Perhaps the most characteristic experience of the "dark night" is an intense feeling of grief.
In some ways this is very understandable. Grief is a response to loss. So, quite literally what causes the greatest grief is the loss of what matters most to us in natural and spiritual terms.
And as the "dark night" entails the substantial negation of all conscious matter with respect to one's experience, this leads to great feelings of loss.
Such grief is then greatly intensified through being tightly confined in considerable darkness within an extremely congested psychological environment with no means of distracting oneself from the situation.
Some years later, when reading about physical black holes, I began to realise that they have strong complementary links with the psychological "dark nights".
A black hole arises when a massive rotating star burns up all its energy and collapses inwards creating huge internal gravity. This is likewise associated with a dramatic slowing down in time (with respect to events outside the black hole). Likewise matter in the vicinity of the black hole gets sucked inwards due to the enormous gravitational pull exerted.
It is very similar in a complementary psychological manner. As we have seen the "dark night" follows an extensive period of illumination. Now with a spiritual "star", this can lead to a rapid transformation associated with a feverish frenzy of creative activity. Inevitably, the spiritual energy that fuels such activity eventually gets depleted and when this happens the focus switches rapidly inwards in the desire for spiritual regeneration.
This leads to a dramatic upheaval with respect to psychological experience where (all) concepts and perceptions within one's immediate range of experience get sucked inwards through a powerful unconscious attraction. Not surprisingly one's inner world feels extremely congested and dark.
And this internal gravitation is so intense that like a black hole no light can escape.
The word grief has close connotations with grave (and by extension gravity).
Grief therefore represents the psychological counterpart to the physical notion of gravity, just as spiritual illumination provides the corresponding counterpart to physical light.
In fact normal grief always represents a loss of what matters to us. So when phenomenal relationships that are most meaningful are taken away, grief is the natural reaction. This loss of what is external in a conscious manner creates a corresponding drive inwards in an unconscious direction causing a psychological contraction in the very dimensions (of space and time) that underlie customary experience.
As is well known physical gravity (especially inside a black hole) is associated with a great slowing down of time (relative to events outside the black hole).
Likewise someone suffering from grief will experience a corresponding slowing down in the psychological experience of time. So time literally will hang heavily over one! Indeed in extreme cases of loss, each moment will feel like an eternity due to a dramatic change in the psychological perception of time.
So once again light and gravity are revealed as complementary forces in both physical and psychological terms.
For pure physical light (in terms of its itself) time does not pass with all eternity a single instant.
Likewise in psychic terms, with the pure experience of spiritual light (as in the experience of true joy), time does not pass (with all eternity again a single instant).
However it is the reverse in terms of gravity. With pure gravity each instant lasts an eternity. And this is equally true in physical and psychological terms.
It is interesting how the theological teaching on the existence of hell is based on the loss of God which can be construed as the experience of pure grief (where a single instant would seem to last for all eternity).
This also helps to explain why the physical notion of gravity is so elusive (with no gravity particles yet detected).
Whereas the notion of physical light has an external manifestation that can consciously be registered, gravity relates inherently to the internal nature of matter (which in psychological terms relates to the unconscious).
However because of the unbalanced nature of present science which is based on mere external conscious type recognition, no coherent means exists for properly understanding the nature of gravity.
So in a more enlarged paradigm it will be necessary to incorporate both conscious and unconscious recognition in psychological terms that will then correlate with a physical reality containing both external and internal aspects.
Indeed in the spiritual literature, it is well recognised that this internal gravitational darkness represents a hidden form of light (i.e. the unseen light).
This would suggest that physical gravity likewise represents itself a hidden form of light (i.e. an internalised form of energy).
This would also ultimately explain how electromagnetic energy and gravity are but different manifestations of the same superforce.
Another interesting connection relates to the equivalence of matter and gravity.
Einstein of course is famous for establishing the equivalence of matter and energy.
But as energy and gravity are complementary an equal equivalence relates to matter and gravity.
Indeed a black hole can be seen as the physical means by which matter is most efficiently converted into gravity.
Likewise from a spiritual perspective, the mystical "dark night" can be seen as the psychological means through which the experience of matter is converted into gravity (i.e. grief) at an unconscious level.
Thus physical gravity relates to the holistic counterpart of the unconscious in psychological terms.
However its true nature will always elude a scientific paradigm that seeks to interpret reality in a merely conscious (analytic) manner!
