Philosophy, art, esotericism as “communicating vessels”, and what a certain pause in esotericism

The XII International conference "Mystical-Esoteric Movements in Theory and Practice: Esotericism in Philosophy, Literature and Art" will be held at the Russian Institute of Theater Arts at the Department of History of Philosophy and Literature in early February. In an information letter, the organizers of the conference, in particular, write: "The purpose of the conference is to identify the mystical-esoteric subtext of works of literature and art, to reflect on what new facets, forms and aspects can be seen in the "secret knowledge" rejected by the rationalism of Modern times, to find out whether it is possible in this regard to develop the methodology of the sciences of literature and art, the study of the social and psychological causes of the boom of films and television series, popular literature and TV shows about witches, vampires, wizards, etc." ^[16].   

  Thank God, at present the themes of esotericism and mysticism from the field of ideological criticism, where this type of knowledge was evaluated within the framework of pseudoscience, have moved into the mainstream of normal philosophical and scientific (mainly humanitarian) comprehension. Your humble servant, for example, has published several scientific articles and four books on esoteric teachings and attitude since the mid-90s ^{[4; 5; 6; 7]}. In the latter, published last year, in particular, two directions of esotericism are divorced – "transcendental" and "latent" ("mental") ^{[7, p. 10]}. The first direction can be characterized by three postulates. First, there are two worlds (realities): ordinary, assessed as poorly arranged (conflicts, contradictions, lack of conditions for real life, etc.) and genuine life, as a rule, meeting the aspirations (ideals, dreams) of esotericists. The second postulate is that it is worth living only in the authentic reality, so esotericists understand the purpose of their being as a transition from this world to the authentic one. The third postulate, a necessary condition for such a transition, is a cardinal transformation of oneself, up to superhuman existence. Such transformation includes spiritual work, a special way of life and psychotechnics.

Separating these directions, I note that "the characteristics of the essence of esotericism, concerning the opposite properties of the ordinary and esoteric worlds, subordination of one's life to the task of getting into the authentic world and therefore the cardinal alteration of personality, are valid only with respect to some esoteric teachings, for example, Plato, Rudolf Steiner, Sri Aurobindo, partly Carlos Castaneda. For example, the teachings of Emmanuel Swedenborg, as I try to show, can be confidently brought under the heading of esoteric (this is the Christian version of esotericism) ^{[8, pp. 4-12, 106, 149-152]}. But Swedenborg, although he bred the ordinary and spiritual worlds, did not endow them with opposite properties, as Plato did, for example. Swedenborg did not set a super?task for himself - to get into the spiritual world and radically remake himself for this. He found himself in the spiritual world, while remaining in the ordinary world, not as a result of a psychotechnical transformation of his personality, but a natural intense spiritual life and creativity.

My research shows that most of the esotericists (I refer them to the mental direction), although they strive to be in the true reality and live its events, do not rigidly oppose the ordinary and esoteric worlds, do not endow them with opposite properties, and are not inclined to radically alter their personality" ^{[7, pp. 214-235]}. It changes itself under the influence of the esoteric way and style of thinking and life.

A common condition of both directions of esotericism is personality. "Esotericism is due to the appearance, since antiquity, of a personality, that is, a new type of person who, without leaving society, is nevertheless opposed to it, strives to act independently, and therefore is forced to build the world and himself in this world for himself ^[9]. Rudolf Steiner, for example, paid attention to the personal and creative plans of a person long before he became an esoteric.

"Raising the value of being a human person," he wrote in 1891 in his doctoral dissertation on philosophy ("Essay on Occult Science" will appear almost 20 years later), "this is the goal of all science…The result of these studies is that truth does not represent, as it is commonly accepted, an ideal reflection of something real, but is a free product of the human spirit, a product that would not exist anywhere at all if we did not produce it ourselves. The task of cognition is not the repetition in the form of concepts of something already existing elsewhere, but the creation of a completely new area, which only together with the sensory world gives full reality…Cognition rests, therefore, on the fact that the content of the world is given to us initially in a form that is imperfect, does not entirely contain it, but which, in addition to what it offers directly, has a second essential side. This second, originally not given side of the content of the world is revealed through cognition. Thus, what appears to us as separate in thinking is not empty forms, but the sum of definitions (categories), which, however, are forms for the rest of the content of the world. Only the image of the content of the world obtained through cognition, in which both sides of it are connected, can be called reality" ^{[15, p. 7, 8, 37]}.

