The ultimate goal of life according to philosophers is to discover Truth. Truth is the objective of all sciences, arts and belief systems. These are different ways of speaking about perceptions of and ways towards Truth.
According to some ancient spiritual practices, Truth can never be expressed in her totality. Her face is eternally veiled from those of us with limited eyesight. Only by removing the veil of the limited, which is the true meaning of belly dance, striptease and other sensuous dances, can we ultimately unveil the unlimited, the source of our origin.
Clothing is a metaphor for the surface layer of reality with nudity being the revelation of reality's depth. Sensuous dances are ultimately spiritual. The only reason they are seen as profane is because of the deeper reality they point towards. Our bodies as both women and men are deemed as sinful simply because they contain such power. They move us beyond the rational, which is the surface level of our ego. Declaring the ego as who we are is simply akin to identifying one's self as a wave upon the ocean and denying the enormity of the ocean's depths.
Our bodies, minds and spirits reflect the essence of Life while taking power away from the corporations (including churches), governments and the human ego, which ultimately drive our institutions and us. How do sensuous dances usurp the powers of the church, state and corporation? Easy, it puts the power within each one of us, beyond our conditioned egos, and out of the externalized institutions in our lives. It also takes us past our surface mind i.e., the ego.
The potential of the future is within us just as an egg exists in a woman's ovaries as a potential human being.
Truth can never be properly communicated. Truth is a teaser who never fully reveals her self. The function of her tease is to draw us inward, into her. And who is Truth if not our Essence or Nature? As eggs become human beings, Nature expresses herself through us. But that expression is beyond thought and into the nature of consciousness.
Of course, some may feel it a good deed to sell you on their theological, theoretical, scientific or philosophical stance. "Believe my way and save yourself from Hell's fires." But ultimately, the naked Truth is beyond any words or philosophy. Truth is beyond heavens and hells. Beholding Truth nude is to become silent. Thus, the Tao te Ching says "He who speaks doesn't know." Truth is in the silence of nothing (no-thing).
There are a few people, like Physicist Tom Campbell, who knows the limitations of what we say is Truth. As such, he will say, "Hey if you don't accept My Big TOE," with TOE meaning Theory of Everything, "No big deal!" Campbell's Big TOE is ultimately an acronym in Physics. But in talking to people who don't like the smell of his Big TOE, Campbell's reply in essence says: "That's just fine and dandy. No burning in Hell's fires. There is no making more money or becoming a greater lover who makes her partner scream aloud in delight." Tom Campbell is truly not a salesman, statesman or corporate helmsman. Thus, he is one to listen to.
Campbell's "Big Toe" began to evolve when he was researching altered states of consciousness with Bob Monroe at Monroe Laboratories in the early 1970s. These early drug-free consciousness researchers designed experiments and developed the technology for creating specific altered states. They also served as the main subjects of study at the same time.
Campbell has been experimenting with, and exploring the subjective and objective mind ever since. For the past thirty years, he has focused on scientifically exploring the properties, boundaries, and abilities of consciousness.
During that same time period, Campbell excelled as a working scientist, a professional physicist dedicated to pushing back the frontiers of cutting edge technology. His work entailed large-system simulation, technology development and integration, and complex system vulnerability and risk analysis. He was also at the heart of developing the US missile defense systems.
Campbell's primary work has been to explore the frontiers of reality, mind, consciousness, and psychic phenomena. He began his quest of identifying his Big TOE in the early 1970s. Campbell's Big TOE is a model of existence and reality based on scientific research and first hand experience. His work represents the results and conclusions of thirty years of scientific exploration of the boundaries and contents of reality from both the physical and metaphysical viewpoints. Campbell states that he makes every effort to approach his scientific explorations without bias or preconceived notions. His methods have also been true to the scientific method. There is no belief system, dogma, creed, or unusual assumptions at the root of My Big TOE.
This probably would be easy to debate by some who say there is a belief system even behind the scientific model. Yet, I would argue in Campbell's favor, "even so, the scientific method IS the Theology of the modern age and it needs to be integrated into our primary way of communicating what we see operating in the world."
Ultimately, the scientific method is about direct experience and observation. Campbell thus demands high quality repeatable, empirical, evidential data to separate what's real (exists independently and externally) from what's imaginary or illusory. As such, he is not some new age freak show who goes about preaching his theologies.
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