Dual aspect monism is a philosophical theory stating that mind and matter are not two distinct substances, but rather two complementary, inseparable aspects of a single, underlying reality. This fundamental, “psychophysically neutral” reality is neither inherently mental nor physical, but acts as a foundation from which both emerge. Wikipedia +5
Key Aspects of Dual Aspect Monism:
Fundamental Unity: Unlike dualism, it posits only one “stuff” or substance, known as the unus mundus (united world) in the Jung-Pauli scheme or the implicate order in Bohmian mechanics.
Irreducibility: Neither mind nor matter can be reduced to the other, nor can the underlying reality be reduced to either aspect.
Complementarity: Mind and matter are seen as two ways of looking at the same thing, similar to how a coin has two sides, or how quantum objects behave as both waves and particles.
Historical and Modern Context: While rooted in Spinoza’s philosophy (where one substance has two modes: thought and extension), it is a modern approach in the philosophy of mind, adopted by thinkers like David Chalmers, Wolfgang Pauli, and Carl Jung to bridge consciousness and physics. Reddit +4
Differences from Other Views:
Vs. Physicalism: Rejects that everything is fundamentally material.
Vs. Idealism: Rejects that everything is fundamentally mental.
Vs. Dualism: Rejects that mind and body are two separate substances that somehow interact. Wikipedia +4
This view offers a way to avoid the “hard problem” of consciousness by suggesting that subjective, mental experience and objective, physical activity are equally fundamental aspects of one reality. YouTube +1
In a book now marked by both critical acclaim and cross-cultural controversy, Jeffrey J. Kripal explores the life and teachings of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, a nineteenth-century Bengali saint who played a major role in the creation of modern Hinduism. Through extended textual and symbolic analyses of Ramakrishna’s censored “secret talk,” Kripal demonstrates that the saint’s famous ecstatic and visionary experiences were driven by mystico-erotic energies that he neither fully accepted nor understood. The result is a striking new vision of Ramakrishna as a conflicted, homoerotic Tantric mystic that is as complex as it is clear and as sympathetic to the historical Ramakrishna as it is critical of his traditional portraits.
In a substantial new preface to this second edition, Kripal answers his critics, addresses the controversy the book has generated in India, and traces the genealogy of his work in the history of psychoanalytic discourse on mysticism, Hinduism, and Ramakrishna himself. Kali’s Child has already proven to be provocative, groundbreaking, and immensely enjoyable.
“Only a few books make such a major contribution to their field that from the moment of publication things are never quite the same again. Kali’s Child is such a book.”—John Stratton Hawley, History of Religions
Winner of the American Academy of Religion’s History of Religions Prize for the Best First Book of 1995
New Thinking Allowed with Jeffrey Mishlove Streamed live 2 hours ago Glenn Aparicio Parry, PhD, is author of Original Thinking: A Radical Revisioning of Time, Humanity, and Nature. He is the founder and director of the Circle for Original Thinking, a think tank based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He was also given the name Kizhe Naabe (Ojibwe for “Kind-Hearted Man”) and is author of Original Politics: Making American Sacred Again. His newest book is Original Love: The Timeless Source of Wholeness. Glenn is offering an online seminar on April 9 – 30, four Thursdays, 10 am – 1 pm, MDT. See https://glennaparicioparry.com/events…
Nature lives in constant competition. In an ongoing bid for survival, each plant strives to encroach upon any available tract of land, capture any available drop of water, and reach up to any available ray of sunlight. This indiscriminate growth and expansion is the only way to avoid extinction…
April
Attention
Because essence is inborn while personality forms during childhood, we can understand the state of essence more clearly by observing little children. To a child, everything appears fresh and curious. Everything they see and experience penetrates them deeply and leaves a lasting impression. Their intellectual ability to name what they are experiencing is as yet undeveloped, so when they see a blade of grass they do not know to call it ‘grass’. For them, it may just as well be a miniature skyscraper perfectly placed in an endless green metropolis. A tree is not yet a ‘tree’; it is a jungle-gym, an apartment complex for birds, or an infinite array of other possibilities. A bird is a miracle of iridescent feathers, spectacular in motion and song. As the child progresses towards adulthood, seeing is gradually replaced by knowing, and essence becomes covered with an ever-thickening coat of personality. What they experience no longer penetrates directly as it did before, but is filtered through association, comparison, and criticism—if it is noticed at all. Comparing the state of children to adults we see that essence absorbs and personality deflects. Understanding this in turn instructs the direction of our farming. To weaken personality and strengthen essence, we will have to absorb more and deflect less—and we absorb through paying attention.
