WORK IN WITH LIGHT

This thread continues an unexpected connection of
a Monotheisms and Zarathusthra thread see The Philosopher versus the Monotheist with
an original exercise which was taught by late Dr Lefebure in Paris

(in green my correspondant - this color my, W.Theaux, text)

The color of the Sun
The Emotion and the Light
Introduction to the Mathematics of Transe (C.Muses)
My meeting with Lefebure and his teaching
The Demotic Papyrus and the Ancient Egyptian Hypnotism
First question on hypnosis
Type of Times
Relation beween being literate and  sensitive to hypnosis
A link towards a Lefebure Page

Tony Smith wrote see in answered QUIZ :

> According to http://www.walker.reston.va.us:8080/hmgs/Z/zardusht.html
> "...Zarathushtra, which means, in ancient Iranian,
> "yellow camel." (zara = yellow, ushtra = camel)..."
>
> Could it also mean gold, or sun-colored, camel,
> correspond to the sun moving (as a camel) across the sky?
>
> What about Akhnaton's sungazing?
>
> (If you look at the sun, it first looks yellow/gold,
> but very soon it is covered by a strong blue afterimage,
> which is then very soon replaced by yellow/gold, then blue, ... etc.,
> so that it flickers sort of like a strobe light.)
>
> Tony 12 Dec 97

Date: Wed, 17 Dec 1997 19:10:29 -0600

Dear Tony,
I shall put your answer on the web.

How do you know about the sun and its afterimage ?! I never went so far but only observed that indeed a blue afterimage comes even after a short sun-gazing (and then closing the eyes - never dared to stay so long to superimpose until the flickering phase... wow!) - a wonderfull blue... which indeed is questionning why these colors/afterimages happen sometimes to have important emotional effect ?

Congratulation for your knowledge anyhow,

William

Date: Thu, 18 Dec 1997 01:16:36 -0500

I told a friend of mine, Douglas Welty, about your afterimage web pages, and he sent me this description of his experiences with a machine:

"... I have been loosing sleep thinking about Dr. Lefebure and his light machine. The idea of afterimages really struck a chord with me. When using my L/S machine, one of the most pronounced effects is, upon termination of the session, the afterimage you are left with. There are only four lights per eye, but the afterimage is of hundreds of points of light, each interconnected, and it glows with unearthly splendor. I was thinking if Dr. Lefebures machine might have more in common with the 'Ganzfeld Effect' than with L/S. There is a lot of stuff (from major universities) on the net about it. Simply put, it is snow blindness.

After starring at a uniform field of illumination, you lose the ability to differentiate visual stimuli. You cannot tell whether your eyes are open or closed, and physiologically, part of your reticular activating formation shuts down. This apparently leads to a 'body asleep, mind awake' state in which EEG's show two predominant patterns, the Delta of sleep, and the Beta of mental activity. The only thing similar to it is the combination of a sensory deprivation 'float tank' and the binaural beats (used by the Monroe Institute). Along the same lines, Muses talks about an Egyptian evocation via a lamp where the person stares at a lamp for an extended period of time, and then closes his eyes and begins a fervent and poetic evocation. Sounds to me like what he was talking about, the combination of imagination and a visual afterimage. I really want to find out more about that mysterious machine. ..."

Since he is seriously interested, I am sending him a copy of this e-mail message.

The Muses to whom he refers is Charles Muses, who did mathematical research on hyperdimensional algebras, some of which I wrote about on one of my more mathematical web pages at URL
http://galaxy.cau.edu/tsmith/NDalg.html
and its mirror page at URL
http://www.innerx.net/personal/tsmith/NDalg.html

It is also interesting that some Japanese children had seizures after watching TV cartoons with flickering lights. See the CNN URL http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9712/17/japan.cartoon/index.html

Tony 18 Dec 97

Hello Tony,

Quite interesting information about afterimage experiences.