In some ways this is very understandable. Grief is a response to loss. So, quite literally what causes the greatest grief is the loss of what matters most to us in natural and spiritual terms.
And as the "dark night" entails the substantial negation of all conscious matter with respect to one's experience, this leads to great feelings of loss.
Such grief is then greatly intensified through being tightly confined in considerable darkness within an extremely congested psychological environment with no means of distracting oneself from the situation.
Some years later, when reading about physical black holes, I began to realise that they have strong complementary links with the psychological "dark nights".
A black hole arises when a massive rotating star burns up all its energy and collapses inwards creating huge internal gravity. This is likewise associated with a dramatic slowing down in time (with respect to events outside the black hole). Likewise matter in the vicinity of the black hole gets sucked inwards due to the enormous gravitational pull exerted.
It is very similar in a complementary psychological manner. As we have seen the "dark night" follows an extensive period of illumination. Now with a spiritual "star", this can lead to a rapid transformation associated with a feverish frenzy of creative activity. Inevitably, the spiritual energy that fuels such activity eventually gets depleted and when this happens the focus switches rapidly inwards in the desire for spiritual regeneration.
This leads to a dramatic upheaval with respect to psychological experience where (all) concepts and perceptions within one's immediate range of experience get sucked inwards through a powerful unconscious attraction. Not surprisingly one's inner world feels extremely congested and dark.
And this internal gravitation is so intense that like a black hole no light can escape.
The word grief has close connotations with grave (and by extension gravity).
Grief therefore represents the psychological counterpart to the physical notion of gravity, just as spiritual illumination provides the corresponding counterpart to physical light.
In fact normal grief always represents a loss of what matters to us. So when phenomenal relationships that are most meaningful are taken away, grief is the natural reaction. This loss of what is external in a conscious manner creates a corresponding drive inwards in an unconscious direction causing a psychological contraction in the very dimensions (of space and time) that underlie customary experience.
As is well known physical gravity (especially inside a black hole) is associated with a great slowing down of time (relative to events outside the black hole).
Likewise someone suffering from grief will experience a corresponding slowing down in the psychological experience of time. So time literally will hang heavily over one! Indeed in extreme cases of loss, each moment will feel like an eternity due to a dramatic change in the psychological perception of time.
So once again light and gravity are revealed as complementary forces in both physical and psychological terms.
For pure physical light (in terms of its itself) time does not pass with all eternity a single instant.
Likewise in psychic terms, with the pure experience of spiritual light (as in the experience of true joy), time does not pass (with all eternity again a single instant).
However it is the reverse in terms of gravity. With pure gravity each instant lasts an eternity. And this is equally true in physical and psychological terms.
It is interesting how the theological teaching on the existence of hell is based on the loss of God which can be construed as the experience of pure grief (where a single instant would seem to last for all eternity).
This also helps to explain why the physical notion of gravity is so elusive (with no gravity particles yet detected).
Whereas the notion of physical light has an external manifestation that can consciously be registered, gravity relates inherently to the internal nature of matter (which in psychological terms relates to the unconscious).
However because of the unbalanced nature of present science which is based on mere external conscious type recognition, no coherent means exists for properly understanding the nature of gravity.
So in a more enlarged paradigm it will be necessary to incorporate both conscious and unconscious recognition in psychological terms that will then correlate with a physical reality containing both external and internal aspects.
Indeed in the spiritual literature, it is well recognised that this internal gravitational darkness represents a hidden form of light (i.e. the unseen light).
This would suggest that physical gravity likewise represents itself a hidden form of light (i.e. an internalised form of energy).
This would also ultimately explain how electromagnetic energy and gravity are but different manifestations of the same superforce.
Another interesting connection relates to the equivalence of matter and gravity.
Einstein of course is famous for establishing the equivalence of matter and energy.
But as energy and gravity are complementary an equal equivalence relates to matter and gravity.
Indeed a black hole can be seen as the physical means by which matter is most efficiently converted into gravity.
Likewise from a spiritual perspective, the mystical "dark night" can be seen as the psychological means through which the experience of matter is converted into gravity (i.e. grief) at an unconscious level.
Thus physical gravity relates to the holistic counterpart of the unconscious in psychological terms.
However its true nature will always elude a scientific paradigm that seeks to interpret reality in a merely conscious (analytic) manner!
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