Attention functions mysteriously. It captures, in a fixed field, matter or energy, which without attention would diffuse indefinitely. When we sit on a bench in a park, the objects in our surroundings are there all the time—the grass, the trees, the chirping birds—but as long as we are not paying attention to them, then for us they do not exist. Once we do pay them attention, they not only come to life for us, but also influence us with new perceptions and emotions. Our essence feeds on these impressions, just as our body feeds on physical food. To demonstrate this, our April farmer holds up two seedlings, one wilted and the other healthy. A healthy leaf feeds on sunlight just like essence feeds on impressions. It fixes electrical energy into cellular matter just as essence absorbs impressions and is influenced by them. The sunlight is always there; it is up to the leaf to make use of it. Impressions are always there; it is up to us to absorb them by paying attention. This means that it is within our power to influence our essence through directing our attention.
One effective method we use for putting this into practice is the Looking Exercise. For the duration of a minute, we take in one visual element after another in our immediate environment. By ‘taking in’, we mean perceiving what we are looking at without attaching a verbal association to it. The challenge here is to stay with each impression long enough to absorb it, but not so long as to allow our thinking function to generate associations to what we are seeing. For example, while sitting in the park, look at the bench, then the grass, then a tree, then birds in flight—aiming to actually see them, rather than merely register they are there. The aim is to force ourselves to favor the impressions around us over our habitual associations or daydreaming. One big advantage of this method is that it can be exercised anywhere. This in itself is a lesson that helps dissolve the illusion that our internal efforts require favorable conditions.
If, indeed, we do observe that taking in impressions brings about a tangible shift in our internal landscape, with a crescendo of emotions, this in itself is no small revelation. We have found a way to weaken personality and feed essence that is almost always applicable. Very few situations in everyday life favor essence over personality. We have found a way to begin reversing this. At any time we can make an effort to absorb—to see what is before us, to feel our body pressing against our chair, to favor listening to others over the urge to speak—and in so doing, we revitalize the wilted leaves of our essence.
This is the labor of April.
ABOUT THE SCHOOL Our projects are undertaken with the understanding that a school must give back. It must harness the talent and resources of its members to form an expression that can outlast them.Learn more about the School of the Old New Method
WATCH AN INTRODUCTORY WORKSHOP Learn more about the Old New Method – Watch recordings of our online gatherings that introduce the knowledge and practical methods we use.Available through purchase. View Workshops ABOUT THE FOUNDER I had no structural foundation at my disposal, no institution, no location, no following—only the conviction that these truths were pertinent to contemporary seekers… Drawing inspiration from the agricultural metaphor embedded in ancient wisdom, I arranged the central concepts into twelve monthly labors, creating a yearly cycle of symbolic cultivation tasks… Soon, a hundred people committed to practicing this cyclical teaching on a regular basis. This was the beginning of my school.”Read the full autobiographical note by Asaf Braverman ABOUT THE TEACHING Nature develops us only up to a certain point and then leaves us unfinished, just as it creates wheat but not bread, milk but not butter, grapes but not wine…Learn more about our teaching
On March 28th, 2026, Saturn in Aries is sextile Pluto in Aquarius. Saturn is at 5° Aries, and Pluto at 5° Aquarius.
Aspects between slow-moving planets like Saturn and Pluto are always important because they shape the larger direction things are moving in.
It’s these big, underlying influences that affect every single one of us, whether we’re aware of them or not.
When we think of Saturn and Pluto, we usually reduce them to generic keywords like discipline and systems (Saturn), or long-term transformation (Pluto).
Which is all correct – but if we want to understand what’s really being set into motion, we need to go one layer deeper and look at the larger story that is unfolding.
The Larger Saturn-Pluto Cycle: 2020-2033
This sextile is the first aspect in the current Saturn-Pluto cycle that started in January 2020.
Yes, that conjunction astrologers had been warning about for years, and which we now associate with Covid and all the mayhem that followed.
That conjunction was in Capricorn, a sign associated with institutions, structures, and authority.
When Saturn conjuncted Pluto, institutions tightened. Systems became more rigid. Structures were reinforced. These were all very literal expressions of Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn.
But if we focus only on these surface-level manifestations, we miss what Saturn and Pluto actually set into motion.
The same forces that triggered the institutional response – the control, the restrictions – ALSO activated something else: the individual taking responsibility for their own life.
The events around the beginning of this Saturn-Pluto cycle in 2020 made us reassess what really matters. Priorities shifted. Many of us started working from home. Many of us changed careers.
And what initially felt like a crisis response gradually became something else – an opportunity to reorganize our lives in ways more aligned with who we are.
This is also perhaps the first time when people at large began to question “the system” – and seriously consider what it would mean to step outside of it.
And of course, a big part in this shift was played by another important transit that followed Saturn-Pluto: the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction at 0° Aquarius in late 2020.
