Personalities Dictionary

Reincarnation: Also known as transmigration of the soul, reincarnation is the belief that after a person dies that person’s personality or soul is reborn in a new body.

(See also: Reincarnation , Magic, Shamanism, Paganism, Wicca)

dualism

Separation, absence of love; seeing oneself as different from the sacred universe. 2. In metaphysical view man is composed of two basics: a physical nature and a spiritual nature; thus two bodies, two minds. The paradox: one personality, one soul, one spirit.

(See also: Dualism , Body Mind and Soul)

Bach flower therapy: (Bach flower essence method, Bach flower essence system): Homeopathic system of diagnosis and treatment developed in the 1930:s by British physician Edward Bach (1886-1936). Bach held that disease was essentially beneficial and that its design was to subject the personality to the Divine will of the soul. He psychically discovered the specific healing effects of 38 wildflowers. The life force ("soul quality" or "energy wavelength") of each of these flowers is transferable to water and thence to humans.

(See also: Bach flower therapy , Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Varaha:

Varaha: The Boar-incarnation of Vishnu. Varaha: the incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead as a boar.

(See also: Varaha , Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

astrologic medicine (astral healing, astrological healing, astromedicine, medical astrology, medicinal astrology): System based on cosmobiology,a science whose principle is that specific mental and physical conditions correspond to the relative positions of celestial bodies. Astrologic medicine involves horoscopic astrology and the zodiacal man doctrine. The principle of horoscopic astrology--also called genethliacal astrology, horoscopy, natal astrology, popular astrology, and sun sign astrology--is that the relationship between the positions of planets and stars and the moment of one's birth determines lifelong personality. According to the zodiacal man doctrine, each of the twelve signs (houses) of the zodiac--constellations named Aries, Taurus, etc.--governs a different part of the human body. Proponents associate these zodiacal signs (sun signs) with bodily parts (e.g., organs) and systems and with predisposition to disease in different bodily parts. Certain planetary configurations can trigger disease in susceptible persons. Some proponents further posit a correlation of (a) sun signs and particular herbs, and (b) sun signs and the twelve cell salts of the Schuessler biochemic system of medicine. Astrologic medicine includes astrodiagnosis (see astrological diagnosis), prognosis, selection and timing of treatments (especially homeopathic remedies), and preventive medicine.

(See also: Astrologic medicine , Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Aryan Nations Church

Centered at Hayden Lake, ID: it is a neo-Nazi paramilitary Christian organization that preaches against all non-Caucasian groups. The Order, an Aryan Nations break-off group, killed Alan Berg, a Jewish radio personality in Denver, in 1984. The Aryan Nations received national notice in 1992 when the wife of member Randy Weaver was killed in a shootout with the FBI in Ruby Ridge

(See also: Aryan Nations Church , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Hrsikesa:

Hrsikesa: Krishna, name of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the supreme master of everyone’s senses.

(See also: Hrsikesa , Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Enneagram system (Enneagram, Enneatype system): System of spiritual psychology based on an ancient Sufi typology of nine (ennea in Greek) personality types or primary roles:

(1)           the achiever (reformer) - orderly, rational, and self-righteous;

(2)           the helper - generous, manipulative, and possessive;

(3)           the succeeder (motivator, status-seeker) - ambitious, hostile, and pragmatic;

(4)           the individualist (artist) - intuitive, self-absorbed, and sensitive;

(5)           the observer (thinker) - analytic, original, and provocative;

(6)           the guardian (loyalist) - defensive, engaging, and responsible;

(7)           the dreamer (generalist) - accomplished and manic;

(8)           the confronter (leader) - combative, dominating, and self-confident; and

(9)           the preservationist (peacemaker) - easygoing and receptive.

Each type has a prime psychological addiction (fixation or blind spot), respectively: anger, pride, deceit, envy, greed, fear, gluttony, lust for life and power, and laziness. These addictions include Christianity's seven deadly sins.

(a)           Recognition of one's type is tantamount to spiritual awakening. in the process of neutralizing the prime addiction:

(b)          achievers become pathfinders,

(c)           helpers become partners, succeeders become motivators,

(d)           individualists become builders,

(e)           observers become explorers,

(f)             guardians become stabilizers,

(g)           dreamers become illuminators,

(h)           confronters become philanthropists, and

(i)             preservationists become universalists.

(See also: Enneagram system , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Psychotherapy: Usually conducted by a trained, certified, or licensed therapist, psychotherapy is the treatment of individuals with emotional problems, behavioral problems, or mental illness primarily through the use of psychological techniques. These techniques are designed to encourage communication of conflicts and insight into problems, with the goal being relief of symptoms, changes in behavior leading to improved social and vocational functioning, and personality growth.

(See also: Psychotherapy , Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Alexander Technique (Alexander method, F.M. Alexander Technique): A means of integrating one's mental, physical, and spiritual aspects.

According to its theory, maintaining alignment of the head, neck, and back leads to optimum overall physical functioning. Frederick Matthias Alexander (1869-1955), an Australian Shakespearean actor, developed the method at the turn of the century and wrote The Resurrection of the Body. Although his original purpose was to assist voice projection, Alexander concluded that faulty posture was responsible for diverse symptoms. He posited that habitual unbalanced movement affects the functioning of the entire body, implying that postures entail behavior patterns and that bad postural habits can distort one's personality.

Alexander further posited that all proper bodily movements flowed from one basic movement, the maximum lengthening of the spine, which he termed the primary control. He stated that, in a sense, his method embraced all religions, and he posited an all-wise invisible Authority within the soul of man. Practitioners (teachers) of the Alexander Technique press manually on various parts of the student's body and simultaneously repeatedly pronounce phrases that are key to the method.

