To date, two serious studies of the early history of the Technocratic movement have been published: William E. Akin, Technocracy and the American Dream: The Technocrat Movement, 1900-1941 (University of California Press, 1977) ISBN 0520031105 Henry Elsner, The Technocrats, Prophets of Automation (Syracuse University Press, 1967) Elsner's account is from a sociological perspective and so might provide more social theory than history. Akin's book is much more detailed, though deals m ...

See also:

Technocratic movement, Technocratic movement - History, Technocratic movement - Goals and ideology, Technocratic movement - Ideology in detail, Technocratic movement - Design of a technate, Technocratic movement - Elimination of money: The era of Energy Accounting, Technocratic movement - Criticisms of the movement, Technocratic movement - Connections to other definitions of technocracy, Technocratic movement - Books on the Technocratic movement, Technocratic movement - Technocracy in Fiction

Read more here: » Technocratic movement: Encyclopedia II - Technocratic movement - Books on the Technocratic movement

A technocracy is a socio-economic system, one that is based upon abundance, as opposed to scarcity-based economies like capitalism. A core conclusion reached by the group is that a price system, or any system based on scarcity, is an illogical means of distribution in the technologically advanced world in which humans live. Technocracy sees established economic, political and administrative forms as relics of a traditional past. The group uses scientific observations and reasoning to argue that a technate is an optimal social structure. ...

See also:

Technocratic movement, Technocratic movement - History, Technocratic movement - Goals and ideology, Technocratic movement - Ideology in detail, Technocratic movement - Design of a technate, Technocratic movement - Elimination of money: The era of Energy Accounting, Technocratic movement - Criticisms of the movement, Technocratic movement - Connections to other definitions of technocracy, Technocratic movement - Books on the Technocratic movement, Technocratic movement - Technocracy in Fiction

Read more here: » Technocratic movement: Encyclopedia II - Technocratic movement - Goals and ideology

The movement is too obscure to attract much criticism. However, technocrats themselves would argue that those in power, politicians and heads of corporations, are a form of organized opposition. The movement would claim that this opposition has helped spread a negative connotation to the term and any ideologies that seem related to the movement. Moreover, technocrats say that those in power have spread propaganda to convince the public that what we have now ...

See also:

Technocratic movement, Technocratic movement - History, Technocratic movement - Goals and ideology, Technocratic movement - Ideology in detail, Technocratic movement - Design of a technate, Technocratic movement - Elimination of money: The era of Energy Accounting, Technocratic movement - Criticisms of the movement, Technocratic movement - Connections to other definitions of technocracy, Technocratic movement - Books on the Technocratic movement, Technocratic movement - Technocracy in Fiction

Read more here: » Technocratic movement: Encyclopedia II - Technocratic movement - Criticisms of the movement

God-sparks When evolution starts on the downward arc, the spiritual essence appears as a vast host of individual monads or spiritual, conscious atoms which, because of their lack of the self-conscious human condition, are often termed unself-conscious god-sparks -- although this does not mean that they lack self-consciousness on their own plane, for these monads never leave their own planes.

To speak of a monad incarnating means that a ray projected from the monad "descends" from its plane in a minor avataric sense to inflame the nascent manasic element or power in lower beings, precisely as took place in the cases of the manasaputras.

These god-sparks, being the spiritual monads of living entities, gradually emanate from themselves the successive vestures through which they manifest, the process taking place serially and ladder-fashion on the downward arc; with the eventual result that, at the end of the ascending arc, the unself-conscious god-sparks become self-conscious gods, which means that the self-conscious humanity of them becomes linked self-consciously to the self-consciousness of the monads on their own plane.

(See also: God-sparks, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

God-sparks When evolution starts on the downward arc, the spiritual essence appears as a vast host of individual monads or spiritual, conscious atoms which, because of their lack of the self-conscious human condition, are often termed unself-conscious god-sparks -- although this does not mean that they lack self-consciousness on their own plane, for these monads never leave their own planes.

