Human capabilities beyond mainstream

From Anthroposophy

This topic page covers human capabilities outside of the mainstream, and describes what extra-ordinary human abilities are possible for a small minority outside the majority of the human population, in other words 'outside the curve' referring to the Gauss bell-curve for normal distributions.

Whereas these fall outside the experiences and capability of the majority and the cultural-societal 'norm' of what is normal, it is not because they may not be common that they are not within the realm of human potential. Another way to describe this is, what is possible when moving from 'beyond average' to 'rare' and 'exceptional' human potential.

These also be called 'magical' capabilities as they take place outside the purely physical realms that are the sole focus of the contemporary mainstream worldview based on materialistic mineral science that only considers the physical-material.

This is based on various sources who have written about these capabilities and demonstrations (a.o. Hamid Bey, Franz Bardon, Draja Mickaharic). These are hints to show people there is more than the material physical world, and the true miracle is then to affect the soul and achieve a change in thinking and create openness of mind to the spiritual and the true nature of life.

Also in Indian spiritual traditions and religions, siddhis or divine powers are paranormal/supernatural or psychic/magical powers, abilities, and attainments that are products of spiritual advancement. These include clairvoyance and telepathy, levitation, bilocation and astral projection, materialization, telekinesis, and having access to memories from past lives. They are not a means to an end, and are a consequence of spiritual advancement, their pursuit is a digression from the true spiritual path.

Aspects

  • dowsing
  • Out of Body Experiences (OBE)
    • projection of the astral body, time travel, bilocation (be seen in two places at the same time), teleportation (moving physical body from one place to another), body jumping (deliberately leaving one's physical body behind before moment of physical death to enter into and take command of the body of another living human being)
    • exteriorization of only part of the astra-mental body to accomplish certain task

cognitive

physical life

various

demonstration of 'magical' capabilities

  • as a way to show there is more than the physical materialistic worldview - see There's a crack in everything; examples are Hamid Bey, Frabato, indian sages, ..
  • Hamid Bey held demonstrations before gatherings of eminent physicians and surgeons (various sources oa Yogananda, Sep-Oct 1927; see also More sources on the topic of initiation)
    • self-imposed catalepsy: being buried alive and remain underground sealed in an air-tight casket; going into a state of catalepsy for longer periods (3h, 24h upto six days) and allowing medical controls during this period
    • control of physical body, functions of the heart and all other organs of involuntary action
      • control pulse at will, the beat appearing and completely disappearing at his will (entering physical trance - breathless and almost lifeless)
      • piercing body with long needles without bloodshed, passing needles through his throat, cheek, tongue without pain. Marks almost instantaneously disappeared after the needles were withdrawn
      • hold a thousand pounds on his chest
    • put small animals and certain types of men into the cataleptic state
    • divine a person's thoughts by touching the person's wrist

Illustrations

2001 - Jef C.

short quote from a forum post as illustration of true capabilities by an advanced practitioner of Franz Bardon's three books of initiation

.. when I was a young man, I would occasionally separate myself into two distinct individuals and perform different tasks ... as far back as 1975, my sponsor taught me how to stop the world by degrees, or stop just a portion of it ... I can vanish and reappear, or change my appearance, project fire from my solar plexus, or project water to put the fire out .. I have 360 degree vision and am clairvoyant and clairaudient .. can cause thunderstorms, rain, snow and earthquakes

...

in practice 'stopping the world' by degrees and removing oneself from everyday existence .. is living between moments in time .. it is not a trance, for physical and mental operations may be performed while in this state, but it is similar in that you are removed from normal existence

Lecture coverage and references

Discussion

Note 1 - On further oddities

Introduction

An oddity is anything strange or unusual. Someone who has written about such things is Draja Mickaharic, for an example see Man's life development#immortality.

This note is therefore to, a.o., comment what Rudolf Steiner said on certain of these topics, such as e.g. vampires and werewolves

Aspects

  • vampires
    • see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire
    • esoteric authors discussed vampires in a symbolic or metaphysical sense rather than as physical beings, the term vampire means 'deliberately feeding off other livings beings' vitality or life force'.
    • Rudolf Steiner never discussed the concept itself but only used the word vampire to describe the nature of sucking life or blood out of a living being.
    • Helena Blavatsky (Isis Unveiled, Secret Doctrine) and Dion Fortune (Mystical Qabalah, Psychic Self-Defense) reference vampires as psychic entities rather than physical creatures: astral or psychic vampires are beings or disembodied spirits that drain energy from the living. These could be (a) elementals, (b) black magicians who extend their life by draining energy from others, or (c) spirits from the dead.
    • commentary:
      • Elementals suck astral and etheric life force energy, for an example see D00.001 - topics of sexuality#1954 - Franz Bardon and Discussion Note 2 on that page.
      • As a more extreme process of black magic, taking and using the life energy of other living beings, Draja Mickaharic describes the process of body-hopping to extend physical life by taking over another human being's lower bodies (see more on Man's life development#immortality). This might be the true reason behind the concept and stories of vampires.

