FAITH AS KNOWLEDGE
It has been customary to reserve the term knowledge as a synonym for the term Gnosis, both terms signifying that which is eternally real--the Wisdom. This differentiates knowledge from accumulated information about this and that--what is called epistemology. But in the context here developed, we have both accumulated information in the psychic nature (or unconscious), and true knowledge, both serving as the basis for faith in casual eventuations. It was the introduction of that closer look which allowed us to include accumulated information, the results of past experiences retained in the psychic nature. Thus, we can distinctly show the relationship between retained information on the psychic level and knowledge as a state of Being on the Mind level, even though, in all operational procedures on the objective level of consciousness, these two are indistinguishable and appear to function as one. The diagram below depicts these three levels. (Remember that the word level, for communication purposes, represents a state of consciousness.)
The Mind level, the highest state of consciousness possible to a given man as man; i.e., and remain man, is the lowest level of what is called the real worlds of Light. Consciousness identified with this level is spoken of as the Real Self, the Higher Self, the Noetic Self or the individualized Self. (We have used the term Ego to represent this state, but to be more exact this term should be restricted to the last phases of development respecting the mental level of the psychic nature.) In our School of the Natural Order we have settled upon the term Noetic Self to represent this state in which the Power-to-be-conscious is conscious, for reasons explained in our study courses.
In developing the thesis that knowledge on one level represents the basis of faith when exhibited on a lower level, there are two factors pertaining to this Mind level of man which must be mentioned. First, the Noetic Self does not possess knowledge; it is knowledge; i.e., knowledge constitutes its nature. When one can consciously function on this Mind level he finds that, as consciousness expands, more and more knowledge becomes operative in his nature. So there are degrees of awareness of knowledge.
The second factor pertaining to the Mind level is the 'law' of periodicity. The cosmic process and every 'thing' in it, from atom to galaxy, is characterized by a helical circuit, including this Noetic-Self on Mind level. This 'law,' when applied, referred, etc., to the Mind level of man or to the Noetic Self (not to man, per se), is called palingenesis. This does not mean a reincarnation of a personality or the psychic self, or the configurational self, of a given man. Consciousness functioning in that differentiated and autonomous field in cosmic, Light-energy substance we call the Mind level is subject to or "obeys" the laws of cosmos the same as does every 'thing' else. Consequently, when in its cyclic process the Noetic Self again puts out its configurational self--like the annual putting forth of leaves by a deciduous tree--and develops a new psychic nature therefrom, it manifests its degree of knowledge in the process. If the degree of knowledge is high or strong, on a given man's Mind level, his faith is correspondingly and unswervingly constant on his objective-self-conscious level. When his interests in objective affairs, desires, loves and intellectual pursuits absorb that quota of consciousness allocated to the psychic nature (objective identification), he will remain unconscious of the knowledge but fully conscious of the faith. Still, in life facts affecting the whole or Triune Man, faith and knowledge are one.
As previously stated, the other level that exhibits itself as a force called faith is the information accumulated and retained on the psycho-logical level. This also plays a part in faith as manifested in the objective-self-conscious state. The amount, the influence exerted, the percent, proportion, etc. this part plays is inversely proportional to the degree of attained knowledge on the Mind level. If, in a given case, there is no degree of attained knowledge on the Mind level, then the only resource for that sense of hope, confidence, inherent self-assurance, etc.--the beginnings of faith--resides in the (so-called) memory files of the psychic nature. If, in another case, the degree of attained knowledge is high, then as aptitude, faculty or attribute it supersedes or displaces the memory files on the psycho-logical level. The influence from the Mind level is so much stronger, effective, etc. that it takes over, and displaces by absorbing, the functions of the psychic nature, memory files and all. These two cases represent relative extremes; you can supply the gradations and stages between.
As has been stated, the results of experiences are retained and are reincorporated into each new psychic nature throughout the whole palingenetic process. This is the referent for the term memory files; but it is also called time-binding, karma, "As ye sow so shall ye reap," the 'law' of cause and effect, etc. The intricacies of how this is done, while interesting, do not concern us here, for the explanation would involve us in the relationship of the psychic nature to the race psyche, abstractions therefrom, etc. (This is described at length elsewhere in our work.) But I must insert a parenthetical remark: Here in our Western culture we are so woefully lacking in educational opportunities on these vital issues that we are constrained to use a phrase such as "operates as unconscious knowledge" about a rudimentary factor in psycho-logical studies, whereas, as a race, we are devoting and expending prodigious amounts of time, energy and money in facilities for the study of everything except the study of man, when the study of man would save us from disaster and the studies about everything else are carrying us over the brink of disaster. However, what we are concerned with here is how this accumulated information, or the result of past experiences, operates as unconscious knowledge exhibiting evidences called faith.
The psychic nature (or the psycho-logical processes) has many advantages over and beyond the best cortical development. Among these, we will mention four which have a direct bearing on our present subject.
Number One: On any level upon which man, as a becoming-conscious Being, functions or can function, that which he knows, experiences, that of which he is conscious, etc. is due to the registry of Light-energy waves and frequencies. The range of this registry, through the instrumentality of the sense faculties--the neural system and psycho-logical organizations pertaining thereto--is very limited. Relative to this limitation, the range which consciousness in the psychic nature can and does register is quite extensive. Therefore, awareness of events on the psycho-logical level far outreaches that which is known on the 'objective' level. When the consciousness of a given person is identified with objective appearances, including his 'body,' conscious registry of waves and frequencies on the psycho-logical level is in eclipse, cut off and cortically unknown, but it nevertheless operates as unconscious knowledge. The effect of this on the objective-self-conscious level is called faith.
