This series covers events from 10/12/1983 - 11/23/1983

This seven-session series of classes is an in-depth exploration of paragraphs from category 7, “The Intellect,” of Paul Brunton’s Notebooks. Anthony Damiani begins by establishing the intellect as having been evolved by the psychosomatic organism for the sole purpose of biological adaptation. The only thing the intellect can know is the effects of the physiological responses taking place within the psychosomatic entity. This primitive biological intellect is thus unfit for metaphysical investigation. We have no access to reality because the intellect doesn't have access to reality; it knows only the conditioning that has been going on its entire life.

The series moves on to a discussion of the differences between intellect (partial, prejudiced thinking), reason (comprehensive, impartial thinking) and intelligence (reason fused with intuition), which leads to a discussion of the process of receiving an intuition. Damiani suggests that intuitions occur when the light from the Overself connects disparate frameworks of knowledge. He uses Archimedes’ “eureka moment,” when he suddenly understood what specific gravity was, as a paradigmatic example of an intuition, and uses St. Paul’s vision of the crucified Christ as an example demonstrating how intuition vivifies existing mental “etchings” or images in the psyche but requires proper reasoning for correct interpretation. The intellect is that portion of the light that is caught within the psyche and manipulates its contents. When this principle recognizes that it can't get in touch with itself by illuminating these contents, it turns within itself instead.

The series culminates in ultimate metaphysical teachings about the relation of the individual soul to the ultimate reality, the mysterious Void (PB), or the three Primals (Plotinus). The Overself as individual is an emanation of the Absolute Soul, and to that extent, it can never become permanently identical with it. However, it is possible for a master like Plotinus, who has achieved identity with his Overself, to receive revelations of, or annunciations from, the three Primals, including the One itself. This is one way of understanding PB’s references to the three degrees of penetration into the Void, or the three degrees of insight: these are sublime and rarefied conditions in which the sage is introduced to Absolute Soul, Intellectual-Principle, and the One, respectively.

Classes and documents available in this series