Definitions
Belief,
a personal affirmation about anything that is based upon
unconditional acceptance of its validity (a.k.a. taken on faith) in
the absence of any actual evidence supporting it. The opposite of
factual knowledge grounded in experience. Public knowledge is usually
scientifically obtained through experiments or other relatively
objective methods. Private knowledge is obtain from personal
experience. For example, science might determine that meditation
alters the pattern of electrical activity in the brain. Personal
experience may confirm for you that meditation enhances your sense of
well-being. Both are factual and based on experience, but one is
public and the other private, i.e., phenomenological.
Cooperative
Alliance, an influence that can be
exercised in several ways. This examination will be from a
libertarian perspective. One can use force,threat or intimidation, or use contrived incentives
to influence another person's choices. None of these approaches would
be consistent with a libertarian approach to influence. Finally, one
can attempt to influence someone's choices by persuasion.
Clearly, the first two options are coercive and inconsistent with
libertarian principles. Albeit more subtle, the third method is also
coercive. The use of contrived incentives to influence choices is an
effort to manipulate and therefore represents a soft form of
coercion. The final method, persuasion,
may be the only method that is consistent with libertarian
principles. Persuasion, properly conducted, appeals to reason.
Successful persuasion convinces someone of the correctness of a
particular choice. A change agent can best exercise persuasion
through a cooperative alliance.
In such an alliance, a person's participation and cooperation in the
change process is essential. The only way that a cooperative alliance
can be formed is for an agent to develop a positive, supportive and
therefore a personal relationship with the person needing assistance.
Diaphragmatic
Breathing, a deep breathing technique in which you fill the lungs
with air from the bottom of the lung up and empty the lungs of air
from the bottom of the lung up. In other words, when you inhale, draw air down and into the lowest part of the lungs first and when you exhale push air out from the bottom of the lungs. This is simply accomplished by expanding the diaphragm when inhaling and contracting the diaphragm when exhaling.
This completely fills your lungs with
air and increases your oxygen supply, which is relaxing. One
indicator that you are properly engaging in this technique is that
your stomach rises and falls with your breath instead of your chest.
The latter is an indicator that you are engaged in shallow breathing,
which reduces your oxygen supply. Shallow breathers obtain half the
oxygen obtained by diaphragmatic breathers. You would do well to
practice diaphragmatic breathing until it becomes an AP.
Epiphenomenon,
a secondary effect or by-product of another phenomenon. If phenomenon
Y is said to be an epiphenomenon of X then X is believed to be the
source of or cause of Y. Thus, Y is a derivative of X.
Grace,
a non-contingent, unconditional gift. It is independent of any
response you can make to affect it.
Noetic, a shift in
consciousness that, while it may not always be permanent, one
nevertheless never fully returns from it. You can read more about my
noetic events in my life here: A Personal
Odyssey (see Appendix 3). The term "noetic"
was popularized by the moon astronaut Edgar Mitchel, who used the term
to describe something that happened to him on the way back from the
moon. He subsequently founded the Institute for Noetic Science to
study noetic events (click on IONS
or paste: http://noetic.org/ in your browser for further
information).
Ontology, is the philosophical study of the nature of being, becoming, existence or reality as well as the basic categories of being and their relations. Traditionally listed as a part of the major branch of philosophy known as metaphysics, ontology often deals with questions concerning what exists or may be said to exist.
Phenomenological,
an understanding based on the premise that reality consists of
objects and events as they are perceived or understood in human
consciousness and not of anything independent of human consciousness.
Supraliminal, a perception above your typical conscious awareness, where "liminal" refers to a threshold of perception. Think of Consciousness
flowing through you like a beam of light. Your conscious awareness is
comprised of those frequencies of the light that you can perceive.
There are frequencies that are both below (sub) and above (supra)
your conscious awareness. Thus, Supraliminal Consciousness is an
expansion of awareness that includes those frequencies above what
human beings typically perceive.
Transmission,
a term in a spiritual context that means transmitting a level of
subtle energy that is only present in a fully awakened person that
can provide an opening in the perceptual barrier between conscious
awareness and Supraliminal Consciousness. In early Christian practice
this was called Initiation or Conveying Blessing and probably has had
no real role in Christianity in nearly two thousand years. In Siddha
Yoga this is called Shaktipat and has been and still is a recognized
practice and is available through a small number of persons.