From time to time in his career, this writer had to work at one or the other, of
the two national laboratories in the Chicago area. This involved a three hour
drive. Late one night, he returned home, together with a graduate student
and an associate scientist. Being low man in the pecking order, it fell on him
to drive. This writer loves to drive, but he has a history of falling asleep at
the wheel. On several occasions it has almost cost him his life. Being weary,
late at night, he had to find a way to keep awake. So, he said to the graduate
student seated next to him: “Say Bill, have you seen any UFOs lately?” Immediately a bark from the back seat said “There aren’t any UFOs, if there were,
they would be in touch with the intelligentcia.” Of course, he meant people
like himself. In any case, a lively conversation ensued and there was no danger of falling asleep at the wheel for the rest of the trip. Learning about UFOs,
wasn’t the purpose for bringing them into the conversation. The purpose was
to stay awake. UFOs were a tool to serve that purpose.
This wasn’t the only time UFOs have been used by this writer to some extraneous end. Sometimes one meets strangers, in circumstances in which
it would be advantageous to know their mind set, in order to avoid conflict,
such as a religious argument. By casually bringing UFOs into the conversation, one can get important information instantly. Suppose a response is
“They are the instrument of the devil.” From that answer one immediately
knows what topics to avoid to have a peaceful, positive conversation. Responses aren’t always as blatant as this example, but UFOs are almost always
a vehicle to useful knowledge.
In effect, UFOs, being the unknown that they are, constitute something like
a knowledge vacuum. Often, they also introduce a social vacuum or, better, a
psychic vacuum. As Aristotle said, “nature abhors a vacuum.” Hence, knowledge, or what is assumed to be knowledge, flows in to fill the vacuum. Most
social settings are not controlled, and most offerings to them are not deliberated. Consequently, uncontrolled, unconscious content is likely to fill the
vacuum. The associate scientist did not realize he was exposing and unconscious, elitist, intellectual bias. He thought he was merely making a reasonable statement, that was based in fact. He thought he knew something that he didn’t.
It doesn’t have to be UFOs that produce a psychic vacuum. Any unknown that
excites interest can be used to this end. Max Heindel titled one of his Rosicrucian Christianity Lectures “Where are the dead?” This was an excellent
choice to draw in an audience, because, except for a few trained clairvoyants,
no one really knows where the dead are, and almost everyone is interested in,
or has an opinion, about the subject.
It isn’t the vacuum that is important, it is what flows into it that is. Through
a well designed vacuum, something that has previously been hidden, unknown, or obscured, can be brought to light.
It doesn’t have to be something from the personal unconscious that fills the
void. It could very well be objective information, heretofore unknown, that
is brought out scientifically. One reason why spiritual aspirants purify and
empty the unconscious by retrospection and other exercises, is to avoid corrupting inquiry.
The vacuum doesn’t have to be a question. Max Heindel gave us an excellent
example. In one passage he describes a spiritual exercise in imagination. He
describes creating and sustaining an imaginative visualization as clearly, and
as long as possible. When the aspirant has created and held the image to satisfaction, the image dropped. If the aspirant has been successful in creating a
distinct image, content from the desire world will be seen in the void created
by dropping the image.
It doesn’t have to be material from the higher spiritual worlds that fills a vacuum. Information and experience from the material world may be the source.
In the realm of material science, it is hypotheses that form the vacuum to be
filled by factual information. Hypotheses are sophisticated questions based
on previous experiences. They are precise questions. In this, it is important
that the form of the question, the void, determines the character and quality
of the answer. The success of a scientific investigation often depends on the
quality of the questions asked. Some experiments are more successful than
others. Some investigators are more attuned to nature than others. Usually
they have more intuition.
Intuition is central to all human endeavor with regard to the unknown. It
doesn’t have to be data that fills an intentional vacuum. It can be intuition.
Intuition is almost always a large part of a successful inquiry. Intuition is
teaching from within, the within being the transcendental spirit. Our most
meaningful questions are spiritual. Our prayers are questions, we are asking
for light. These spiritual questions can be, but do not have to be, sophisticated. Some of the best of them are simple. Their quality and success is because
of earnest sincerity and intensity, not complexity or elaboration. When we
pray for something, say the healing of a friend, we do so with all of the intensity of the heart, and this forms a vacuum par excellence, which is filled with a spiritual response.
It doesn’t have to be a scientific investigation, or a divine plea, that creates a
vacuum for creative intuition. It could just as well be the void of a blank canvas, beckoning someone with a palette of splashy colors, and a lively creative imagination.
High questions, as voids or vacuums, do not have to be individual to be valuable and serviceable. When Max Heindel sought practical, spiritual answers
for those who suffer, he did so for the world, and not just one or two individuals. The answers for him, were answers to universal questions. We know
them as the mysteries. Millions have been served and satisfied by his quest,
and his questions. Even in his large questions, he sought discrete, verifiable,
and useful answers. The title page of the first edition of the The Rosicrucian
Cosmo-Conception contains the following line: “Prove all things—Paul.”
It doesn’t have to be the vacuum of microcosmic human questioning that
is filled. The entire evolutionary creation, the macrocosm in which we are
blessed to participate, could be filling the void of the Unknown in the Absolute. It would then be Goethe’s “Eternal Feminine” which draws us out, as it
draws us in.
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