Since the conference, as can be seen from the program, is attended by representatives of different scientific specialties (philosophers, art historians, cultural studies, psychology, etc.), it makes sense to discuss what unites us. This can be done by expressing an opinion about the peculiar dilemmas of esotericism.

The first dilemma. There are many esoteric teachings (both traditional and new), and they all tell about the true reality. Question: Is there one true reality or are there many of them? My opinion, based on studies of esoteric teachings, is this. There are as many genuine realities as there are esoteric teachings that have entered the culture, and behind each of them there is an esoteric personality and community.

The second dilemma. Every esoteric teaching insists on the objectivity of the true reality, which is described in this teaching. So, is true reality objective, or can it not be summed up under this concept? And if it is objective and, moreover, one (like the first nature), then which esoteric teaching has come closest to the true description of this reality? My answer is as follows. True reality is objective in the sense that a vision, a certain state of the psyche and physicality, conditioned by an esoteric way of life and efforts, really develops. There is no one authentic world common to all, but each esoteric has his own objective authentic world. In my opinion, the second dilemma is humorously answered by Don Juan, the hero of the esoteric teachings of Carlos Castaneda.    

When asked by Carlos Castanda if he flew like a bird, Don Juan replies: "Well, of course he did." Then Carlos, convinced that we are talking about physical reality and the laws of nature, asks; would he fly if he were chained to a rock? To which Don Juan responds: "I'm afraid you'd be flying, holding a rock with a chain, flying with it." In other words, he seems to be saying: there is no way from the outside to objectively understand whether we are in some kind of reality or not. But if we are, then it exists objectively for us. But of course, the objectivity of existence in esotericism is created not by simple imagination, but by real spiritual and psychotechnical work, a real transformation of the psyche, physicality and vision ^{[4, pp. 290-348]}. 

Let's now move on to the discussion of the stated topic. First, the connection between philosophy and esotericism. It can be said that it can be traced from the very beginning of the formation of philosophy ^[17]. The fact is that Plato is as much a philosopher as an esotericist. Indeed, his teaching is based on the separation and opposition of two worlds – the world of ideas and the world of things. Plato clearly understands the first world as authentic: there are no contradictions in it, order and good reign, established and supported by the gods. The world of things exists by "communion" with the world of ideas, and contradictions, disorder, and injustice are visible in it. Further, according to Plato, the right life involves remembering the world of ideas, where the human soul previously resided, which is achieved by the difficult work of cognition and dialectics, as well as a special way of life, including self-awareness and mathematics ^{[10, pp. 21-78]}.

Another example, already from Modern Times, is Immanuel Kant. It seems that no one considers him an esoteric. But let us take a closer look at the understanding of the essence of reason in the Critique of Pure Reason. Kant interprets reason in three ways: on the one hand, it is the human mind, on the other – the organon of philosophy that guides the mind, on the third hand, Kant's mind, however, is very carefully identified with God. "As if," writes Kant, "the totality of all phenomena (the sensually perceived world itself) had one supreme and all–sufficient foundation outside its scope, namely, an independent, original and creative mind, in relation to which we direct all the empirical application of our mind in its greatest breadth, as if the objects themselves arose from this prototype of every mind" ^{[2, p. 572]}. It turns out that Kant also accepts two realities – the genuine one, which is represented by the mind identified with God, and the ordinary one, which is represented by the mind of a person who is inclined to make mistakes, follow desires, err. This duality is also manifested in Kant's characterization of personality: on the one hand, it is freedom over natural necessity, on the other – voluntary adherence to morality and duty. 

"Reason," explains Piama Gaidenko, "requires integrity, completeness, isolation from oneself…But, in addition to the above requirement, reason is defined by Kant, if I may say so, meaningfully, and this meaningful definition consists in the fact that the principle or idea of reason is identical with the idea of good... the content of the principle of reason can be formulated following Kant as follows: "Act so that you always treat humanity and in your own person, and in the person of anyone else as well as to the goal, and would never treat it only as a means"…Both in science and in art one can find, according to Kant, only the illusion of integrity and self-perfection...Kantian ethics set strict requirements for the individual: he had to enter into a hard struggle with his inclinations…For Kant, freedom was defined as the opposite of the natural principle, measured by the measure of resistance to nature" ^{[1, pp. 95-96, 99]}.