I try to get what's exactly the 'Ganzfeld effect' - found several clue on the web - no time to get a real good idea for the moment.
Anyhow, it does not seems to meet what Lefebure was 'discovering' - nor the noticeable hundreds of points' that Douglas mention.

Lefebure's afterimage shows a motion within - at a very constant and regular speed which looks like being physiological. It increases considerably the effects of the static afterimage.

Since I peruse the available data about mind-machines & related, I am stroke by the very little emphasis and/or use of the afterimage - no need to say about the animated one. This little attention is interesting and important.

You also wrote:

>Muses talks about an Egyptian evocation via a lamp where the person stares
>at a lamp for an extended period of time, and then closes his eyes and begins a
>fervent and poetic evocation

I could not find this reference in the Muses pages - I would like so much to know more about.

To say again my little story. When I met Lefebure, he was thinking that DeGaulle (France) was selling tanks and guns to Franco (Spain) because they were afraid of his revelation : e.g. the 'Christianisme Phosphenique' (in English : the Afterimage Christianity). Beside the political aspect which marry so well anyhow with psychopathology.., it was this foundation of Christianity which had some value in Lefebure idea. Then, as I said earlier, I practiced Lefebure's meditation for it was as pleasant for me as to see television. In unrelated parallel, I was unwillingly drawn to deepen certain studies regarding Moses, then Akhnaton, then Oedipus (aka Orpheus or Phaeton). It was eventually clear that the second fall of Amarna (called Hermopolis Magna during the Ptolemeans see the City of Hermes Trismegistus ) was triggering Christianity (nearly each Fathers of the Chruch mention Hermes Thot alias Triple Master).

When I had a dim understanding of this, I telephoned Lefebure. I thought he would be pleased to hear about Atonism, the Solar Religion and its links with Christianity. It was 20 years after our meeting. He told me about his advancement and the animated afterimage. We rapidly exchanged mail and Lefebure died suddenly during this period of time, after a life which had been probably very difficult and exhausting. (actually his liver broke from a said possible ancient African amebiase, quite at the time when he received a letter where I assured him that I would mention his work along my own development of Akhnaton's identity/deeds).

Lefebure's definition of Christianity (and I don't fully agree with that... in the sense that I believe that there is something else/more) was exactly what Muses talk about, regarding combination of light and prayer...

.. at least, if I can get the reference where Muses mention this 'Egyptian' evocation

Dr. William THEAUX

Subject: Details on trance induction
Date: Mon, 22 Dec 1997 11:31:27 PST
From: "Douglas Welty" <kill_albert@hotmail.com>

Hello Dr, Theaux-

Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Douglas Welty, I am an undergraduate student of mathematics, with a profound interest in ancient history and religion. I was referred to your web pages by Tony Smith, who I had been corresponding with about hypernumbers. I provided him with the Muses reference on trance induction in Egypt.

The reference is as follows:

Book: Consciousness and Reality
\Editors: Charles Muses and A.M. Young
Article Author: Charles Muses
Standard Book Number: 0-87690-028-7
Library of Congress Number: 74-165547
Publisher: OUTERBRIDGE & LAZARD INC, 1972


I will do my best to summarize the Muses article, "Trance Induction Techniques in Ancient Egypt", for you. If you are interested in the book, it is currently out of print, but a number of used copies are available from book stores on the internet for around 25$. Finally, Muses is a member of the American Oriental Society.

The translation is taken from the Demotic Magical Papyrus of London and Leiten, manuscript numbers 10070 and I.383, respectively. It dates from 225, when Demotic Egypt was giving way to Christian, though Muses stresses that the concepts and terms can be traced back as far as the Pyramid texts of the Early Dynastic period.

The technique was as follows: a young boy training for the temple priesthood would look steadily into a lamp after the application of an eye ointment prepared from the flowers of a (Greek bean?).

