Texts

Research Program: The Archeology of Consciousness

Olga Louchakova-Schwartz

Before computers were books, for many centuries. Before bound books, there was writing on sheets and scrolls of papyrus, vellum, palm leaves, and clay tablets, as well as inscriptions, some lengthy, on stone, metal, and wood.

These texts, composed and transmitted, without benefit of writing by specially trained priests, have a range of religious and philosophical content, and claim revelatory origins, give us a unique window of insight into human consciousness, not only as to religio-philosophical concepts, and also the potential complexity of preliterate mental operations, but also illuminate such matters as the spatiality inherent in thought.

The study of such material can also contribute to scientific research cresting what Edward O. Wilson led “consiliatory science”, an approach on the cusp of the sciences and humanities. Before discoveries that spiritual experience had its correlates in the brain, scientific explanations of consciousness were connected only to the experience of ordinary consciousness. With the finding of neurocorrelates in the brain, religious, introspective, and meditative experiences received a powerful validation: we know beyond doubt that they are “real”. In turn, religious forms of experience push the boundaries of neuroscience by challenging the latter to expand its old theories and generate new ones, such as nonlinear dynamics or neuroquantology. An example of such a situation is our study of visual processing in Tibetan Deity Yoga, which contributed to the knowledge of the brain.

Another example is the spiritual perception of space in the works of the 12th century C.E., Shihab al-Din Suhrawardi, and the Christian ascetic of the 7th century C.E., Theophanis the Monk. Their original understanding of spatiality in spiritual experience is connected with the cognitive phenomenology which understands self-consciousness as inextricably involving spatiality.

My current research in this area is focused on delineating states of consciousness in several historical textual sources, including, but not limited to, the writings of the great Sufi Ibn‘ Arabi, Illuminationist philosopher Suhrawardi, and an unknown poet from Philokalia, the aforementioned Thophanis the Monk, as well as the Indian sage Dattatreya. Working on these texts, I recover the introspective practices of self-knowledge which were used by ancient sages, reconstruct them for modern-day use, and then teach these practices in my workshops, describe them on my website, and use them in my clinical work.

Current Projects:

I. “Introspective Practices of Self-Knowledge and the Genesis of Religious Ideas in the Historical Texts”
II. “Bounded Space and Boundless Light: A Phenomenological Approach to Spatiality in the Iranian Philosophy of Sohravardi (Suhrawardi)”
III. “From the Ladder of Divine Graces to Neuroquantology: Reconstruction of introspective experience underlying the Concept of Spiritual Ascent”

Before writing, there was oral composition accompanied by memorization. An outstanding degree of complexity and elaboration in very ancient oral composition, and the mnemonic feats which must have gone with them, is attested by the Iranian Gathas of Zoroaster and by the Indic Vedas, which date from the preliterate stage of their respective cultures, and were written down only after many centuries of oral transmission. The mental capabilities implicit in this material apparently (and in contradiction to the theories of the evolution of consciousness) exceed that which is necessary for writing and computers.
These teThese texts, composed and transmitted, without benefit of writing by specially trained priests, have a range of religious and philosophical content, and claim revelatory origins, give us a unique window of insight into human consciousness, not only as to religio-philosophical concepts, and also the potential complexity of preliterate mental operations, but also illuminate such matters as the spatiality inherent in thought.

The study of such material can also contribute to scientific research cresting what Edward O. Wilson led "consiliatory science", an approach on the cusp of the sciences and humanities. Before discoveries that spiritual experience had its correlates in the brain, scientific explanations of consciousness were connected only to the experience of ordinary consciousness. With the finding of neurocorrelates in the brain, religious, introspective, and meditative experiences received a powerful validation: we know beyond doubt that they are "real". In turn, religious forms of experience push the boundaries of neuroscience by challenging the latter to expand its old theories and generate new ones, such as nonlinear dynamics or neuroquantology. An example of such a situation is our study of visual processing in Tibetan Deity Yoga, which contributed to the knowledge of the brain.

Another example is the spiritual perception of space in the works of the 12th century C.E., Shihāb al-Dīn Suhrawardī, and the Christian ascetic of the 7th century C.E., Theophanis the Monk. Their original understanding of spatiality in spiritual experience is connected with the cognitive phenomenology which understands self-consciousness as inextricably involving spatiality.

