awareness.

In the next Monograph, No. 7 of the Initiate Section in Degree 4, there are many enchanting quotes about Cosmic Consciousness. I like the one by Meister Eckhart, the Christian mystic of the 1300’s, who referred to something in the soul that is-

-higher than the soul, something divine, simple, a pure naught; nameless rather than named, unknown rather than known.

Note how this presence is described in an imageless, descriptively negative way- resembling as some have pointed out about Eckhart, the Shunyata or Void of the Zen Buddhists. This is, perhaps, a formless experience of the Divine Presence.

Is this where the Practical Application of the last monograph was leading?