The following is recited by a Priest until a 'great light' appears to the boy, Muses here stresses that this is auto-trance induction:

"O Osirus, O lamp that giveth vision of the things above, and of
the things below the earth. O lamp, O lamp, Amen is moored in
thee. O lamp, O lamp, I invoke thee, go thou up to the shore of
the great sea of Syria, the sea of Osirus. Go and find Osirus on
his papyrus and tuhun boat, Isis at his head, Nephthys at his
feet, and the gods and goddesses about him. Speak O Isis, and let
Osirus be told the things I ask, let him cause the god to come
here in whose hand is the command of the day, and give me full
answer to all I request here today..." (this goes on for quite
some legnth)

This is repeated until the great light appears to the boy. Muses then says, "The trance summoning utterances were said with ones own (or the subject's) eyes closed...Then,

You open your eyes or those of the boy and you see the light. You invoke the light, saying, Hail O light, come forth, come forth, O light, rise, rise, O light, grow, grow, O light! O that which is outside your vision come in! You say this nine times until the light increases and the god appears..."

Instructions are then given for the case when the boy does not experience a marked increase in radiance. The procedure ends when the god of the day answes the operators questions through the boy.

This reminden me of what Julian Jaynes refers to in his book, "The Orgins of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind", as the time in the evolution of the mind when the gods would only come with great difficulty. I thought there was a parrallel also with your comments on a visual afterimage (from the combination of starring at the lamp with the eyes closed, and stimulating the imagination with a colorful and repetitive evocation).

Muses goes on to say that he feels the Islamic concept of Aladdin's Magic Lamp, "...arose directly out of this ancient Egyptian tradition of hypnotic induction...", and the sura of the lamp in the Koran reflects the same tradition. He then quotes:

"God is the light
of the heavins and the earth!
It is though there were a Niche
And within a Lamp:
The lamp within a Glass;
The glass as a brilliant star
Lit from a blessed Tree,
An olive, neither of East or West,
Whose oil is luminous
Though barely touched by fire:
Light upon Light!
God doeth guide
Whom he will
To this light..."

In conclusion, Muses states that the earliest hypnotic sessions are described by Tehut-m-hobi, a priest of Thoth and Khonsu-p-'re-seker during the reign of Ramses XII of the twentieth Dynasty at Thebes, which was so successful, that the king ordered it to be transcribed on the Bent-rosh Stela, first translated by Lauth in the 1875 Proceedings of the Bavarian Acadamy of Sciences. He then gives some details of the psychiatric procudure (exorcism?) that was performed on the kings daughter.

The theses of this article was that Braid's 1841 discovery of trance induction via a shining object was well known in ancient Egypt, and he concludes (characteristicly) with a comment on how hypernumbers can resolve the apparent paradox of two experimental modes of time belonging to two different states of consciousness in trance induction.

I hope this is of help to you. In reading your web pages, you stated, "I experienced his (Lefebure) 'ultimate machine', enough to realize how it was powerful...". I am very interested it the neurophysiological basis of consciousness and of altered states of consciousness. I have a very modest background in neurophysiology and electronics. If you could provide me with any information on the functioning of this machine, either subjective, or especially the actual electronic workings, I would be greatly appreciative. I own a Light Sound Machine, and have had some interesting experiences with it. I also lament the lack of information on afterimages and their manipulation.

My email address is: kill_albert@hotmail.com (the name is in jest, of course).

Gratefully Yours-

Douglas Welty

Hello Douglas,

Seasons Greetings, thank you and congratulation for your interest.

I wish I'll have some times to read Muses, and go deeper in the hypernumber (of which page I have been fascinated with).

About the Demotic and Egyptian afterimag-ination, this is a very interesting information. It is certainly very close to Lefebure's idea (I guess that Tony has forwarded to you the information that we have already exchanged).

If I had a notice to make at that point, it would be regarding the nature of the "the flowers of a (Greek bean?)" - why would the Egyptians need/connect Greece with such a easy method - which works very well without any "eye ointment".

One can easily create an afterimage without ointment -- the reference to Greece is thus intriguing.

Why Greece?