What is common between philosophy and esotericism? Both there and there reality generates personality, and in one of the directions of philosophy, coming from Plato, esoteric ideas and postulates are used directly or indirectly in the course of constructing reality (that's why I called this direction of philosophy "esoteric"). But conversely, a number of esoteric teachings use philosophical ideas, vivid examples of the esoteric doctrines of Rudolf Steiner and Sri Aurobind Ghosh.  

 Religion and esotericism. In his spiritual books, Emanuel Swedenborg tells how heaven and hell, the Lord, angels and demons, and man are arranged. At first glance, this is a Christian religious teaching, however, not canonical. So Swedenbog claims that God is not a trinity, but a single being, outwardly similar to a person, but composed of angelic communities. There is no death in his system, because every person is a spirit and having passed the life cycle on earth, if he loves good, becomes an angel and ascends to heaven, or if he is inclined to evil, turns into a demon and descends into hell. It is no less significant that our ordinary life and nature, according to Swedenborg, are parallel and subordinate to the spiritual world.

"In a word," writes Swedenborg, "everything that exists in nature, from the smallest object to the largest, is a correspondence; because the natural world, with all its accessories, borrows its being and existence from the spiritual world, and both from the Divine…Who, after that, thinking at least somewhat according to common sense, will say that all these miracles are not from the spiritual world, to which the natural world serves as a corporeal shell or in order to present the spiritual cause in a material manifestation" ^{[13, pp. 54-55]}. 

"The world of spirits differs both from the world of heaven and hell; it is a place or a state in between: a person comes there after his death and after staying there for a certain period, depending on his life on earth, either ascends to heaven or falls into hell" ^{[13, p. 220]}.

In the work devoted to the work and personality of Swedenborg, I show that his teaching is an esoteric version of Christian teaching, therefore it looks non-canonical ^[8]. What does the genesis of this teaching show? On the one hand, Swedenborg was brought up in the Christian faith, he was a consistent Christian, on the other hand, he received an excellent natural science education, and became the largest Swedish scientist and engineer of the first half of the XVIII century. For him, the spiritual world and nature were equally real and objective. However, their properties did not match. For example, from a formal and logical point of view, the three hypostases of God looked like a contradiction to Swedenborg, and the Resurrection from the dead could not be explained in terms of physical laws. By resolving these contradictions (we have indicated only two for example), Swedenborg, as Hegel would say, removes both realities, replacing them with his own, where, from his point of view, there were already no contradictions. As a result, he creates an esoteric teaching in which two worlds coexist – the spiritual and nature. It is also interesting that Swedenborg's nature obeys not only natural scientific laws, but also spiritual ones. For example, this is how he describes the phenomenon of equilibrium.

"Such is the balance between heaven and hell; however, it is not such a balance as between two competing persons, whose powers are equal to each other, but it is a spiritual balance, that is, lies and truth, evil and good: hell constantly breathes lies originating from evil; heaven constantly breathes truth originating from benefits. As a result of this spiritual balance, a person is in freedom of thought and will, because everything that a person thinks and wills refers either to evil and then to lies, or to good and then to truth" ^{[13, p. 296]}. 

Kant, commenting on Swedenborg's interpretation of the ordinary world, writes the following. "Cognition of material things therefore has a double meaning: external – since we are talking about the mutual relation of material objects, and internal – since they, as actions, indicate the forces of the spirit world that are their causes" ^{[3, p. 344]}.  

But this means that Swedenborg created not only an esoteric version of Christian teaching, but also an esoteric version of natural science (the science of nature).

In other works devoted to esotericism, I show that in addition to esoteric versions of religious teachings, we can talk about the following regularity. At least two world religions – Christian and Buddhist - began with esoteric teachings. Initially, the teachings of Buddha and Christ were esoteric doctrines, largely determined by the personality of their authors. As the emphasis and meanings shifted from the individual to the people (the council), these teachings were transformed into religions, and their creators began to be understood as Gods – God the Son and Buddha as God. The second pattern: sooner or later, personal understanding and interpretation of God leads to the formation of new esoteric teachings. In Christianity, for example, it is hesychasm, in Islam – suffism ^{[7, pp. 120-131; 6, pp. 16-53]}. Both are esoteric versions of these world religions.  