Reference extracts

Vampires

All extracts below are not bringing insight, they just document that Rudolf Steiner did use the word vampire in a certain context, to describe the nature of sucking life or blood out of a living being, feeding out of vitality of other living beings.

H. P. Blavatsky

The Key to Theosophy (GA041B), from the Glossary

Kama Rupa (Sans.)

Metaphysically and in our esoteric philosophy it is the subjective form created through the mental and physical desires and thoughts in connection with things of matter, by all sentient beings: a form which survives the death of its body.

After that death, three of the seven "principles" — or, let us say, planes of the senses and consciousness on which the human instincts and ideation act in turn — viz., the body, its astral prototype and physical vitality, being of no further use, remain on Earth; the three higher principles, grouped into one, merge into a state of devachan (q. v.), in which state the Higher Ego will remain until the hour for a new reincarnation arrives, and the eidolon of the ex-personality is left alone in its new abode.

Here the pale copy of the Man that was, vegetates for a period of time, the duration of which is variable according to the element of materiality which is left in it, and which is determined by the past life of the defunct. Bereft as it is of its higher mind, spirit and physical senses, if left alone to its own senseless devices, it will gradually fade out and disintegrate.

But if forcibly drawn back into the terrestrial sphere, whether by the passionate desires and appeals of the surviving friends or by regular necromantic practices — one of the most pernicious of which is mediumship — the "spook" may prevail for a period greatly exceeding the span of the natural life of its body. Once the Kama Rupa has learnt the way back to living human bodies, it becomes a vampire feeding on the vitality of those who are so anxious for its company. In India these Eidolons are called Pisachas, — and are much dreaded.

[editor: in ancient Greek literature, an eidolon is a spirit-image of a living or dead person; a shade or phantom look-alike of the human form.]

190X-GA034

in context of '72. Flita. True Story of a Black Magician'

the black magician draws power from this killing, like a vampire

1907-12-19-GA068A

[about elementals .. of fear]

The actual facts have not changed, only his feelings and perceptions; the facts were already there before he could recognize them, only his perception of the facts has changed. A person must remain fearless and calm. As simple as it seems, it is difficult to carry out. But if it is not carried out, feelings of fear and terror of the spiritual worlds arise in a person. This is not a matter of indifference, because these are real forces.

There are beings in the spiritual world for whom the feelings of fear that we radiate are welcome nourishment. They suffer from emaciation if they do not receive this nourishment. They surround the person like vampires; when you give them nourishment in the form of feelings of fear and anxiety, they fill themselves up with it.

The human being must be firm; he must have thoroughly overcome all feelings of fear if he wants to enter. He must also discard other feelings that he takes with him from the sensual world long before, because they become disadvantages, terrible obstacles in these worlds. These are all negative feelings: ambition, vanity, anger, hatred, annoyance, selfishness. Those feelings that mean little in ordinary life become real monsters in terms of their dangerous side.

The person who enters these higher worlds and has not yet discarded these feelings provides welcome nourishment for these beings. He does not need to see them, but they destroy his physical health; they ruin his nervous system, his sleep. All this is true!

...

A personality who first learned to develop the forces within himself and then sacrificed himself is a valuable sacrifice in the great course of life. But if a personality without strength and energy takes this word: You shall sacrifice yourself, as a word of life, it becomes a phrase here and, because it is empty, will produce a life without content.

In this sphere there is a vampire of life; it sucks out the forces of life. It is necessary to see clearly in this sphere. In no wise must there enter into this work that sense of well-being which a Man so easily experiences when uttering fine phrases. Here the Man who really wants to ascend into the higher worlds needs care and patience, for only little by little can he learn to distinguish aright.