However, Saturn-Pluto in itself set a new cycle of authority into motion – initiating a 33-year cycle that fundamentally reshapes how power, control, and responsibility are structured.
What’s important to keep in mind with conjunctions is that they are the “point zero”, the seeding of the cycle. This is when something new is planted, but we don’t yet see what it will grow into. That takes time.
What actually unfolds – what grows from that seed – is only revealed in the subsequent phases of the cycle, as the 2 planets begin to interact through aspects: first the sextile, then the square, then the opposition, and so on.
Saturn And Pluto – Reconfiguration Of Systems
The Saturn-Pluto sextile this month is the first real aspect following the Saturn-Pluto conjunction in 2020.
Saturn represents the systems our world operates under – anything from books and online directories (systems that store information), to roads, infrastructure, the way we structure our time, and how we run our work.
Saturn is how the 3D world we live in is organized and operates.
Pluto, as the outermost planet in our solar system, represents the principle of transformation.
Whenever a 3D Saturn system reaches a point where it is no longer productive, becomes outdated, or starts to break down, Pluto – this ‘invisible hand’ – steps in to make the necessary adjustments.
So when this Saturn-Pluto cycle started in 2020, it initiated a new way of organizing reality, rooted in the societal changes that unfolded at that time.
Many focused on the restrictive side of Saturn – the control, the institutionalization, the top-down decision making. But this overlooks the role Pluto was playing in the background.
… the more Pluto intensifies its response and stress-tests the system.
Counterintuitively, what is used to control and tighten things even further has the opposite effect.
It’s a law of nature: when a system feels threatened, it tightens its grip. The impulse is to become even more controlling, even more rigid.
Saturn And Pluto – When Control Becomes The Breaking Point
But then something shifts.
The very attempt to enforce control starts to raise questions.
“Wait a minute… something doesn’t add up.” “Why go to such lengths?” “What is really going on here?”
A sense of distrust naturally emerges when something is pushed too forcefully, when the need to control becomes too visible.
The more we try to convince, the harder the message is to believe.
People simply stop buying into it.
Sometimes there is a clear turning point, but in most cases – and as we’ve seen across cycles – these shifts happen gradually. Cycles don’t collapse overnight; they naturally grow out of what no longer resonates.
Saturn Sextile Pluto – The Quiet Exit
People stop participating. They disengage. They step away from a narrative that is no longer convincing, from something that has lost its appeal.
This has already been happening in the past years in many areas.
Take media and communication. Before the rise of the internet and alternative media, most people relied on a limited number of ‘sources of truth’ – institutionalized, centralized, easy to control.
Slowly but surely, these traditional channels started to lose their legitimacy.
In parallel, alternative media began to offer more options. Forums. Comment sections that, even when moderated, still allow different perspectives to slip through. Podcasts. Private channels.
It was the growing dissatisfaction with the old that created the space – and the demand – for these new forms to emerge.
These developments unfolded in parallel.
First, a small number of people disengaged, while the first alternative media platforms became available and started to gain traction.
Then more and more people disengaged. Fewer and fewer people watched TV and traditional media, and more and more people turned to podcasts or private channels.
It didn’t happen in one big moment where people said “I quit.” They simply shifted their attention.
When we stop participating in a system that is no longer convincing, alternatives naturally emerge and grow.
And this is what the sextile is about – the first opening where something new can begin to take shape alongside what is no longer working.
Saturn Sextile Pluto – When Options Start To Appear
In the Hero’s Journey, the sextile is the first major aspect after the conjunction – the moment when the Hero, once embarked on the journey, begins to receive help.
A mentor appears. An animal companion. A clue. Something that might be easily overlooked, but proves instrumental.
With the sextile, nothing dramatic happens. But this is when options start to appear.
And while we might not always recognize their relevance, paying attention – engaging with the archetypal ‘3rd house’ energy of the sextile – allows us to notice them.
The principle is simple, and it’s something people across time and cultures have recognized: when we commit to a new path, support begins to show up.
Not all at once, not in obvious ways – but through small openings, signals, and opportunities that invite us to move forward.
Saturn In Aries Sextile Pluto In Aquarius
So how might this play out with Saturn in Aries sextile Pluto in Aquarius?
First and foremost, Saturn in Aries brings responsibility back to the individual. With Saturn in Aries, authority is no longer something we can look up to. WE are the authority.
And while the idea that there’s no one out there who can save us can feel daunting at first, it’s also very liberating. If there’s no one out there, it means it’s up to us. And this is something we CAN control.
Pluto in Aquarius, on the other hand, speaks of transformation at the level of systems – decentralizing concentrated power structures and redistributing power across networks.