Of course, one can answer that the symbol of an "external reference" was psychologically necessary, and traveling was also fashionable in these times. Yet, Psychoanalysis method would never take an 'arbitrary' reference for totally haphazardous.

From this point of view I would thus automatically associate this connection with the bunch of clues that are already indistinctly gathered and that I am studying in the Greek relation of (Akhn)atonism see links between Egypt and Egean in Akhnaton's Time . I don't see yet what could be done further, in this direction at this point.

-----------

just a Note about:

>the earliest hypnotic sessions are described by Tehut-m-hobi, a priest
>of Thoth and Khonsu-p-'re-seker during the reign of Ramses XII

I know very little about hypnosis - but I am studying it, with the idea that we may have to define two categories - perhaps two different 'things' in regards with hypnosis whether we consider it before the AkhnatonMosesOedipus (AMO) event or after. The AMO phenomenon may be a dividing line in the history of hypnosis -- a scale somewhat related to a Julian Jaynes's theory (for some intellectual methodology, I have not yet read Julian Jaynes but heard a lot about his work).

I think that hypnosis may be something very related to the ability to write/read - and linked to the brain organization after the initiation/training with the Letter (Moses' giving the Scripture). It is evidently pleasant to learn that Tehut-m-hobi was a priest of Thoth (who is the God who gave the scripture). Yet, I have no information about Khonsu-p-'re-seker. I would simply mention Fabre d'Olivet as a good reference when he shows that from the public Hebrew Letter, an Epoch of a certain alteration of the awareness of the reader is started, until our present time when a new Epoch begins with another alteration when the Letter is interpreted, read, by machines (Artificial Intelligence).

-----------

You wrote:

>If you could provide me with any information on the
>functioning of this machine, either subjective, or
>especially the actual electronic workings

Actually recent developments incite me to mount an 'dyn-afterimage machine'. It will take a few weeks, and nor am I expert in electronics. I shall ask for the help of a handyman friend. I would be very pleased to share with you the information. I believe that we could achieve the mounting by January. It is very simple. Instead of a static lamp, one has to create a smooth light moving stimulation.

The most interesting could be later, in sharing the experience regarding the effects. Once again, they may be very strong. I am sure that you may have the ability to exploit them.

Perhaps can we begin to exchange some information about our approach.

Note that I would like to install our email-correspondence on the member area of my site (as I do with other threads/correspondence). Tell me if you mind.

After New Years Eve, I shall begin to ask my handy friend for what item we shall use - I shall keep you informed.

----------------------

You wrote:

>how hypernumbers can resolve the apparent paradox
>of two experimental modes of time belonging to two
>different states of consciousness in trance induction

Could you make a brief explanatory exposee?

To the next,

William THEAUX, NYC 97/12/26 11:59:37

Subject: Trance States, Precognition, and Time
Date: Sun, 28 Dec 1997 20:34:39 PST
From: "Douglas Welty" <kill_albert@hotmail.com>

Hello Dr. Theaux-

I very much enjoyed receiving your letter, and apologise for taking so long to respond. I am glad you enjoyed the information on Egyptian trance induction. You had asked about the eye ointment, and were curious about the Greek orgin. I agree that no ointment is necessary for the invocation of afterimages, the stated purpose was to prevent the eyes from tiring, but I wonder, as did you, if it might have a symbolic or ritualistic meaning as well. I wish I had more specific information as to the plant, but I do not.

I am fascinated by your mention of the AMO event as a dividing line in the history of hypnosis. The part of Jaynes theory that I feel may be relavent here is the fact that an auditory cortex is present in both brain hemispheres, but presently we seem to use only the one in the left hemisphere. His hypothesis centers around the idea that in the past, man 'heard' thoughts originating from the right hemisphere cortex, and that they were interpreted as the voices of gods due to the compelling character of them. As interesting as that is, it is difficult for me to relate to hypnosis. If you could provide me with the reasons why you feel the AMO event (of course of great significance) would be a good dividing line answered above - answered below, I would be very interested to learn.

