Стаття пропонує список паралелей між поглядами і інтерпретацією йоги у Успенського і поглядами Ауробіндо і Сатпрема, які теж претендували на більш глибоке і непересічне розуміння цього феномена. Праця П. Д. Успенського «Що таке йога?» писалася і перероблювалася доволі тривалий час у період 1912–1934 рр. і займає своє особливе місце між працями, які в ті часи популяризували йогу для західного читача, і «Синтезом йоги» Шрі Ауробіндо. Ауробіндо, вказуючи межі аналітичного підходу, намагався дати оригінальну інтерпретацію йогічним феноменам, виходячи з власної філософської парадигми. (...) Стаття порівнює інтерпретацію Успенським системи раджа-йоги у зіставленні з інтегральним підходом Ауробіндо і Сатпрема. Успенський відзначає, що людина мусить оволодіти вмінням зупиняти хід своїх думок. Своєрідна метафорична мова Успенського зіставляється у статті з яскраво поетичною метафорикою Сатпрема у його книзі, присвяченій філософії Ауробіндо. Можна зробити висновок, що Успенський ставить перед собою радше описові і більш аналітичні задачі, він шукав аутентичність в описі індійського, йогічного способу пізнання. Ауробіндо постійно шукав більш синтезуючий підхід до йоги і прагнув вийти за межі як західного раціоналізму, так і традиційних описів йоги. (shrink)

My research into Virtual Reality technology and its central property of immersion has indicated that immersion in Virtual Reality (VR) electronic systems is a significant key to the understanding of contemporary culture as well as considerable aspects of previous culture as detected in the histories of philosophy and the visual arts. The fundamental change in aesthetic perception engendered by immersion, a perception which is connected to the ideal of total-immersion in virtual space, identifies certain shifts in ontology which are relevant (...) to a better understanding of the human being. This understanding was achieved through a broad inquiry into the histories of Virtual Reality, philosophy, and the visual arts and has lead to the formulation of an aesthetic theory of immersive consciousness indicative of immersive culture. The primary subject of this discourse is immersion then: an experience which will be identified within the dissertation as the indispensable characteristic of Virtual Reality. The understanding of immersion arrived at here will be used to fashion a synchronous theory of art particularly informed by encounters and concepts of immersion into virtuality. To sufficiently address this subject in a scholarly fashion, I have researched, found and accumulated aesthetic and philosophic examples of immersive tendencies, as found within the histories of art and philosophy, which subsequently contributed towards the articulation of what I have come to call immersive consciousness. As a result of formulating such an immersive consciousness, a good deal of the basis for the questioning of the Western ontological tradition has been found in the Western tradition itself when we look with new eyes and ask new uncertain questions. Moreover, this immersive consciousness will be used to propose some abstract questions encircling today's electronic-based culture. Through the structuring of the argument within the thesis - and overtly within the conclusion - I have articulated a non-teleological creative strategy which provides the basis for an unconstraining integration of noologies (ways of semblancing the thinking process). This strategy provides a means of exemplifying - and for honoring - various methods of thinking. This structuring strategy is consistent with the 'hacker ethic' as defined by Steven Levy, as a demand that access to computers - and anything which might teach us something about the way the world works - should be unlimited and total. To follow this strategy, this dissertation has set out to understand how topical conceptions of virtual immersion connect to pre-existing systems of thought as revealed in art as they have extended out of antecedent ontological self-understandings, historical human self-understandings which have evidenced themselves in the elaboration of technological objectives. To do this I have forged a certain rhizomatic paternity/maternity for Virtual Reality within this dissertation by joining choice immersive examples of simulacra technology into mental connections with the relevant examples culled from the histories of art, architecture, information-technology, sex, myth, space, consciousness and philosophy. (shrink)

Although consciousness-correlated physical phenomena are widely and credibly documented, their appearance and behavior display substantial departures from conventional scientific criteria. Under even the most rigorous protocols, they are only irregularly replicable, and they appear to be insensitive to most basic physical coordinates, including distance and time. Rather, their strongest correlations are with various subjective parameters, such as intention, emotional resonance, uncertainty, attitude, and meaning, and information processing at an unconscious level appears to be involved. If science, by its most basic (...) definition, is to pursue understanding and utilization of these extraordinary processes, it will need to expand its current paradigm to acknowledge and codify a proactive role for the mind in the establishment of physical events, and to accommodate the spectrum of empirically indicated subjective correlates. The challenges of quantitative measurement and theoretical conceptualization within such a ‘‘Science of the Subjective’’ are formidable, but its potential intellectual and cultural benefits could be immense, not least of all in improving the reach, the utility, the attitude, and the image of science itself. Keywords: consciousness-correlated physical phenomena (CCPP)—science of the subjective (SOS)—scientific criteria—scientific models. (shrink)