To speak of a monad incarnating means that a ray projected from the monad "descends" from its plane in a minor avataric sense to inflame the nascent manasic element or power in lower beings, precisely as took place in the cases of the manasaputras.

These god-sparks, being the spiritual monads of living entities, gradually emanate from themselves the successive vestures through which they manifest, the process taking place serially and ladder-fashion on the downward arc; with the eventual result that, at the end of the ascending arc, the unself-conscious god-sparks become self-conscious gods, which means that the self-conscious humanity of them becomes linked self-consciously to the self-consciousness of the monads on their own plane.

(See also: God-parents, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Atma (or Atman) (Sanskrit). The Universal Spirit, the divine Monad, the 7th Principle, so-called, in the septenary constitution of man. The Supreme Soul.

(See also: Atma, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

The system's codename, Monad, comes from Gottfried Leibniz's monadology, a philosophy in which the universe is a composite of fundamental elements called Monads that are integrated in a 'pre-established harmony'. Similarly, MSH is a composite of the complex tasks of a series of components. The components are special programs called cmdlets (pronounced command lets), which are .NET classes designed to use the features of the environment. The key difference between the usual Unix approach and the MSH one is that rat ...

See also:

MSH shell, MSH shell - History, MSH shell - Central concepts, MSH shell - Features

Read more here: » MSH shell: Encyclopedia II - MSH shell - Central concepts

First Round The first evolutionary cycling of the monadic hosts through all the globes of the planetary chain. A globe-round consists of seven respective circlings by the life-wave on one of the globes of the planetary chain: in the case of the human life-wave these circlings are termed the root-races.

In the case of the first round, the evolutionary procedure is different from all later rounds because the monadic hosts must themselves fashion the outlines of their houses of life -- these houses becoming the globes of the planetary chain. Thus, when the first host has completed its seven circlings on globe A, the greater portion of the monads -- termed the surplus of lives -- descend from globe A by attraction to the waiting laya-center on the second cosmic plane. Through this laya-center globe B comes into the first phases of manifestation, as the first host proceeds to go through its seven evolutionary circlings there. When the seventh turn is completed, then the surplus of lives of this first monadic host descends to the laya-center on a still lower cosmic plane, where globe C-to-be begins its first outlines of manifestation. In like manner the remaining globes of the chain are formed -- globes D, E, F, . . . Z. Each of the ten hosts individually thus leaves its own characteristic pattern or attribute in and on each globe.

In the first round, the highest monadic host works with the lowest monadic kingdom to produce the initial framework of each globe in turn, laying the foundations for all the intermediate monadic hosts to build upon in completing what finally becomes the fully manifested globes. Thus every monadic host contributes its own characteristic elements to every one of the globes during the first round, as the monadic hosts or life-waves follow each other in serial order in passing through the waiting laya-centers. In this way, the globes themselves become fit habitats for their respective classes of dwellers or life-waves.

The monads of the human kingdom passed through all the forms and kingdoms during the first round. In the first root-race of the first round on globe D (our earth), man was highly ethereal and, although necessarily what we would call non-intellectual, nevertheless spiritual.

The globes of the earth-chain during their first round were in their first or elementary rupa stage, a condition entirely different from anything commonly known today. For during the first round -- which followed upon three preliminary elemental rounds -- one cosmic element was developed, namely that of fire. Manifested material fire as we know it had not appeared, but this first fire could be described as cool and luminous. Thus even the grossest globe (globe D), although formed into a sphere, was without solidity or other quality than a cold radiance. The other cosmic elements developed in similar fashion in succeeding rounds.

(See also: First Round, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Rings and Rounds. Terms employed by Theosophists in explanation of Eastern cosmogony. They are used to denote the various evolutionary cycles in the Elemental, Mineral, &c., Kingdoms, through which the Monad passes on any one globe, the term Round being used only to denote the cyclic passage of the Monad round the complete chain of seven globes. Generally speaking, Theosophists use the term ring as a synonym of cycles, whether cosmic, geological, metaphysical or any other.