My current research in this area is focused on delineating states of consciousness in several historical textual sources, including, but not limited to, the writings of the great Sufi Ibn‘ Arabi, Illuminationist philosopher Suhrawardī, and an unknown poet from Philokalia, the aforementioned Thophanis the Monk, as well as the Indian sage Dattatreya. Working on these texts, I recover the introspective practices of self-knowledge which were used by ancient sages, reconstruct them for modern-day use, and then teach these practices in my workshops, describe them on my website, and use them in my clinical work.

Current Projects:

I. "Introspective Practices of Self-Knowledge and the Genesis of Religious Ideas in the Historical Texts"
II. "Bounded Space and Boundless Light: A Phenomenological Approach to Spatiality in the Iranian Philosophy of Sohravardi (Suhrawardī)"
III. "From the Ladder of Divine Graces to Neuroquantology: Reconstruction of introspective experience underlying the Concept of Spiritual Ascent"

Publications and Talks with this approach:

Louchakova-Schwartz, O. 2015. A Phenomenological Approach to Illuminationist philosophy: Suhrawardi’s nur mujarrad and Husserl’s reduction. Philosophy East and West, xx-xx (to appear in Oct 2015).
Louchakova-Schwartz, O. 2014. Climbing the Ladder of Spiritual Ascent: Phenomenology of Introspective Practices and the Genesis of Religious Ideas. Association for the Study of Esotericism, Fifth International Conference, Esoteric Practices: Theories, Representations, and Methods, June 19-22, 2014. Syracuse, NY.
Louchakova-Schwartz, O. 2013. Cognitive phenomenology in the study of Tibetan meditation: Phenomenological descriptions versus meditation styles. In S. Gordon (Ed.), Neurophenomenology: Its Applications to psychology (pp. 61-87). Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer.
Louchakova-Schwartz, O. 2014. From the Ladder of Spiritual Ascent to Neuroquantology: What religious experience can tell us about consciousness and the brain. May 30, 2014. Plenary lecture, First conference of the Society of Consciousness Studies, CIIS, San Francisco.
Louchakova-Schwartz, O. 2013. Spatial Schemas and Religious Thought in the Mysticism of the Ladder. Graduate Theological Union, research report, May 2013.
Louchakova-Schwartz, O. 2013. Spatial Schemas and Religious Thought in the Mysticism of the Ladder. Light, Self, and Essence: Guided Meditations on Suhrawardi’s Nur Mujarrad. Workshop, Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi Society, Berkeley, Graduate Theological Union.
Louchakova-Schwartz, O. 2013. The Hesychastic Prayer of the Heart: Experience of Praying and the Dense Array Encephalography. Congress of the International Association for the Psychology of Religion, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Schwartz, Martin, “Encryptions in the Gathas: Zarathushtra’s Variations on the Theme of Bliss,” in Religious themes and texts of pre-Islamic Iran and Central Asia: Studies in honour of Professor Gherardo Gnoli on the occasion of his 65th birthday on 6th December 2002, eds. Carlo G. Cereti, Mauro Maggi, Elio Provasi (Wiesbaden, 2003a), 375-390.
Schwartz, Martin, “Revelations, Poetics, and Theology in the Gathas,” BAI 14, 2003b, 1-18.
Schwartz, Martin, “On Haoma, and its Liturgy in the Gathas,” in Proceedings of the 5th Conference of the Societas Iranologica Europaea, v. I, eds. Antonio Panaino and Andrea Piras (Milan, 2006a), 215-224.
Schwartz, Martin, “The Gathas and Other Old Avestan Poetry,” in La Langue poétique indo-européenne: Actes du colloque de travail de la Société des Études Indo-européennes, ed. Georges-Jean Pinault and Daniel Petit (Leuven: Peeters 2006b), 459-497.
Schwartz, Martin, “How Zarathushtra Generated the Gathic Corpus: Inner-textual and Intertextual Composition,” in BAI 16 (2006b): 58-64.
Schwartz, Martin, “The Hymn to Haoma in Gathic Transformation: Traces of Iranian Poetry before Zarathustra,” in The Scholarly Contribution of Ilya Gershevitch to the Development of Iranian Studies, ed. Antonio Panaino (Milan: Associazione Culturale Mimesis, 2006c), 85-106.
Schwartz, Martin. “Women in the Old Avesta: Social Position and Textual Composition,” BAI 17 (2007b): 1-8.