Art and esotericism. I will illustrate with an example of literature. Lyudmila Ulitskaya wrote a wonderful novel "The Incident of Kukotsky". There are two esoteric inserts in it. Firstly, the ability of the hero of the novel, the great doctor Pavel Alexandrovich, to see the internal organs of patients without any X-ray, and secondly, an important episode of the esoteric salvation of his wife Elena and the reunion of the heroes.      

"The esoteric world that Elena finds herself in, struggling to remember herself, is a world of spiritual work, help, sympathy, a world of trials, a world where at first the unrecognizable Pavel Alekseevich, like Moses, leads people like Elena through a strange desert, a world in which her memory returns, understanding gradually comes, a transformation is taking place. Spiritual transformation and in love. The transformation of all bodily organs, and the merging of loved ones into one bodily-spiritual being.  

"The light of two searchlights – resurrected in all the details of the past and perfect morning, illuminated this moment. A long torment of unsolvable questions – where am I? Who am I? What for? – ended in an instant. This is her, Elena Georgievna Kukotskaya, but completely new, yes, New, but now she wanted to put together everything that she knew, once forgot, what she never knew, but as if she remembered…

"The soul of my soul," he whispered into the wet curls above her ear and pressed her tightly to him.

Where the skin touched, it melted with happiness. It was the achievement of that unattainable that forces lovers to unite again and again in the marital embrace, for years, decades, in an unconscious desire to achieve liberation from bodily dependence, but poor human copulation ends with an inevitable orgasm, beyond which it is impossible to pass in bodily intimacy. Because the limit is set by the bodies themselves…

The unprecedented happened to them. But from what was still within the limits of human understanding, there remained the feeling of bodies, one's own and someone else's, however, what was called interpenetration in earthly life expanded immeasurably in this world. In this newly formed wholeness, the joint entry into the orbit of another world, a new stereoscopy was revealed, the ability to see many things at once and think many thoughts at the same time… 

When they settled into each other freely and happily, soul to soul, hand to hand, letter to letter, it turned out that there was a Third between them. The woman recognized him first. A man – a moment later" ^[14].

By the way, the esoteric event – the merging of two souls into one whole Ulitskaya undoubtedly took from Swedenborg. "Marriage in heaven," he writes, "is a spiritual union of two personalities into one... that's why two spouses in heaven are not called two angels, but one... one side wants everything belonging to it to belong to the other, and vice versa... conjugal love is the very basis of Divine inspiration…Heavenly marriages differ from earthly ones in that the purpose of the latter is, among other things, the birth of children; in heaven this is not, but instead of the birth of children there is the generation of truth and goodness" ^{[13, p. 188, 195]}.

Of course, the conventionality of works of art is seriously different from the conventionality of esoteric teachings: in the first case, for example, the reader understands that this is the writer's work and everything that he tells must be imagined, imagined as if it really is, in the second – the esoteric is sure that everything he sees and he is experiencing, and there is a genuine real world, nothing is more real than that. But, firstly, when a writer composes, if he is only a real writer, for him the events of artistic reality are no less, and often even more authentic, than the events of the ordinary world. Secondly, man is a semiotic being, the essence of whose being is the translation and living of events set by language and communication ^{[11, pp. 26-29]}. Therefore, for his psyche there is not much difference between the events of art and esoteric events, although comparing both types of knowledge (which happens infrequently), he realizes their difference.

Now, what is the reason for a certain decline in interest in esoteric teachings and attitude observed in recent decades. Here, in my opinion, there are two circumstances. One is due to the fact that the problems posed by the "geniuses of esotericism", i.e. the authors of esoteric teachings and practices (achieving immortality, faith and science, expectations and ideals, superpowers, etc.), on the one hand, were discussed, meaningful and investigated in philosophy and science and therefore were partially removed from the agenda on the other hand, they have been rethought in the sense that it has become clear (of course, not to everyone) that it is impossible to resolve and implement them.

The second circumstance is the interception of the esoteric agenda and ways of solving it by contemporary art. The fact is that modern technology and psychotechnics, which are widely used by art, allows you to create realities that are very close in effect and impressions to the events of both ordinary life and genuine, esoteric. Moreover, the reality of art here, as it were, wins over the esoteric one, since one can live in it without exposing oneself to the risks and trials that esotericism expects on the way to true reality. Of course, this only suggests that modern art has allowed peeping at esoteric life, it still does not coincide with the esoteric way. Nevertheless, since at present social reality is constantly being dissected and deconstructed (as a result of many opposite interpretations, as well as the deepening of digitalization and semiotization of life), to the extent that the reality of modern art is perceived by many (especially postmodernists) not only as conditional, but also authentic.  