(See also: Rings and Rounds, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

Door to the Human Kingdom Theosophical term expressing the idea that no more entities below the human stage will evolve into human beings in this round. The reason for this is that

"when Globe A of the new chain is ready, the first class or Hierarchy of Monads from the Lunar chain incarnate upon it in the lowest kingdom, and so on successively. The result of this is, that it is only the first class of Monads which attains the human state of development during the first Round, since the second class, on each planet, arriving later, has not time to reach that stage.

Thus the Monads of Class 2 reach the incipient human stage only in the Second Round, and so on up to the middle of the Fourth Round. But at this point -- and on this Fourth Round in which the human stage will be fully developed -- the 'Door' into the human kingdom closes; and henceforward the number of 'human' Monads, i.e., Monads in the human stage of development, is complete. For the Monads which had not reached the human stage by this point will, owing to the evolution of humanity itself, find themselves so far behind that they will reach the human stage only at the close of the seventh and last Round" (SD 1:173).

The "door" was closed into the human kingdom in the middle of the fourth round because the turning point had been reached between the monadic evolution of matter, or descent into matter on the downward arc, and the reverse process of involution, which automatically replaced it on the upward arc of the great light cycle.

Thus, as we are now past the middle of the fourth round, none of the monads now working in and through the animal kingdom can enter the human kingdom during the remainder of this round; with one probably exception, however: that of the anthropoid apes.

(See also: Door to the Human Kingdom, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Pranatma, Pranatman (Sanskrit) [from prana life vital essence + atman self]

The vital spiritual field which unites the totality of the subtle bodies of man into a unity -- hence in one sense equivalent to sutratman, although sutratman usually imbodies a higher conception than does pranatman.

Also the vital or animal soul -- the third and lowest of the three souls of a human being: the personal ego in the human constitution. The vehicle of pranatman is the astral-vital monad in its turn working through the human body. The pranatman, so far as man is concerned, may otherwise be called the human soul, which comprises manas, kama, and prana.

This ego or pranatman is mortal, being a composite, and hence endures only during the cycle of one earth-life; while its range of consciousness is restricted to globe D of the earth planetary chain. Nonetheless, the monadic point around which the pranatman reassembles for each incarnation is immortal as a monad, albeit this monad is still in a low degree of evolutionary unfoldment.

(See also: Pranatma, Pranatman, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Monogenes (Greek) Begotten alone; of the same parentage. Plutarch defines it as "only begetting," in reference to the meaning of Persephone in the Mysteries. It is the reappearance of a monad after its period of cosmic repose and nirvanic absence from the plane of cosmic manifestation.

The common Christian significance of only begotten should be distinguished from the original Greek significance of "brought forth alone." Monogenes has direct reference to the reappearance or reissuing forth of the monad from the bosom of the Boundless, the reappearing monad thus being envisaged as a spiritual individual appearing as such unity or individual "alone"; and because such reappearance is on a high spiritual plane, the term later became wrongly restricted only to the rebirth of the Logos, which is only one of its meanings, as the term applies equally well to the reissuing forth of any one of the hosts of monads on its own plane.

(See also: Monogenes, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Marut-jivas (Sanskrit) [from marut a class of divine beings + jiva monad]

Those monads which have been, are, or will be during long ages passing through the evolutionary stage called agnishvattas or kumaras, a direct hint of the real significance of the term marut itself. All maruts are jivas, the latter explaining characteristics and functions of the maruts.

In a more specific and limited sense, marut-jivas are the monads of adepts who have attained liberation, nirvana, or are very close to attaining it, but who wish to be reborn on earth for the sake of helping humanity. It is apparent that the nirmanakayas, as well as a large part of the sambhogakayas, therefore fall within the category of the marut-jivas.