Schwartz, Martin, “Lexical Cruces of Yasna 29 and the Cross-textual Composition of the Gathas,” in Ancient and Middle Iranian Studies: Proceedings of the 6th European Conference of Iranian Studies, eds. Maria Macuch, Dieter Weber and Desmond Durkin-Meisterernst (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2010a), 205-218.
Schwartz, Martin, “Pouruchista’s Gathic Wedding and the Teleological Composition of the Gathas,” in Exegisti Monumenta: Festschrift in honour of Nicholas Sims-Williams, eds. Werner Sundermann, Almut Hintze and François de Blois (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2010b), 429-448.
Louchakova-Schwartz, O. 2015. A Phenomenological Approach to Illuminationist philosophy: Suhrawardī’s nūr mujarrad and Husserl’s reduction. Philosophy East and West, xx-xx (to appear in Oct 2015).
Louchakova-Schwartz, O. 2014. Climbing the Ladder of Spiritual Ascent: Phenomenology of Introspective Practices and the Genesis of Religious Ideas. Association for the Study of Esotericism, Fifth International Conference, Esoteric Practices: Theories, Representations, and Methods, June 19-22, 2014. Syracuse, NY.
Louchakova-Schwartz, O. 2013. Cognitive phenomenology in the study of Tibetan meditation: Phenomenological descriptions versus meditation styles. In S. Gordon (Ed.), Neurophenomenology: Its Applications to psychology (pp. 61-87). Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer.
Louchakova-Schwartz, O. 2014. From the Ladder of Spiritual Ascent to Neuroquantology: What religious experience can tell us about consciousness and the brain. May 30, 2014. Plenary lecture, First conference of the Society of Consciousness Studies, CIIS, San Francisco.
Louchakova-Schwartz, O. 2013. Spatial Schemas and Religious Thought in the Mysticism of the Ladder. Graduate Theological Union, research report, May 2013.
Louchakova-Schwartz, O. 2013. Spatial Schemas and Religious Thought in the Mysticism of the Ladder. Light, Self, and Essence: Guided Meditations on Suhrawardi’s Nūr Mujarrad. Workshop, Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi Society, Berkeley, Graduate Theological Union.
Louchakova-Schwartz, O. 2013. The Hesychastic Prayer of the Heart: Experience of Praying and the Dense Array Encephalography. Congress of the International Association for the Psychology of Religion, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Schwartz, Martin, "Encryptions in the Gathas: Zarathushtra’s Variations on the Theme of Bliss," in Religious themes and texts of pre-Islamic Iran and Central Asia: Studies in honour of Professor Gherardo Gnoli on the occasion of his 65th birthday on 6th December 2002, eds. Carlo G. Cereti, Mauro Maggi, Elio Provasi (Wiesbaden, 2003a), 375-390.
Schwartz, Martin, "Revelations, Poetics, and Theology in the Gathas," BAI 14, 2003b, 1-18.
Schwartz, Martin, "On Haoma, and its Liturgy in the Gathas," in Proceedings of the 5th Conference of the Societas Iranologica Europaea, v. I, eds. Antonio Panaino and Andrea Piras (Milan, 2006a), 215-224.
Schwartz, Martin, "The Gathas and Other Old Avestan Poetry," in La Langue poétique indo-européenne: Actes du colloque de travail de la Société des Études Indo-européennes, ed. Georges-Jean Pinault and Daniel Petit (Leuven: Peeters 2006b), 459-497.
Schwartz, Martin, "How Zarathushtra Generated the Gathic Corpus: Inner-textual and Intertextual Composition," in BAI 16 (2006b): 58-64.
Schwartz, Martin, "The Hymn to Haoma in Gathic Transformation: Traces of Iranian Poetry before Zarathustra," in The Scholarly Contribution of Ilya Gershevitch to the Development of Iranian Studies, ed. Antonio Panaino (Milan: Associazione Culturale Mimesis, 2006c), 85-106.
Schwartz, Martin. "Women in the Old Avesta: Social Position and Textual Composition," BAI 17 (2007b): 1-8.
Schwartz, Martin, "Lexical Cruces of Yasna 29 and the Cross-textual Composition of the Gathas," in Ancient and Middle Iranian Studies: Proceedings of the 6th European Conference of Iranian Studies, eds. Maria Macuch, Dieter Weber and Desmond Durkin-Meisterernst (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2010a), 205-218.
Schwartz, Martin, "Pouruchista’s Gathic Wedding and the Teleological Composition of the Gathas," in Exegisti Monumenta: Festschrift in honour of Nicholas Sims-Williams, eds. Werner Sundermann, Almut Hintze and François de Blois (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2010b), 429-448.