Review of Paul Case Foster’s “Esoteric Secrets of Meditation and Magic”

January 5, 2015
This is the second Paul Foster Case book I have read and reviewed (see my two-star Amazon review of “The Tarot: A Key to the Wisdom of the Ages”), and before I begin the actual review, I want to make a statement about the quality of the writing: Paul Foster Case is one of the best nonfiction writers I have read. His prose is exemplary: clear and concise, elegant and inspiring.

Case is also erudite, teeming with occult knowledge – but to my mind, some of his knowledge is faulty, and much of the information he presents is beside the point for those seeking true Wisdom.

As I see it, Case is a “victim” of his times and background. Most of his information (at least in this book, written in 1924) derives from just a few sources – the great occultist Eliphas Levy (1810-1875), the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, old Rosicrucian teachings, and Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. I’m familiar with these teachings (I learned astrology through the Rosicrucian Fellowship), and because they are all flawed or limited, so are Case’s teachings.

The book is a collection of lessons Case wrote for associate members of the Builders of the Adytum (B.O.T.A.),… Read the full article

New Year Announcements

December 26, 2014
First, I want to invite those of you interested in Christian Hermeticism and Electrical Christianity to join my just-started (12/25/2015) Facebook group, Electrical-Hermetic Christianity (a.k.a. Radical Christian Hermeticism). My first articles will be posted by 12/26, and, of course, more will continually be added.

Within a few months, I also hope to add another Facebook group that focuses on Eckhart Tolle’s teachings and the Power of Now. It promises to be a lively group, because the Tolle acolytes are sure to support their man, while I, of course, criticize him. A bud of mine who does documentaries will shoot a couple videos of me answering questions about Tolle’s Dharma, and the videos will be posted here and at YouTube. I also plan to write a brief text on “Power of Now meditation” before the end of 2015. In fact, I’ve already started the text.

The big news for me in 2015 will be my novel “Kill Jesus” hitting the marketplace. The bad news will be that my other books will stop selling after people read it. I’ll be stereotyped as a “dirty old man,” and live in shame and infamy for my remaining days.… Read the full article

Cosmic CON-Fusion: The Muddled Mysticism of Mantak Chia

December 23, 2014
A fan of my Amazon reviews sent me not one, but six Mantak Chia books. The fan appreciates my deep and detailed reviews, but opined that I needed to consider the Light or Rainbow Body (held out to be the Summum Bonum of spiritual evolution by some Tibetan Buddhists and Taoists). In the fan’s opinion, while the Tibetans are “unclear about techniques” that enable a yogi to attain a Light or Rainbow Body, renowned Taoist master Mantak Chia has (finally, after decades of teaching) “made these techniques public.” While the fan appreciates the (Ramana-Maharshi-inspired) emphasis I place on the “cutting of the Heart-knot” (as the doorway to full En-Light-ennment) in my reviews, he maintains that the cutting of this knot “is not the final level,” but merely a prelude to getting a Light or Rainbow body, which enables a yogi’s physical body to dematerialize into pure energy.

The timing of his email and books could not have been better. I had just finished my (two-star) review of the “The Natural Bliss of Being,” wherein the author (Jackson Peterson) and I, along with a few others, had engaged in a spirited debate (over the course of 250 + comments) regarding the importance of attaining a Light or Rainbow Body and other related matters.… Read the full article

Dzogchen Thodgal (Togal): Namkhai Norbu’s POV Versus Mine

December 13, 2014
[Note: This is a book review of “The Crystal and the Way of Light” that I posted at Amazon on December 12. In a few weeks, I’ll write and post Part 2, at integralspiritualmeditation.com. It will be a regular article, not a book review.]

There is not a single living Dzoghen master/teacher who really impresses me – but the best of the bunch, IMO, is Namkhai Norbu. I wasn’t looking to read another book by Norbu; I’d already read four (see my five-star review of “The Cycle of Day and Night” and four-star review of “The Supreme Source”), but when I recently read Jackson Peterson’s “The Natural Bliss of Liberation” (see my two-star Amazon review), which conflates the term “kundalini” with the Tibetan term “thigle” (which means “bindu, sphere, bead, drop, essence, sphere of light, spherical drop, spot, dot, droplet, seed-essence”) I was intrigued: I had not encountered this conflation before. I Googled “thigle and kundalini,” and sure enough I was led to excerpts from “The Crystal and the Way of Light” – and so I purchased the book.

The editor of the book writes that it took four years to complete the project of putting this book together and that he continually revised the manuscript before it took its present form.… Read the full article

Dumbed-Down, Disintegral, Discombobulated Dzogchen

December 6, 2014

[Note: This is my just-posted Amazon.com review of “The Natural Bliss of Being” by Jackson Peterson.]

Before I begin this review, I should preface it by stating that before reading this book, I was unceremoniously expelled from Jackson Peterson’s Dzogchen Trekchod Facebook group within a couple of days after joining and participating. Clearly Jackson was threatened by my superior understanding of Dzogchen and mysticism in general, and I was perceived as a threat to his Dharma. Jackson posted a final response to me at his Dzogchen Facebook page, but because I wasn’t allowed to respond there, I will do so here. In the latter part of this review I’ll present my response to his response.

The first thing that needs to be said about this book is that the Kindle edition, which I purchased, is grossly overpriced. Instead of $17, an appropriate price (for this 191-page book) would be about half that amount. I ordinarily would not pay $17 for a Kindle book, but in this case I had special motivation to read and review it.… Read the full article

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