(See also: Marut-jivas, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Augoeides (from Greek auge bright light, radiance + eidos form, shape)

Bulwer-Lytton in Zanoni adopted the term from Marcus Aurelius (who says that the sphere of the soul is augoeides), using it to denote the radiant spiritual-divine human soul-ego. In Isis Unveiled it denotes the spiritual monad, atma-buddhi, and is collated with the Persian ferouer or feruer, the Platonic nous, etc. In a high degree of initiation the initiant comes face to face with this radiant presence, the luminous radiation streaming from the divine ego at the heart of the monad. When the Augoeides touches with its rays the inferior monads in the human constitution and awakens them to activity, these then becomes the various lower egos or manifested children of the divine ego.

(See also: Augoeides, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

A Theosophical definition of Devachan :

Devachan

[Tibetan, bde-ba-can, pronounced de-wa-chen] A translation of the Sanskrit sukhavati, the "happy place" or god-land. It is the state between earth-lives into which the human entity, the human monad, enters and there rests in bliss and repose.

When the second death after that of the physical body takes place  - and there are many deaths, that is to say many changes of the vehicles of the ego  - the higher part of the human entity withdraws into itself all that aspires towards it, and takes that "all" with it into the devachan; and the atman, with the buddhi and with the higher part of the manas, become thereupon the spiritual monad of man. Devachan as a state applies not to the highest or heavenly or divine monad, but only to the middle principles of man, to the personal ego or the personal soul in man, overshadowed by atma-buddhi. There are many degrees in devachan: the highest, the intermediate, and the lowest. Yet devachan is not a locality, it is a state, a state of the beings in that spiritual condition.

Devachan is the fulfilling of all the unfulfilled spiritual hopes of the past incarnation, and an efflorescence of all the spiritual and intellectual yearnings of the past incarnation which in that past incarnation have not had an opportunity for fulfillment. It is a period of unspeakable bliss and peace for the human soul, until it has finished its rest time and stage of recuperation of its own energies.

In the devachanic state, the reincarnating ego remains in the bosom of the monad (or of the monadic essence) in a state of the most perfect and utter bliss and peace, reviewing and constantly reviewing, and improving upon in its own blissful imagination, all the unfulfilled spiritual and intellectual possibilities of the life just closed that its naturally creative faculties automatically suggest to the devachanic entity.

Man here is no longer a quaternary of substance-principles (for the second death has taken place), but is now reduced to the monad with the reincarnating ego sleeping in its bosom, and is therefore a spiritual triad. (See also Death, Reincarnating Ego)

See also: Devachan, Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul)

A Theosophical definition of Universe :

Universe

The theosophical philosophy divides the universe into two general functional portions  - one the consciousness side, the abode or dwelling place, and at the same time the aggregate, of all the self-conscious, thinking entities that the boundless universe contains; and the other, the material side of nature, which is their schoolhouse, their home, and their playground too. This so-called material side is a practically infinite aggregate of monads or consciousness-centers passing through that particular phase of their evolutionary journey.

This universe, therefore, is a vast aggregate of consciousnesscenters in both the two functional portions of it; and these consciousness-centers theosophists call monads. They are entities conscious in differing degrees, stretching along the boundless scale of the universal life; but in that particular phase which passes through what we humans call matter, those monads belonging to and forming that side of the universe, in the course of their long, long, evolutionary journey have not yet attained self-conscious powers or faculties. And furthermore, what we call matter, in its last analysis is actually an aggregate of these monads manifesting in their physical expressions as life-atoms.

The consciousness side of universal nature, which also consists of countless hosts of self-conscious entities, works in and through this other or material side; for these hosts of consciousnesses self-express themselves through this other or material function or side, through these other countless hosts of younger and inferior and embryo entities, which are the life-atoms  - embryo gods. The universe is therefore actually and literally imbodied consciousnesses.

See also: Universe, Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul)

A Theosophical definition of Sutratman :

Sutratman

(Sanskrit) A compound word meaning "thread-self," the golden thread of individuality  - the stream of self-consciousness  - on which all the substance-principles of man's constitution are strung, so to say, like pearls on a golden chain. The sutratman is the stream of consciousness-life running through all the various substance-principles of the constitution of the human entity  - or indeed of any other entity. Each such pearl on the golden chain is one of the countless personalities which man uses during the course of his manvantara-long evolutionary progress. The sutratman, therefore, may be briefly said to be the immortal or spiritual monadic ego, the individuality which incarnates in life after life, and therefore is rightly called the thread-self or fundamental self.

