PART I PART II PART III PART IV NOTES PRINTER FRIENDLY Download in pdf format (382 KB)

Notes 1-6

     ¹ In short, each probability wave in the AQAL matrix has both interior consciousness and exterior form and mass-energy, and these exterior forms span the spectrum from gross mass-energy to subtle mass-energy to causal mass-energy (with genus and species like gravitational, nuclear, etheric, astral, psychic, etc. [see below]). Of course, each holon also has cultural and social dimensions, and the social dimension—or the interobjective dimension, the dimension of collective form—also has its collective energy fields, but again, we are here focusing on individual holons.

      This "mass-energy" side of the holon is why the traditions often refer to these aspects as bodies with actual energies—that is, some form or type of "matter" (gross to subtle to causal) with its corresponding energy (as with "gross body, subtle body, causal body"), and these bodies are the matter-energy support for the various states of consciousness. Thus, these traditions (e.g., Vedanta, Vajrayana) specifically include BOTH a mind or consciousness component and a body or matter-energy component, and they explicitly state that you cannot have one without the other. As we would put it, each interior consciousness or "mind" (UL) is always inseparable from its corresponding energy or "body" (UR): thus, gross bodymind, subtle bodymind, causal bodymind.

      In an AQAL framework, we have this: There is a given actual occasion, or a given individual holon. Seen from the exterior, that holon has a discernible form or pattern; it is a morphic unit. Those forms are not limited merely to gross forms. In the dream state, for example, you can see all sorts of entities, things, events, illuminations, images of people, and so on. Those are not gross forms, they are subtle forms—but forms nonetheless; they are the UR quadrant in the dream state.

      In evolution, forms at a particular level of gross complexity take on a correspondingly complex energy pattern: the greater the degree of complexity, the subtler the corresponding energy. This spectrum of matter-energy is the UR quadrant, running from gross to subtle to causal mass-energy (with all sorts of subspecies—electromagnetic, etheric, astral, etc.).

      But matter, form, and energy are how the individual holon looks from the exterior. All energy is some version of frequency per time interval (or space per time)—that is, energy itself is essentially of the "it" dimension. But the interiors of holons are not experienced as cycles per second, or possessing a wavelength of 6 microns, or repeating 2,000 times a second. Those are all third-person terms of the it dimension—a very real dimension (i.e., the UR). But the interiors do not consist of cycles per second or space with extension, but of feelings with intention, experiences with vivid emotions, lived awareness, felt consciousness (i.e., the UL). When a person says, "I'm running low on energy," she means she is running out of intention, not running out of extension.

      Of course, the energy states of the body (gross, subtle, or causal) can indeed be felt, but those feelings are interior apprehensions, not exterior forms. Both exist—feelings and forms—in all holons; but it's important not to conflate them. What we might call subtle materialism (or the reduction of all interior consciousness to exterior subtle energies) is just as common as gross materialism (the reduction of all interior consciousness to exterior gross energies).

      That is why we summarize this as: in evolution, the greater the degree of gross complexity (in the UR), the subtler the corresponding energy (in the UR), and the greater the interior degree of consciousness (UL)—and none of those can be reduced to the others.

     ² This means that the mental or UL states and/or stages—such as the red meme, the blue meme, moral stage 4, conop, and so on—would have their own micro-energetic fingerprints or signature energy patterns. Red, blue, orange, etc. are the UL holons; the species energy signatures are the UR correlates that I am referring to in this taxonomy, but we don't have names for them yet. The same is true of the species energy in the genus T-2, and, indeed, for many of the individual and collective energy signatures in the AQAL matrix.

     ³ Again, as with note 2, this means the energy signatures of those consciousness states. Nirvikalpa and jnana are the UL correlates of the species energies here.

     ⁴ What we call "involutionary givens" are accepted by Integral Post-Metaphysics, since it is theoretically impossible to do away with all of them; see Excerpt A, posted on this site. The point is to postulate the fewest such "metaphysical" givens in order to get a Kosmos going, because metaphysics hides from validity claims, and thus metaphysics is open to—and almost always infected with—power drives.

     ⁵ The following quotes are from Theories of the Chakras, pp. 21, 281, 282.

     ⁶ To give several details: the infant at birth has all 7 chakras, particularly in their gross forms, but the higher chakras are largely dormant (particularly in their subtler forms). Each chakra contains or transduces a waking, dreaming, and sleeping state; and each chakra has a corresponding gross, subtle, and causal family-energy surging through it (although, again, the higher chakras are relatively dormant, and the genus and species energies are relatively dormant). As growth and development occurs, successively higher chakras are awakened, although, inasmuch as each chakra exists in a gross, subtle, and causal dimension, those dimensions can sometimes develop unevenly. Many adults, for example, mature through the gross chakras but with little subtle chakra awakening (Leadbeater, for one, wrote extensively on this topic). See Integral Psychology for a discussion of "three-realm" development.

     Whenever a chakra awakens, it takes on the content of the stage of development that is its station; and it mediates between the great states of waking, dreaming, sleeping (and their energies), whose contents are then being supplied by the actual stage of development itself (as we saw with the example of the contents of the dream state). Again, this is essentially the Vedanta/Vajrayana model, only sophisticated and fleshed out. See Sidebar G, "States and Stages," posted on this site, for an extensive discussion of this topic.