Attribution
My best guess is that many of you who have come this far are experiencing a sort of internal mental chaos as a consequence of my delivering on the relentless challenging of beliefs I promised in my first couple of posts. There are no answers in the chaos. Whatever answers there may be can arise only once the chaos settles, and when those answers do arise, they will arise in the form of insights sheathed in positive feelings, not in the form of clearly articulated concepts.
In the hopes of helping any readers so inclined to arrive at those positive feelings, it's time to introduce another character in our ongoing narrative.
You may recall the post Discovering the Role of Thought, in which I discussed the cathartic weekend I'd spent at Pransky & Associates in La Conner, Washington in the autumn of 1994. I mentioned in that post that the founder of that organization, George Pransky, along with another psychologist, Roger Mills, had recently developed a new approach to human psychology, then known as Psychology of Mind.
In the same post, I also introduced the concepts of mind, consciousness and thought that George had repeatedly referenced that weekend. I've gone on in subsequent posts to discuss at great length the role that thought plays in our experience of life, and I've also mentioned consciousness in passing, perhaps most prominently in Are you Certain you're Conscious?, where I stressed that consciousness itself was not only the one aspect of the self that everyone can be certain exists, I defined consciousness as the very faculty that allows perception of anything at all. I've also referenced mind repeatedly, drawing attention to the fact that most consider the mind to be synonymous with the brain, that intellectual endeavors are almost universally regarded as the only valid use of the mind, and that despite the widespread obsession with applying reason and logic to solve problems and understand and alter our environment, the mind is also responsible for insights that appear to arise naturally, and finally, that without an insight to precede its application, reason and logic are impotent.
What I haven't shared to this point was that this terminology did not originate with me, nor did it originate with George Pransky or Roger Mills. Psychology of Mind practitioners didn't widely share the source of their approach in 1994, although today, those engaging this approach do. As a matter of fact, what was known as Psychology of Mind in 1994, is today known as the Three Principles, and its practitioners rely heavily on the work of the man who did coin these terms, a man who remains relatively obscure outside of the Three Principles (3P) community.
Sydney Banks was a welder living near Vancouver, Canada in the early 1970's. He had immigrated to Canada from Scotland in his youth, and his education concluded after the ninth grade. He was a tradesman, married, and living an average life in northwest Canada. There was nothing remarkable about him at all.
In 1973, there were many self-realization psychology gurus promoting one approach or another to “get in touch” with your true self. This appealed greatly to many people at the time, people who had become disillusioned with the direction of society and culture (the Vietnam conflict was nearing its end at the time, while Watergate would lead to the resignation of Nixon just a year later). At the same time, few were finding the answers provided by traditional religions satisfying their questions about the nature of existence. As the acceptance of reason, logic and the application of the intellect continued to expand its dominance in respect to any and all questions seeking to arrive at truth, human psychology promised to finally provide the answers. Numerous approaches were developed, nearly all tracing their lineage to the assumptions of Sigmund Freud, and people flocked to attend. Sydney Banks found himself at one of these events in 1973. This event was apparently advocating an approach to mental health that required that couples focus exclusively on their dissatisfaction with one another, and to scream relentlessly at their partners to resolve their issues. A sort of “get it out of your system” approach, I suppose.
Syd later described the seminar as terrible, but immediately following the session he found himself speaking with a psychologist. Over the course of this conversation Syd mentioned that he was insecure. The psychologist responded by saying something to the effect of, “You're not insecure, Syd. You just think you are.”
This simple statement somehow delivered an enormously powerful realization to Sydney Banks. Banks later recounted how he immediately turned to the psychologist and asked if he realized how profound his comment had been. The psychologist responded with a dismissive, “Of course, I just said it!”
Yet, Sydney Banks recognized that the psychologist didn't truly understand at all, understood only intellectually, only rationally. For Banks himself had realized a deep significance in that simple statement. He relates that he returned home and found himself sleepless for three days, as he realized that not only his insecurity, but countless other evaluations he'd made of himself weren't absolutely true, but simply thoughts he'd come to accept over the years. He felt his spirits rise with each realization.
A few days later, while visiting his mother-in-law's home on Salt Spring Island, Sydney Banks had the experience that would earn him an entry into a “revised and updated” edition of Cosmic Consciousness, were Richard Bucke still alive today to continue his project. While gazing at the Pacific Ocean through a picture window, all personal thought fell away. Bathed in the subjective light universally reported by all who realize the true nature of existence, Sydney Banks went through his own enlightenment experience. It would alter every aspect of his life.
Banks immediately felt an overwhelming responsibility to share what he had realized. He started with his immediate social circle. It didn't go well. Friends and acquaintances abandoned him in droves. He refused to be discouraged, sharing what he now understood with anyone who would listen. He decided to run an small ad in the classified section of the local newspaper. Within a few months, Banks found himself holding discussions with an assortment of small groups of spiritual seekers at his home on Salt Spring Island. These groups included, among otherwise regular folks, occasional eastern mystics, Buddhist monks, Hindu sages. Attendees started realizing genuine change in their lives.
By 1976, George Pransky and Roger Mills had each heard about Sydney Banks, and the effect he was having on people. They decided to attend one of his meetings to see what was going on for themselves. Both men were puzzled by Syd Banks' approach, but found themselves also deeply personally affected by his authenticity and bewilderingly simple, yet unfathomably deep message.
I eventually acquired numerous audio tapes from these early meetings, which are a wonderful resource, although most are no longer available. The sole exception is a 50 minute compilation of excerpts from four of these early cassette tapes. It is my hope that all will eventually be digitally archived and freely distributed, but that would require Sydney Banks' heirs to release the copyrights. Three books written by Linda Quiring, among the first to respond to Sydney Banks' classified advertisement do recount those early days. Island of Knowledge, and Beyond Beliefs: The Lost Teachings of Sydney Banks are collaborations with Sydney Banks and the first efforts of any kind to articulate his realization. Linda had struggled with severe depression beginning in her twenties, and had been told that she would need to be reliant on medicine and occasional shock therapy for the rest of her life. Yet, shortly after meeting Sydney Banks, she ceased medicating entirely and permanently, never to seek psychiatric assistance again. Her third book is her memoir, Encounters with an Enlightened Man.
Although his realization and message is entirely consistent with all who had preceded him, there were two important distinctions between Sydney Banks and the countless others who had realized Cosmic Consciousness in the preceding millennia. First, while all who have glimpsed the true nature of the underlying reality we're immersed in, including Banks, are subject to the cultural constraints imposed by the philosophical foundations and religious practices of their time, Sydney Banks' time was, and remains, the age of philosophical materialism. While this would prove to create significant obstacles over the ensuing 35 years, the technology now common due to mankind's obsession with logic and reason allowed audio and video recordings to archive Banks' discussions regarding his understanding unfiltered, free of interpretation or editing from second hand sources. The second distinction was that rather than defining or expressing his realization within any particular religious context, Sydney Banks recognized that his realization related directly to all human psychology, regardless of cultural, religious or spiritual orientation. He recognized that it was humanity's relationship to our own minds, individually, that needed to be addressed.
As fate would have it, several mental health professionals, including Pransky and Mills, now had first hand experience of exposure to Sydney Banks and his message.