[justin]

I've just finished reading The Ancient Secret of the Flower of Life by Drunvalo Melchizedek. Apparently this man (born Bernard Perona) has a lot of credibility in I guess what we could call the spiritual community. You've probably heard his work referenced in the Tool song 46+2 which is (loosely) based off an idea presented in this book, in conjunction with some Jungian concepts.

According to Drunvalo, there are 5 levels of consciousness, each corresponding with a different number of chromosomes. We are 44+2 chromosomes. 46+2 would be the next level of consciousness.

He goes on to explain that: “Each level of human consciousness has a different body height associated with it. The first level of 42+2 has a range of height somewhere between four to maybe six feet (he claims this is where the aborigines in Australia are)…. The second level of 44+2 has a height of about five to seven feet (us)… The third level of 46+2 has a height of about ten to sixteen feet… The fourth level of 48+2 has a level of 30 to 35 feet… and the fifth and final level possible for humans on the Earth is 50+2 chromosomes with a height of about 50 to 60 feet tall.”

Melchizedek says that most of the information in this book was given to him by Thoth, or different teachers that he was guided to by a pair of angels. This is pretty common stuff in the New Age community. You can tell people you're channeling some Egyptian god and they don't even flinch. The information in this book is presented as fact, and I'm sure some people acknowledge it as such.

They don't make grains of salt big enough to take with this shit. Here are some ideas that are presented as fact:

– Dolphins originated from a distant planet orbiting the Sirius star system.
– Humans were engineered as slaves to mine gold by a race called the Nefilim.
– The Great Sphinx is at least 10,000 years old.
– Thoth was originally from Atlantis.
– Edgar Cayce was right. About everything.

About the Sphinx… I'm a pretty open-minded person and I could believe it was 10,000 years old on enough acid. The thing is he references next to nothing throughout all the outrageous claims in the book. Drunvalo always mentions, “somebody found this”, “they discovered it”, “we now know…” without any direct reference to a specific individual or group. Here's a direct quote:

“Adam Trombly, a famous scientist who has accomplished important work in science, has been monitoring blah blah ect.”

I looked up Adam Trombly. He is not famous nor is he a scientist. There is a small 'References' section that contains no legitimate articles, books, or people that can back up these totally outrageous claims. It's all other pseudo-scientific New Age trash from other authors who have claimed to be channeling one dead egyptian or another.

Drunvalo also claims to have come up with a breathing meditation that will activate your Merkaba. The breathing exercise ends with essentially taking 4 deep breaths in succession and holding them for as long as possible. A lot of these New Age breathing meditations I've come across involve taking many deep breaths in a row. For anyone familiar with breathing you should know that this will make you dizzy and light-headed. People do these exercises, feel high and hallucinate, then chalk it up as a spiritual experience. I am not referring to Pranayama or any other Yogic practice. I'm talking about shit like “Quantum Breathing” and what people think Tantra is.

There's this woman who claims to live off prana, or “life-force energy.” She's written books and teaches people how to live without food or water. People have followed her work and died. I view many of these people as professional con-artists selling a fairytale. It reminds me a lot of any other religion.

I found a really great article on the subject that sums up my feelings exactly:

http://www.energygrid.com/spirit/2002/04ap-newagegarbage.html

I don't mean to come off as Jaded, it's just that after reading this book I realized that I am. I'm a pretty down-to-earth person, and I've been through a lot of what you could call “mystical” experiences, so it's hard to find that middle ground.

[Nameless One]

Yep, pretty much. I've engaged in long arguments with people about the stupidest things from this book… if I'm not mistaken he tries to build a connection between the platonic solids and the organization of the first dividing cells in the human zygote. I had a friend that absolutely insisted it was the sign of a grand cosmic design. He really couldn't understand that the most conservative arrangement of four spheres is naturally tetrahedral, that there is nothing at all magic about it. Oh well.

Good article at the end.

[edais]

I don't mean to come off as Jaded, it's just that after reading this book I realized that I am. I'm a pretty down-to-earth person, and I've been through a lot of what you could call “mystical” experiences, so it's hard to find that middle ground.

My never-ending plight as well…finding that freaking middle ground.

[Machi]

“About the Sphinx… I'm a pretty open-minded person and I could believe it was 10,000 years old on enough acid. The thing is he references next to nothing throughout all the outrageous claims in the book. Drunvalo always mentions, “somebody found this”, “they discovered it”, “we now know…” without any direct reference to a specific individual or group.”

I've seen a documentary about it on National Geographic. Group of scientists analyzed the layers of foundations that sphinx is sitting on and came up with the conlusion it is at least twice older they they thought. Supousingly sphinx was build when that region was rich in plants and water, more like a rain forest then desert.

[Nameless One]

Indeed, the age of the Sphinx is open to debate.

The problem is when you read “the Sphinx is 10,000 years old and human beings are a genetically engineered slave race made by space lizards!” One point draws credibility from the other.

[PookztA]

crazy stuff indeed… i wish science took the time to examine and debunk some of these misleading things such as “secret breathing techniques” and what not. i think it would help people to find spirituality through science and not through 'mystical' experiences.

[PookztA]

very awesome article that you posted as well! a great read 🙂

[justin]

*waves to Pauldo*  🙂

[zensphere]

Let me tell you, friends, I have been through the thick of this shit…

You can get really good at imagining all sorts of stuff, but at the end of the day, it's largely delusion. And worse – self delusion. A lot of New Age spirituality just feeds the ego and people's need to feel special and important. That's why the workshops rake in the dough.

Drizzle-on Melchize-my-nuts is a grade-A loony. Right up there with David Icke… Ok, maybe not quite as bad as Icke. 😀 But close!

[Pauldo]

*waves to Pauldo*  🙂

*waves back*

[cosmicvibrations]

Yeah, a lot of things people believe are things I'm skeptical of. But for me, a lot of things are simply unknown. Mostly, it really gets me when someone acts like they KNOW detailed things about the spiritual world. That's when you really lose me and I just think you're a charlatan (or way too sure of yourself).

The fact of the matter is, it bugs me when people are 100% about many things, spirituality or no spirituality. I've heard people say so many things in a doubtless tone of voice that I could easily prove wrong… but many of those people aren't flexible on their crazy opinions, and there's just no talking to them about it. That mix of personality traits is a pet-peeve of mine…

[justin]

I totally agree Leo. The more confident someone is about something the less I tend to believe them.

[zensphere]

You're all wrong!

;D

[nodsamadhi]

You're all wrong!

;D

how confident are you about that?

also:

http://www.skepticnorth.com/2010/04/unofficial-manga-guide-to-woo-arguments.html

[zensphere]

^nice manga!

[Author]

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