Review of The Serpent Grail
The Serpent Grail by Philip Gardiner and Gary Osborn is subtitled, “The truth behind the Holy Grail, the Philospher’s Stone and the Elixir of Life”.
This is a well-researched book which unfortunately has a massive flaw at its heart. I have to declare an interest here by saying that the subject matter bears some resemblance to my own soon-to-be-published book, COSMOSITY.
The authors work on the proposition that “enlightenment” is at the core of such phenomena as the Holy Grail and the Philosopher’s Stone. So far so good, COSMOSITY says much the same thing. Serpent Grail goes further and follows what it calls a cult of the serpent in ancient times, suggesting that serpents were real people who had been “enlightened”. This is close to Graham Hancock’s thesis in his new book, Supernatural, reviewed on our Supernatural blog last week.
The problem I have with this book is not the depth of research, which is at times impressive, or with its central propositions about the Grail etc. The disruptive element is the authors’ notion of what “enlightenment” actually is.
Gardiner and Osborn state categorically that enlightenment is a hypnagogic state, that relaxed period between sleeping and waking when vivid dreams occur, sometime prophetic. P. 26: “… the esoteric teaching that the inner sun was located at the neutral mid-point between opposites in the twilight zone of consciousness known as the hypnagogic state.” This is simplistic and betrays a lack of knowledge both of the literature and in their personal experience.
Enlightenment is a state beyond the purview of the brain and central nervous system. It uses a completely different form of perception, what I’ve called “nirvanoception”, or space consciousness.
This is such a major flaw in the text that it simply renders the book unbelievable on a number of fronts. If you can’t trust the central understanding of the authors, why should you believe any of their other conclusions?
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Thank you for reviewing The Serpent Grail.
I would say that there is some misunderstanding as regards “the flaw”.
We are not saying that enlightenment IS the Hypnagogic State. That’s not what we mean at all.
We are simply saying that the hypnagogic state, which we identify as the shamanic trance state, and which is reached through intense meditation, can actually lead to the enlightenment experience known by the Hindus as Kundalini - indeed it can trigger it.
This was stated many times in the book.
The Hypnagogic State is not enlightenment.
Regards,
Gary Osborn.
By Gary Osborn on January 25th, 2006 at 11:06 pm
Thanks for taking the time out to explain that Gary. Maybe I overdid the last paragraph.
However, the hypnagogic state is mentioned frequently. The nirvanic state, which is enlightenment, is something beyond the unconscious. It has to be experienced to realize that. I’ve got a description of my own experience on this site.
Kundalini is the physical manifestation of pre-enlightenment experience. It’s only when all physical attributes are left behind that space consciousness becomes clear.
By John on January 26th, 2006 at 9:20 am
Hi John,
No problem. I experienced the same back in 93 - and my brother before me in 91.
The ‘hypnagogic state’ (or transliminal phase) - being the technical terms we use today - are frequently used in the book because this altered state of consciousness, is the ‘third force state’ that the ancients and people (initiates) throughout history were allegorising and giving symbolic reference to in many different ways.
It can be difficult to first access and then sustain awareness in this state, and of course one is still caught in illusion as the ‘dream world’ becomes real - one awakens in the dream as the objective and subjective conscious states become one.
However, by remaining attentive in this state, one can go several levels beyond this to enlightenment itself.
I see this ‘third-force state’ as being the central “elevator” in-between opposites, from which one’s consciousness or point of focus can then ascend the different levels - as related with the seven chakras aligned with the spinal cord and endocrine glands.
Hypnagogia then is not enlightenment, but as regards the duality of opposites, I recognise it to be the ‘midpoint’ or ‘ecliptic’ state of consciousness that acts as a “doorway” through which one’s consciousness then pulls ‘inwards’ and at the same moves ‘upwards’ in frequency towards that source-centre.
Krishnamurti once said that “to ascend one must pull oneself together horizontally to shoot vertically.”
I see this as the union of ‘conscious-self’ and subconscious-self, which gives one access into the unconscious - which if accessed ‘consciously’ is where one goes beyond that “void” and becomes superconscious . . . enlightenment.
In my view, what we call the ‘unconscious’ or the ‘collective conscious’ is the Void – i.e., sometimes experienced as the ‘black’ “emptiness†- and something the ego will try to ‘avoid’ - because it perceives it is a “Void of nothing†– not knowing of course that beyond it and at the centre, like the theoretical ‘point of singularity’ at the centre of a blackhole - lies ‘Everything’.
Therefore the unconscious is really the superconscious when one is conscious of it - ‘nothing’ and ‘everything’ at the same time.
Kind Regards,
Gary Osborn.
By Gary Osborn on January 26th, 2006 at 1:25 pm