It is this sutratman, this thread-self, this consciousness-stream, or rather stream of consciousness-life, which is the fundamental and individual selfhood of every entity, and which, reflected in and through the several intermediate vehicles or veils or sheaths or garments of the invisible constitution of man, or of any other being in which a monad enshrouds itself, produces the egoic centers of self-conscious existence. The sutratman, therefore, is rooted in the monad, the monadic essence.

See also: Sutratman, Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul)

Metempsychosis Commonly used for the entry of the soul into a new body or reimbodiment; but etymologically it means the clothing of a monad with a new soul, while metensomatosis means the clothing of that ensouled monad with a new body.

The new psychic vesture with which the monad is clothed -- its metempsychosis in this case -- is evolved from the monad itself. Metempsychosis is in one sense a transmigration, but transmigration is not necessarily metempsychosis; for transmigration merely means changing or passing over from one condition to another, and therefore may include metensomatosis.

Metempsychosis also means that the soul "is an indivisible entity in its inmost essence, which is pursuing a course along its own particular evolutionary path as an individual monad, taking upon itself 'soul' after 'soul'; and it is the adventures which befall the soul, in its assumption of, or assuming, 'soul' after 'soul,' which in their aggregate are grouped together under this word Metempsychosis.

"In ordinary language metempsychosis is supposed to be a synonym for transmigration, reincarnation, pre-existence, and palingenesis, etc., but all these words in the Esoteric Philosophy have specific meanings of their own, and should not be confused" (OG 105).

(See also: Metempsychosis, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

A Theosophical definition of Higher Triad :

Higher Triad

The imperishable spiritual ego considered as a unity. It is the reincarnating part of man's constitution which clothes itself in each earth-life in a new personality or lower quaternary. The higher triad, speaking in the simplest fashion, is the unity of atman, buddhi, and the higher manas; and the lower quaternary consists of the lower manas or kama-manas, the prana or vitality, the linga-sarira or astral model-body, and the physical vehicle.

Another manner of considering the human constitution in its spiritual aspects is that viewed from the standpoint of consciousness, and in this latter manner the higher triad consists of the divine monad, the spiritual monad, and the higher human monad. The higher triad is often spoken of in a collective sense, and ignoring details of division, as simply the reincarnating monad, or more commonly the reincarnating ego, because this latter is rooted in the higher triad.

Many theosophists experience quite unnecessary difficulty in understanding why the human constitution should be at one time divided in one way and at another time divided in another way. The difficulty lies in considering these divisions as being absolute instead of relative, in other words, as representing watertight compartments instead of merely indefinite and convenient divisions. The simplest psychological division is probably that which divides the septenary constitution of man in three parts: an uppermost duad which is immortal, an intermediate duad which is conditionally immortal, and a lower triad which is unconditionally mortal. (See Fundamentals of the Esoteric Philosophy, 1st ed., pp. 167, 525; 2nd rev. ed., pp. 199, 601).

See also: Higher Triad, Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul)

Aggregate Envelopes

All forms of nature are envelopes for monads. All forms except organisms of the physical world are aggregate envelopes, molecules of the kinds of matter of the respective worlds held together electro-magnetically

(See also: Aggregate Envelopes, New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Antahkarana

(Sanskrit) The inner organ. That channel for energy and consciousness which the evolutionary monad builds through its own activity between its triad units and envelopes as a ladder to climb up to ever higher consciousness and ability.

The antahkarana has its lowest anchorage in the crown centre of the etheric envelope.

(See also: Antahkarana, New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Whirling Souls Used in reference to the Hebrew Gilgulim, the cyclic journeys or whirlings of the monad, and the Qabbalistic teaching that during the course of these peregrinations or transmigrations it enters body after body.

(See also: Whirling Souls, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)