In conclusion, a few words about mysticism. In my opinion, behind the phenomena that are called mystical, there can be a variety of things: esotericism, superstition, a game, and reality designed to interest or frighten, and much more. Take, for example, the vampire phenomenon. In the article "Vampires among us", written jointly with L.G. Golubkova, we ask. "Why is there such an interest in vampires in the modern world? Really

is it unclear that there are no vampires, that this is a myth and fiction of writers and screenwriters? But why then have many people been preoccupied with the fate of vampires for almost a hundred years: for some reason they are mortally afraid of them, while others, on the contrary, seem to sympathize with them? Who do they sympathize with: creatures with such fangs and red, glowing eyes like a wolf? It is unlikely that such a keen interest in what is not there can be explained only by the successful genre of cinema and literature, after all, stories about vampires are mostly known to the modern reader and viewer. Behind the artistic experiences, there is a genuine interest associated with real life. However, what kind of genuine interest can there be in an illusory, fictional reality? Nevertheless, it exists" ^{[12, p. 274]}.

We answer as follows. "On the one hand, modern man knows that vampires are an essay, an invention of writers and screenwriters, on the other hand, he constantly meets people who look like vampires or their victims. With the help of writings about vampires, he learns and masters real-life human relationships.

In this regard, an interesting question is: in what sense do vampires exist? It cannot be said that they are physically there, but it cannot be said that they are not… Modern man sees vampires with the help of "works about vampires". And there are vampires not by themselves, for example, as a biological species, but as given by schemes (works).

However, you should not have illusions: they say that an ordinary person exists more realistically than, say, a vampire or an alien from outer space, or a patented clairvoyant. In culture, the bulk of things and objects exist precisely in connection with language, as given by schemes and signs, and we see them by schemes and works. Strange as it may seem, but an ordinary person may turn out to be less real than a vampire, since fewer works have been created about him.

The identity of a modern person with vampires is also promoted by science, for example, the same psychologist who promotes the concept of "energy vampirism". We do not deny the phenomenon itself. It is real, probably related to the forms of communication that are widespread in modern life. Genuine communication necessarily implies reciprocity… But along with these forms of communication, there are often other, incorrect ones, when one of the communicants does not allow the other to realize himself and/or turns him into a means and object. Psychologists conceptualize this case as energy vampirism. They describe and explain it in a simple scheme: one of the communicating vampires and he takes (drinks) energy from the other, thereby depriving him of strength and life.

It is possible, of course, to explain these forms of communication in this way. But that's not quite right here. If I am, for example, an energy vampire, then I definitely need a sacrifice to continue and complete my life. I can't do anything with myself, just as it is described in the vampire literature or in psychoanalysis.

But if we conceptualize the wrong forms of communication differently, not from the point of view of vampirism or psychoanalysis, then we will get a different situation. As a vampire, if, of course, I want to become a human being, I must realize my vampirism, i.e. that I do not allow others to realize themselves, I constantly turn them into a means and object of my desires and activities. And, realizing this, I can continue to work on myself, hoping to eventually become a human, not a vampire" ^{[12, pp. 281-282]}.

But let's return to the current situation in esotericism. Yes, there is a new situation and challenges in culture at the moment. Esotericists should also answer them, creating new esoteric teachings. Traditional problems (achieving immortality, dilemmas of faith and science, expectations and ideals, superpowers, etc.) do not go away, but still completely new problems and challenges are relevant today. For example, the preservation of life on Earth, the definition of the meaning of individual life (it has become completely incomprehensible), freedom and choice in the conditions of the Internet and universal digitalization, social justice in the conditions of modern production, distribution and law, and others. Someone may object, saying that it is not the business of esotericists to respond to such challenges. Well, why, the esoteric path is the path of the individual to the true reality, and shouldn't the individual be concerned with responding to the existential challenges of modernity at the present time? And do they not form meanings that initiate the search for true reality for a modern person, unless, of course, the will to live has not yet left him, and he wants to continue to live and live correctly?