Your final question related to the statement of hypernumbers resolving the apparent paradox of two experimantal modes of time belonging to two different states of consciousness. I will do my best in the remainder of this letter to make that clear, but it will not be easy. The nature of time is mysterious, and Muses is not always easy to follow. Muses has a Masters in Mathematics and a Phd. in Philosophy, he published a great deal pertaining to the computational aspects of hypernumbers, but his real passion was for more esoteric subjects, and he often attempted to model psychological phenominon using hypernumbers. In many cases, I feel he succeeded brilliantly but this instance does not strike me as one of his more powerful models. Perhaps it will strike you otherwise.

Much more on the nature of time is in his 1982 book "Destiny and Control in Human Systems: Studies in the Interactive Connectedness of Time (Chronotopology)", which is still in print. This quote is from the journal "Psychoerergetic Systems", 1976, Vol. 1,pp 201-202, and is titled, "Hypernumbers, Psychoenergetics, and Precognition", by Muses:

"The phenomena of precognition and time distortion in hypnosis imply at least one type of time (for noetic or psychic experience) different from the clock time of physical experience. There is also needed a time for governing the exerience of the transition between the two prior times. As shown (Muses 1972-1973), hypernumbers, precursor waves at phase velosity, and negative probability transformations play a fundamental role in these phenomena"

The 1972-1973 refernece is "Journal for the Study of Consciousness", 1972-1973,vol. 5,pp. 77-81, "Trance States, Precognition, and the Nature of Time", which is a synopsis of two lectures he gave, the first, at John Hopkins Univerity on March 2, 1972, and the second at the Maryland State Psychiatric Research Center on Feb. 29, 1972 under the title "Hypnosis and Symbols". The article is too long (and too technical) to give in its entirety, but I will quote the portions relavant to your inquiry. In the event that this letter raises more questions than it answers, and you feel the matter relavent, I will be glad to send the article to you if you provide me with an address or a fax number.

"In a previous issue of this journal, we pointed out some phenomenological relations between 1) trance time (legnthed or shortened with respect to cooresponding intervals of clock time), 2) induction time (the time required to attain or leave the trance state, during which clock time suffes a progressive experiential expansion or contraction), and 3)clock or physical time, recorded in terms of some cyclical physical motion of constant period. Those relations have remarkable coorespondencees between i1, i2, and i3, the 3 hypercomplex forms of the square root of -1. Thus, taking i1 as clock time, and i3 as induction time, we have i3 * i1 = i2 or trance time. That is, the inducton experience operating on our clock time experience, transforms it into trance time experience. [a diagram follows, with i2 (trance time) on the y-axis, i1 (clock time) on the x-axis and the angle of a line at teh orgin, between the axis having an angle theta (with respect to the x-axis), represinting induction time] As theta approaches 90 degrees, the trance time interval t0t1 exceeds more and more the clock time interval t0t1. Here induction time (i3) is measured by the angle theta. Thus a "half induced" (theta = pi/4) trance state is expressed by i3^(1/20(i1)=((1+i3)/(the square root of 2))*i1=(i1+i2)/(the square root of two) represents a half way or 45 degree rotation between i1 and i2, showing that i3 or induction time is the operator that carries clock time into trance time experience."

I want to thank you very much for the information you provided me on the light machine. I am glad you are pursueing the matter with the help of someone with technical skills. Please keep me informed as to the status of your project, I am terribly interested in both the technical details and the possible mechanisms within the brain that will account for the phenomona.

Douglas Welty

Dear Douglas Welty

Thank you very much for your <Sun, 28 Dec 1997 20:34:39 PST> msg.

I am also late for answering and I apologize for the delay. I had been finishing a lot of work on my site - including setting an answer in the thread about (Zoraster and Light) which lead to our contact - thanks to tsmith@innerx.net.