(See also: Alexander Technique , Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Discarnate - N

The soul or personality of a living creature who has died.

(See also: Discarnate , New Age, Body mind and Soul)

Vishnu:

Vishnu: Associated with Creation, He is Brahma, with Protection; He is Vishnu, with Dissolution; He is Shiva. (BV-30) The Supreme Lord; Lord Krishna's expansions in Vaikuntha and for the creation and maintenance of the material universes. Vishnu: a name of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the creator and maintainer of the material universes.

(See also: Vishnu , Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Buddha (Sanskrit). Lit., "The Enlightened". The highest degree of knowledge. To become a Buddha one has to break through the bondage of sense and personality; to acquire a complete perception of the REAL SELF and learn not to separate it from all otherselves; to learn by experience the utter unreality of all phenomena of the visible Kosmos foremost of all; to reach a complete detachment from all that is evanescent and finite, and live while yet on Earth in the immortal and the everlasting alone, in a supreme state of holiness.

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

Uttarayana:

Uttarayana: The divine half-year - the time when Rama was born. (RRV-4)

Vasudeva: When Vasudeva enters the heart of man, vasudeva has no longer a place therein. In other words, when the deva of vasu or wealth is seated in the heart, the divine Vasudeva or Krishna cannot dwell therein. (BV-1) Name of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna, the Owner of everything, material and spiritual.

(See also: Uttarayana , Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Buddha (Sanskrit) (from the verbal root budh to perceive, awaken, recover consciousness)

Awakened, enlightened; one who is spiritually awakened, who has become one with the supreme self (paramatman).

"To become a Buddha one has to break through the bondage of sense and personality; to acquire a complete perception of the real self and learn not to separate it from all other selves; to learn by experience the utter unreality of all phenomena of the visible Kosmos foremost of all; to reach a complete detachment from all that is evanescent and finite, and live while yet on Earth in the immortal and the everlasting alone, in a supreme state of holiness" (TG 64-5).

"A Buddha in the esoteric teaching is one whose higher principles can learn nothing more in this manvantara; they have reached Nirvana and remain there. This does not mean, however, that the lower centers of consciousness of a Buddha are in Nirvana, for the contrary is true; and it is this fact that enables a Buddha of Compassion to remain in the lower realms of being as mankind's supreme Guide and Instructor, living usually as a Nirmanakaya" (OG 33-4).

See also GAUTAMA

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

Absorption (from Latin absorbere to suck up, swallow)

In The Secret Doctrine, the reabsorption of all manifestation at the coming on of the Great Night or mahapralaya, "when Pralaya will have reduced not only material and psychical bodies, but even the spiritual Ego(s) to their original principle -- the Past, Present, and even Future Humanities, like all things, will be one and the same. Everything will have re-entered the Great Breath" (1:265-6).

Likewise the reentering of the human into the divine, of the personality into the individuality, achieved in moments of samadhi even during the lifetime of the initiate on earth; also entrance of the individual into the nirvanic condition.

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

Image. Occultism permits no other image than that of the living image of divine man (the symbol of Humanity) on earth. The Kabbala teaches that this divine Image, the copy of the sublime and holy upper Image (the Elohim) has now changed into another similitude, owing to the development of men’s sinful nature. It is only the upper divine Image (the Ego) which is the same; the lower (personality) has changed, and man, now fearing the wild beasts, has grown to bear on his face the similitude of many of them. (Zohar I. fol. 71a.) In the early period of Egypt there were no images; but later, as Lenormand says, "In the sanctuaries of Egypt they divided the properties of nature and consequently of Divinity (the Elohim, or the Egos), into seven abstract qualities, characterised each by an emblem, which are matter, cohesion, fluxion, coagulation, accumulation, station and division ". These were all attributes symbolized in various images.

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

Amrita-yana amrita-yana (Sanskrit) (from a not + mrita dead from the verbal root mrir to die + yana path, vehicle)

The path of immortality; in The Voice of the Silence the path followed by the Buddhas of Compassion or of Perfection. It is the "secret path," the arya (noble) path of the heart doctrine of esoteric wisdom. The Buddhas of Compassion instead of donning the dharmakaya vesture and then entering nirvana, as the Pratyeka Buddhas do, give up nirvana and assume the nirmanakaya robe, thus enabling them to work directly for all beings less evolved than they; and because of this great individual sacrifice, the nirmanakaya condition is in one sense the holiest of the trikaya (three vestures). The amrita-yana is thus a lofty spiritual pathway, and leads to the ineffable glories of self-conscious immortality in the cosmic manvantaric "eternity."

The term may also refer to the "immortal vehicle" within each person, the individuality in contradistinction to the evanescent personality; that is, "the Spiritual Soul, or the Immortal monad -- a combination of the fifth, sixth and seventh" principles (ML 114).

(See also: Amrita-yana , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Advaita-vada - the doctrine of non-dualism, monism - the doctrine that emphasizes the absolute oneness of the living entities with God. This is often equated with the Mayavada theory that everything is ultimately one; that there is no distinction whatsoever between the Supreme Absolute and the individual living entities; that the Supreme is devoid of form, personality, qualities, and activities; and that perfection is to merg oneself into the all-pervading impersonal brahma. This doctrine was propagated by Sri Sankaracarya.

(See also: Advaita-vada , Bhakti, Bhakti Yoga, Bhakti Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Psychosynthesis

A developmental psychological and educational process formulated by Roberto Assagioli. Its goals are the integration of personality and awareness of the Self.

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

A dictionary of parapsychology. Please note that words in grey are hyperlinked to a corresponding archive with articles related to that particular topic.

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