There is no separate mental realm, no duplex reality, in reality

Conjuring up pictures to help convey this: like a blanket, with one side physical, and one mental, or,
a black globe (the body, hormones) with the colors through a prism appearing (the so-called 'mental',
and here is one of his pictures, called the neural history of mankind which pertains:

"The Fable-ist's Neural History Of Man

At first there was only lightning,
Then came thunder,
Who, for the first time, made lightning aware of its own existence --
Then (in a hard-to-explain manner),
Lightning's original existence was diminished.

And all normal minds within hearing distance said:
"We don't get it!
And even if we did, we wouldn't like it!
And even if we did get it (and thus didn't like it),
We wouldn't believe it...since we'd be certain you just made it up!"

Copyright 2007, the unpublished writings of Jan Cox.

The Nature of Psychic Phenomena

Sitting here watching the rain mist here in drought proclaimed Snellville, and remembering I heard something on the radio last Friday night, some preacher or somebody, saying to his listeners (and me as I surfed across the radio dials) pray for rain in Atlanta. And here it is misting for three days now. Do I think the thoughts of the listeners were responsible for this?? They could have played a part. Really I have no idea if they did have an effect on this lovely rain event. But so-called thoughts affect the weather. A few points though, about such inquiries. They almost always flounder in confusion on the question of the nature of psychic phenomena. First, there is only a physical realm, if you are going to describe reality. There is no separate mental stuff. So what could have happened with the good folks thinking rain for Atlanta? You have to picture somewhat the unpictureable complexity of 'what is' and grasp that while 'thoughts' (whatever they are, but certainly not some cumulousy thing) are part of a huge machinery, they are not the only part, so they could have an effect, but being only a part of a bigger machinery the question of causality turns out to be NOT possible to be contained within a binary sentence--you just cannot say yes, thoughts caused the rain or no, thoughts did not cause the rain. The fact is they were just one swirl in a hugely larger structure.

The hostility inherent in words

After writing that last post, it struck me how hostile it sounded. Although there may be a good reason to mention those he kicked out, still, this might sound like anger on my part.
Words after all, divide, that is basic, and dividing is fallacious, dividing is angry. Dividing, is not what this century defining teacher was about. Even punctuation, he would point out, had to be misleading, and a lie. There are no boundaries. And that period makes the last sentence, itself, a fib. Still, rereading my second post, it was not as hostile as I had remembered it a few hours after writing it.

Avoiding hero worship

Speaking of names, one tool he used with students was to insist (at certain periods of his life) they call him by a name he designated, like "Timex." This discouraged mechanical identification with him, something he always fought, because the human need to follow a leader, the deep genetic basis for this craving, this mechanical flow, operated against the things he was trying to show us.

Like so much he did, this was difficult to convey because it was his voice and example against the entire population of the planet. Most of his students did not continue. A lot were kicked out. A great number were handled during the initial interview in such a manner that they fled. Many people imagine themselves to be looking for a real teacher, until they have the fortune to encounter one.

He knew the worth of his time, and discouraged the namby pamby types, who he could perceive had no talent beyond their imaginary view of themselves of seekers. Of course by namby pamby we are speaking of a certain mental shift; many of those who fit this label were the blustering chatterboxes, the wolves and bums. These are two of the personality types he would outline for us in an attempt to encourage us in our goals. But internally these two types, imperceptible to any but a few, were subject to the same hapless mechanical tides that swept the planets peoples. These tides have of course a crucial place in maintaining civilized order. Such order though is the enemy of those struggling toward a still focused inner sight.

Why call this essay "American" mysticism??

The title deserves an explanation: there are two reasons for describing the topic of this writing as "American" mysticism. Although mysticism would have to be global, perhaps cosmic, in point of historical fact, a century defining person affected these thoughts, and calling these essays American, highlights an echo of Georges Gurdjieff. Also these writings are intended to publicize a century defining personage who will shortly be named, and this person was born in Georgia, USA. For the time being though, I am not mentioning this person by name; I am curious as to how much publicity can be generating without mentioning his name. I am tagging this with his name, and will not long continue neglecting his name. Of course though, a true tribute would embody his teachings, and he did refrain from using his name to avoid that ugly phenomenon of hero worship.