You may find this contribution at
http://www.dnafoundation.com/temp/kp/zora02.htm

It may be of interest to you, but it does not cover exactly the point we are ourselves corresponding about. For instance, you make more precise your reference to Jaynes. You wrote:

>an auditory cortex is present in both brain hemispheres, but
>presently we seem to use only the one in the left hemisphere

That may be made more precise - for both auditory cortex in each brains hemisphere may be activated. What we mean in term of 'using' may be related to the proximity of the motor areas, and especially to the right hand (left hemisphere, re: the opposite edge of a 'Sylvius' line). All this is vague enough to evoke the complex link that may relate to writing (that is often applied with the right hand).
In other words, the phase that I consider in the evolution of hypnosis, regards the Letter initiation - alphabet and ability to write and read. I agree with what I hear about Jaynes' theory, about a history of consciousness and/or hypnosis. Following the possible Jaynes' hallucination regime, I guess that a dividing line in this evolution is mythically related to Thot (the Entity who gives the Letter), who has been historically represented by Moses (giving the Scripture with the Law) alias Hermes-Thot (alias Trismegistus). This promethean deed applied by a politician king mark a stage in conciousness/hypnosis.
The fact that our brain is able to activate sounds/form on the simple base of series of letters, indicates a circuit in our brain activity that can be referred to a quality of hypnosis. In other words, we pay our consciousness drive on the rail of an alphabet with an hypnotic tribute to our community. This is also why one see Moses preparing the Nation behavior ; immediately manifested, then after, with the Ramses geopolitics which characterizes the East Mediterranean for the several following centuries.
If Psychoanalysis shows something, it is certainly that hypnosis is related to the social state where the experience take place. It does not contradict at all studies as Muses' - but it establish that a 'mass psychology' must partake in a reference of time. I remind, if necessary, that Freud began Psychoanalysis versus hypnosis, and that Transference was his first concept in his scientific 'destruction' of hypnosis. In a second phase he related it to a mass psychology that he attributed to an historical event represented in Moses' time. We know today that the Moses Complex in composed of a) the national organization established at Qades with Ramses.2, in reaction to b) the delivery of the Letter by Moses (that was probably the Secret Egyptian Hieroglyphics divulged by Akhnaton - see Fabre d'Olivet and/or the Meru Foundation on the WWW).

-----------

A recent correspondence with someone who experiment the dynamic afterimage, may be interesting enough to be mentioned there. For it confirms the remarkable effect on dream activity. What is noticeable in her report is the observation of the fact that - beside the vivid impression which imposes certain dreams - the memory of certain other dreams comes back during day time when they require a specific effort for distinguishing them form reality. It is the frontier between dream and reality which is put at work in this exercise ; and this seems to be somewhat related with Jaynes study.

I confirm that I shall keep you informed with the setting of Lefebure apparatus.

I appreciate your proposal to sending a copy of the <<two lectures he gave, the first, at John Hopkins Univerity on March 2, 1972, and the second at the Maryland State Psychiatric Research Center on Feb. 29, 1972 under the title "Hypnosis and Symbols".

You can send it at the following address:...

I will send you my comments. For the moment - according to your quote, I fell that Muses's idea about several types of Time is interesting. Yet the variety must not divert from the question of the Nature of Time itself (though I understand that this 'nature' may be approached only by a complex series). I happened to produce myself a double essay/lecture titled 'The Conception of Time'. In the following weeks/months, it will be downloadable download The Conception of Time from the www - but if you think you would be interested, we may find a way to get more rapidly the file to you.

William THEAUX, NYC 98/01/05 13:54:17

Dear Douglas,

While I was working on the Gyrating Afterimage project, a friend made a search and found this page about Dr Francis Lefebure :
http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~cv576/maintext.html,

As the author - Donald Guenen - of the page favors its duplication, I have copied it on the present site . This page is very representative of Lebefure project - pedagogy was of his main concerns. I am however surprised that it does not mention the achievement of his work - i.e. the gyrating phosphene which is so obviously powerfull. I hope that D.Guenen will give us more information.

William Theaux, NYC 98/01/11 20:02:54.




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