In 2024, Pluto moved out of Capricorn, entering Aquarius. Think of Capricorn as the main artery – centralized, structured, controlled. And Aquarius as the network of smaller vessels, distributing resources, information, and energy in all directions.
The Waterbearer (Aquarius) takes what the Sea Goat (Capricorn) has concentrated at the top of the mountain and pours it back into the system.
And this is exactly what begins to happen now when the Aries-Aquarius energies are being activated.
With Saturn sextile Pluto in Aries-Aquarius, people come together in new ways, finding alternative ways to connect, collaborate, and build.
Parallel systems begin to form – systems that allow for a more distributed and more sustainable way of organizing reality.
However intense reality may appear right now – there are clear signs that the systems and structures we’ve relied on are on the verge of breaking down.
The new is already emerging, and we are in that in-between phase where there is the most chaos, the most uncertainty, but also the greatest opportunity.
With every choice we make – the food we buy, the type of content we consume, where we spend our money – we either reinforce the old structures OR help bring something new into being.
The Saturn-Pluto sextile is about recognizing that in every crisis, opportunities – by design – inevitably emerge.
What changes things is what we choose to engage with.
The old only disappears when we stop feeding it. And the new takes shape every time we choose it.
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Two of today’s maverick authors on anomalous experience present a perception-altering and intellectually thrilling analysis of why the paranormal is real, but radically different from what is conventionally understood.
Whitley Strieber ( Communion ) and Jeffrey J. Kripal (J. Newton Rayzor professor of religion at Rice University) team up on this unprecedented and intellectually vibrant new framing of inexplicable events and experiences.
Rather than merely document the anomalous, these authors–one the man who popularized alien abduction and the other a renowned scholar and “renegade advocate for including the paranormal in religious studies” ( The New York Times )–deliver a fast-paced and exhilarating study of why the supernatural is neither fantasy nor fiction but a vital and authentic aspect of life.
Their suggestion? That all kinds of “impossible” things, from extra-dimensional beings to bilocation to bumps in the night, are not impossible at rather, they are a part of our natural world. But this natural world is immeasurably more weird, more wonderful, and probably more populated than we have so far imagined with our current categories and cultures, which are what really make these things seem “impossible.”
The Super Natural considers that the natural world is actually a “super natural world”–and all we have to do to see this is to change the lenses through which we are looking at it and the languages through which we are presently limiting it. In The extraordinary exists if we know how to look at and think about it.
American writer best known for his novels The Wolfen,The Hunger and Warday and for Communion, a non-fiction description of his experiences with apparent alien contact. He has recently made significant advances in understanding this phenomenon, and has published his new discoveries in Solving the Communion Enigma.
Strieber also co-authored The Coming Global Superstorm with Art Bell, which inspired the blockbuster film about sudden climate change, The Day After Tomorrow.
His book The Afterlife Revolution written with his deceased wife Anne, is a record of what is considered to be one of the most powerful instances of afterlife communication ever recorded.
23 And he went up from thence unto Bethel: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head.
24 And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the Lord. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them.
25 And he went from thence to mount Carmel, and from thence he returned to Samaria.
Google AI Overview
Yes, 2 Kings 2:23-25 KJV specifically describes an incident involving the prophet Elisha. As Elisha traveled toward Bethel, a group of young men from the city mocked his baldness and shouted “Go up, thou bald head!”, resulting in Elisha cursing them and two bears mauling 42 of them. Bible.org +2
Key details about the narrative:
Context: Elisha had just succeeded Elijah and was establishing his authority as the new prophet in a region known for idolatry.
The Mocking: The phrase “Go up” is interpreted by many scholars as a sarcastic reference to Elijah being taken up into heaven, mocking both Elisha and his master’s ascension.
The Group: While the KJV uses “little children,” many interpretations suggest these were a large, dangerous group of young men or teenagers (“youths” or “lads”) rather than small children, making them a direct physical threat.
Divine Judgement: The passage depicts the event as a swift divine judgment against those who mocked God’s messenger, not just a random act of violence. \Reddit +5
Elisha went on to Mount Carmel and returned to Samaria after this event. YouTube +1
Bleecker Street and WOWPresents Mar 27, 2026 Watch the Official Teaser for Stop! That! Train! Only in Theaters June 12 — STOP! THAT! TRAIN! follows best friends Tess (Ginger Minj) and DeeDee (Jujubee), train stewardesses who trade their dreary shifts on the Stank Rail for the glitzy Glamazonian Express. When a catastrophic “Stormaganza” threatens to derail the high-speed train and crash it into Los Angeles, the duo in coach must join forces with the snobby first class attendants (Symone, Brooke Lynn Hytes, Marcia Marcia Marcia) and President Gagwell (RuPaul) to save the day in this wild ride of camp and comedy.