1918-04-18-GA067

Nothing can face the real Christianity and the real piety more understanding than spiritual science. However, take the reality that is often associated with the development of the last two millennia, there you get stuck into the idea: you have to search the spirit beyond outer nature, have to consider the outer nature as something that you must avoid if you want to get to the spirit. Go back to the older centuries, and you realise that one withdraws from the outer nature and her secrets; one looks for other ways and does not look for the spirit that is spread out in nature. Then natural sciences came; other necessities appeared to the human consciousness concerning the concept of nature. However, the former centuries had made sure not to see the spirit in nature; one wanted to find it apart nature. Now she faced the human beings and she was divested of spirit. Now one investigated that nature which one had divested of spirit. This takes place since four to five centuries. Because one saw everything approaching the human being from this spirit-divested nature with a certain necessity, the human being was also divested of spirit. The spirit-divested nature became the vampire of the human spirit. Nature entered in science and her facts became irrefutable. I have often said that the human beings have to admire the results of natural sciences; but nature must not be considered as spirit-divested, otherwise, it becomes the vampire, and one can no longer find what lives in the human being as spirit. Then you find what the barrel organ plays. That which the barrel organ plays is below in the organic. There one grasps the organic life only, one side of life only, not the other side that we have taken as starting point today that already has the supersensible stream in the memory.

1921-12-28-GA303

These are some of the invisible elements that pervade the classroom. And if you are able to look a little behind the scenes, you will find that children turn away from the teacher because of a certain disenchantment. They dimly sense an unspoken question: In this adult, who is my teacher, what became of all that flows through me?

But in teachers, on the other hand, a subconscious longing begins to stir. Like vampires, they want to prey on these young souls. If you look a little closer, in many cases you can see how strongly this vampire-like urge works beneath an otherwise orderly appearance.

Here lies the origin of various tendencies toward ill health in young children. One only needs to look with open eyes at the psychological disposition of some teachers to see how such tendencies can result from life in the classroom.

Note 2 - Historical cases

  • Joseph of Copertino (or Cupertino) (1603-1663) was a Franciscan friar who seemingly experienced miraculous levitation and ecstatic visions throughout his life which made him the object of scorn. Various biographical books have been written on his life with attempts to explain the stories.

Related pages

References and further reading

  • Franz Bardon: Initiation (1956)
  • Otti Votavova - Frabato the Magician (see more info and download on: Franz Bardon and initiation#Frabato)
  • Draja Mickaharic: 'What's possible' (2010)
  • Marten Crawford: 'The adept magician' (2014)
    • publication of a sequence of remarkable postings on a public internet forum in the period 2001-2 by someone (anonymous, called 'Jef C.') who had followed Bardon's initiation system over three decades (since approx 1971)
    • as the book is no longer available and people have been looking and asking for this, this PDF download contains excerpts

Levitation

  • Karl_Spiesberger: Levitation (1988)

Remote viewing

  • Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff : 'Mind Reach: Scientists Look at Psychic Abilities' (1977)
    • offers an insider look at the science and experiments that supported the phenomenon of remote viewing
    • Targ was co-founder of the SRI remote viewing program
  • Joseph McMoneagle:
    • 'Mind trek' (1993).
    • 'Remote Viewing Secrets: A Handbook' (2000)
      • considered one of the best instructional texts on remote viewing by another prominent remote viewer from the Stargate program, known as “Remote Viewer No. 001
  • David Morehouse:
    • 'Psychic Warrior: Inside the CIA’s Stargate Program' (1996)
    • 'Remote Viewing: The Complete User's Manual for Coordinate Remote Viewing' (2010)
  • Ingo Swann: 'Penetration: The Question of Extraterrestrial and Human Telepathy' (1998)
    • Swann, a legendary figure in remote viewing and one of the creators of the practice, shares his experiences working with U.S. government agencies on remote viewing projects.
  • Lyn Buchanan: 'The Seventh Sense: The Secrets of Remote Viewing as Told by a ‘Psychic Spy’ for the U.S. Military' (2003)
    • well written - by another former military remote viewer involved in the Stargate program
  • Russell Targ: 'Limitless Mind: A Guide to Remote Viewing and Transformation of Consciousness' (2004)
  • Paul H. Smith
    • 'Reading the Enemy's Mind: Inside Star Gate - America's Psychic Espionage Program' (2005)
    • 'The Essential Guide to Remote Viewing: The Secret Military Remote Perception Skill Anyone Can Learn' (2015)
      • former military remote viewer and participant in the Stargate program
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