Number Two: On the 'objective' level, the word space is used quite freely, but few try to ferret out the referent for it. Objective space has no existence outside of a concept in thinking; i.e., a concept abstracted from the apparent distance between two or more points of reference. It is indeed a convenient device with which to function in the objective state. We set up three coordinates--sometimes called longitude, latitude and altitude--and locate things, points, our respective selves, etc. This becomes so familiar to us that we take it for granted and unconsciously assume that objective space is a reality existing independently of us; but this is not true, it remains a concept in our thinking or thingifying.
On the psycho-logical level, however, that which the word space represents is not called a concept; it is labeled harmony, when we are required to speak or write about it or name it. But no concept can be formulated, conceived or abstracted to symbolize the referent for harmony even though one could describe the precise waves, frequencies, etc. in a given context where harmony is present. One can feel harmony and, on the Mind level, one can experience it as a state of knowing.
The dual throng or polar opposite words, such as, near and far, high and low, here and there, etc., on the objective level, have three dimensional space connotations; but on the psycho-logical level only one of these words is valid--here. It not only has a space connotation but represents the space of that level. When one functions on the psycho-logical level, exclusive of the memory of the dream world, the 'objective' level, he finds that that event (Every 'thing' on the psycho-logical level is an event, whether it be a person, place, 'object,' happening, etc.) with which he is in harmony is here to him; if he is not in harmony with it--place or person--it simply is not here. This can be described very precisely by using the word here as a referent for synchronized waves and frequencies in the consciousness of a given person at a given moment. (The moment--a point in time--can never be absent from here as a point in space). Thus, this second factor presents the fact that, on the psycho-logical level, there are events here--in a given context of situation--which convey knowledge but, due to objective blockages, are cut off and yet are experienced as faith.
Number Three: Consciousness functioning in the psychic nature; i.e., on the psycho-logical level, has a different kind of time than that employed on the objective level. One becomes so conditioned to timetables, schedules, clocks, watches, etc. on the objective level that he may forget how arbitrarily his sidereal time was abstracted from apparent movements of celestial 'bodies.' However, on the psycho-logical level we label consciousness of time harmonic time, which means that an event with which one is in harmony--a synchronization of one's frequencies with those of a given event--is now (in the present tense), although on the objective level the event may have been many years ago, a year ago or any time other than the present. This harmonic-time function also operates as now regarding events which, on the objective level have not as yet transpired, or, as we say, which lie in the future, but in a much more limited or restricted span (of what we call the future) than of the past. This, too, becomes knowledge on the psycho-logical level, but if cut off by objective identifications, it creates that sense we call faith.
On the objective level, we separate space from time; but on the psycho-logical level, space and time cannot be separated, so we couple them: space-time, and that consciousness of here-now is labeled a continuum; so a given event is designated as existing in a space-time continuum. The word existing means present in the consciousness of the perceiver, the one who registers the waves and frequencies and then abstracts from waves and frequencies registered. Other than this registry, there are only imitators, parrot-like repeaters, etc. on the cortical phase of the objective level; i.e., a designated person (and any one of us could qualify) rapidly alternates between consciously or unconsciously functioning on the psycho-logical level and functioning with or in values given to mental concepts on the objective level.
Number Four: This factor--the psychic nature exhibiting an advantage over and beyond the best cortical development--has already been mentioned, but it was not sufficiently stressed. Here, we are concerned with the prodigious retention of impressions received, results of past experiences, extensive memory files for reference, etc. The configurational representation of this, the cortical banks of synapses, was described in our book The Christos. On the psycho-logical level, the whole of the long evolutionary past--from the point of differentiation from the animal group field to the present--is condensed, synthesized and combined into a gestalt, which is, in general usage, called the soul--just as on the objective or physiological level the longer, evolutionary past (from the point of differentiation from the animal field backward to the emergence of the unicellular creatures--spermatozoa, amoebae, rhizopods, etc.) is synthesized into that dynamic configuration we call the body. When the Power-to-be-conscious completes the next stage in these grand gestalts or syntheses, namely, the Mind level, the third "person" of the trinity, the Spirit, will have been added and a Being will be born. Generally speaking, we now, in the embryonic stage, only have 'body' and 'soul'--'soul' and 'body'--limping along without the knowledge, force and substance of what we will call Spirit, to sustain, support, guide and counsel.
However, these memory files, comprising a large area of the psychic nature, although very limited relative to the knowledge on the Mind level, serve quite adequately if given opportunity, cultivated, brought out into awareness, etc. For some this is difficult; they seem to have a fixation on the cortical phase of the objective level; i.e., they prefer to follow what they call reason to following the 'inner voice,' the hunch, strong feeling, etc. How often have you had a clear feeling about doing or not doing something, and then allowed your own mentalizing, or someone else's, to "reason" you out of it? The influence on the objective level of this retention of results of past experiences on the psycho-logical level is often misnamed intuition. The word intuition should be reserved to represent clear perception--knowing without thinking--on the Mind level. We call this psychic level influence instinct.
If it were not for a more thorough description given elsewhere about this memory-gestalt characterizing the psychic nature, we would feel constrained to pile up more evidence, citations via illustrations, case reports, etc., in clarification and substantiation of its comprehensiveness. But we will leave this phase of the subject with the asservation that on the objective-self-conscious level one of the most immediate and accessible sources of relative knowledge is this memory in the psychic nature on the psycho-logical level; and even though it is ignored and neglected it still operates as faith in this 'thing' called life.
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