The underlying cause of most social and personal problems is lack of mindfulness. Psychologist Charles Tart, Ph.D., author of States of Consciousness and Waking Up, discusses how difficult it is to translate meditative awareness to the problems of daily life. He describes the training methods of G. I. Gurdjieff as an alternative form of mindfulness training intended to be used in the midst of workaday activities.
Countless factors can mitigate against self-observation in Western society. Charles Tart, Ph.D., noted psychologist and author of Waking Up, suggests we begin by learning to focus on seemingly trivial details such as bodily sensations. Through repeated and diligent practice, he says, the process of self-observation leads us to a larger view of ourselves and our potential.
Western science and traditional spiritual practice are both dedicated to the search for truth. Charles Tart, Ph.D., professor of psychology at the University of California at Davis and author of Transpersonal Psychologies, suggests that in the future we may be able to specify which types of individuals are likely to benefit most from particular spiritual disciplines.
One of America's foremost parapsychology researchers, Charles Tart, Ph.D., discusses his own research as he examines factors that facilitate ESP scoring in the laboratory. These range from feedback learning strategies to methods for shielding the human body from random electromagnetic and geomagnetic influences. Dr. Tart is the author of Psi: Studies in the Scientific Realm and Learning to Use Extrasensory Perception.
Our normal waking state of consciousness can be likened to being "asleep" in comparison to other states of awareness we might attain. In this intriguing discussion, psychologist Charles Tart, Ph.D., author of Altered States of Consciousness and Waking Up, suggests that we can begin to "wake up" by allowing our awareness to become conscious of itself. This can become a simple, yet powerful, discipline.
"I'm talking about making a commitment to learn the truth about yourself and your world no matter what it is. Not to catch yourself in your sins. Not to support what you already believe, but to try to observe yourself in your world to see what really is."
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