Utopian Studies Journal - Dr. Peter Lowentrout Review

 

Spiritual Emergence Network - Alilah Renwick Review

 

Francois Jaubert Review - PMF associate

 

Rachel Thomas Review - PMF associate

The following is Dr. Peter Lowentrout's review of the book Project Mind by David S. Devor (T.Kun). This review appeared in the Vol. 6, No. 1, 1995 issue of "Utopian Studies" the international, interdisciplinary journal of The Society for Utopian Studies (SUS).

Accelerated Thought, the achievement of which is crucial to Kun's proposed Project Mind, is "a process driven by essential desire whereby the infinite intelligence latent in man finds expression through the rapid revelation of natural and cosmic secrets." Candidates for Accelerated Thought and Project Mind will be deeply creative people who are "if not leaders in their technical specialities, at least highly conversant in some discipline or field of inquiry." They will be people whose adult integrity and strength are "built upon the act of heroic courage in childhood to say 'the emperor is naked,' and who sustained their belief in utopian vision...." Using "special psychological techniques, environmental aids and sophisticated computerization," providing for the material needs and financial obligations of its participants, Project Mind will encourage the development of Accelerated Thought through a bootstrapping process grounded in our "essential individuality" and driven by will and desire. Accelerated Thought, Kun asserts, is "the ultimate self-fulfilling prophecy."

If Kun might seem rather vague concerning the exact nature of Accelerated Thought, it might be worth noticing that mystical texts are seldom "how-to" books of the spirit. The Cloud of Unknowing, Teresa of Avila's The Way of Perfection, John of the Cross's Living Flame of Love: even when mystics tentatively point out the Way, much necessarily escapes the text. In attempting to treat the ineffable, something of central importance always eludes words and must be communicated, as Master Huang Po had it, in a direct "transmission of mind," that is, in the direct impact of one's whole person upon that of another.

Kun's utopian mystical project has an interesting originality, but it is not without its antecedents. Accelerated Thought is not unlike Karma Yoga, with it's emphasis upon vigorous and right action in the world made ever more effective through the spiritual benefits that redound from that action. Kun's "Eureka experiences" and "Accelerated Thought" are akin to Maslow's notions of peak and plateau experiences, though the ontology implicit in Maslow's work is pallid in comparison to Kun's. The notion of a coming vanguard of spiritual athletes who will widen the paths into the sacred for the rest of us to trod can be seen in many thinkers in traditional religious communities from Aurobindo to Teilhard and is a belief common to many newly formed religious movements sensitive to historical process. The expectation that profound and wonderful changes will be quickly wrought in the world with the inbreaking of the sacred is a nearly universal religious motif; Kun's startlingly optimistic expectation of such change, for instance, is reminiscent of that found in the early Society of Friends' doctrine of the Lamb's War.

It is often the case that the bald presentation of an author's ideas makes them seem silly and inadequate. Kun's own presentation of his ideas is neither however, and Project Mind is clearly written and well-argued. Within the charmed circle of its own initial assumptions, Project Mind makes good sense. Time will quickly show those assumptions to be either true or false, but if Project Mind goes the way of the Lamb's War, it will still have been a robust expression of that yearning for and striving after a better world that shows us at our very best.

Kun's work is recommended for consideration as an ancillary text in courses on utopian thought and literature. Scholars who are interested in following the development of Project Mind can contact the newly established Project Mind Foundation at 8 Mevo Hamaavak, French Hill, Jerusalem 97877, Israel.

Dr. Peter Lowentrout
California State University - Long Beach
Utopian Studies Journal

The following is Alilah Renwick's review of the book PROJECT MIND by David S. Devor (T.Kun) upon which the Project Mind Foundation is based. This review appeared in the spring 1994 issue of the newsletter of S.E.N., the Spiritual Emergence/Emergency Network based in Santa Cruz, CA., (S.E.N. assists those going through spiritual awakening and who are sometimes misdiagnosed as psychologically troubled).

 The project itself will create an environment free from distraction, a place where Accelerated Thought can flourish. Accelerated Thought is a "process driven by essential desire whereby the infinite intelligence latent in man finds expression through the rapid revelation of natural and cosmic secrets." The unlocking of these secrets will bring an end to war and hunger and will lead, ultimately, to physical and spiritual immortality.

 In PROJECT MIND, Kun describes his personal process in coming to this vision, the set and setting of the project, and specific characteristics sought for participants. The book is written to recruit candidates for Accelerated Thought who will set this plan for world transformation in motion. Kun says, "It is about time the power of fanaticism was harnessed to benign and constructive ends."

The meta-thinking this quantum leap requires itself cannot be achieved by utilising ordinary mental and emotional processes. Highly accelerated results simply demand thought accelerated to a degree which is inconceivable by an ordinary mind, or rather by a mind in ordinary mode. Yet Accelerated Thought is a must if we are to arrive at genuine solutions tailored to the megalithic proportions of our profoundly precarious Earth-wide situation.

A world-based think-tank specifically designed to generate this type of intensely rarefied and extremely rapid proto-thinking is in the process of being established, its blueprint having been published 2 years ago as the book - PROJECT MIND.

A chain-reaction of eureka experiences could so imbue the mind of a critical mass of researcher-visionaries that matter itself would be transubstantiated into a pliable and solvent vehicle for creation of all manner of forms, applications and functions.

What the book "PROJECT MIND" describes is not at all a paradisiacal fantasy or an unattainable utopia but is rather a grounded and realistic view of the universe and of our place -- and role -- in it.

A fundamental yet extraordinarily perplexing issue such as death is no match for Accelerated Thought which firmly plants thinkers upon the foundation of life whereby our bodies materialize into transcendent corporeality no longer subject to the pseudo-laws of deterioration and decay.

Ecstasy must become mundane if we are ever to live in a truly just world where hunger and poverty have no reason to exist. That is why the organizing of PROJECT MIND, the international think-tank, can be said to be more critical than the Manhattan Project, and quantitatively more humane than Mother Teresa's amazing work.

What everyone seems to accept as natural and inevitable parts of the human condition are myths of inequity that are rooted in the way matter itself is put together, a way which is most unnatural and artificial. It is therefore at the level of matter that PROJECT MIND will primarily focus in the context of experimental conditions highly geared to the promotion of Accelerated Thought.

"Small visions lead to larger ones" so writes T.KUN, author of the book, "until the plasma-like flame of researcher-visionaries subjective consciousness begins to transform into a controlled fusion-type reaction which is the first stable phenomenon of objective consciousness. Until this point", the author goes on, "repeated flashes of insight into the objective world emerged from the state of subjective consciousness and served to spur the researcher-visionaries on. Now thought clears and accelerates considerably to an entirely new energy level, enabling researcher-visionaries to penetrate into nature's secrets in a much more constant and systematic way."

T.KUN adds, "Penetrating insight, in forming hypotheses of ever-increasing elaboration and predictive power propelled by hope, faith, and certainty generated during the progressive expansion of subjective plasma-like consciousness, is only the precursor to a kind of meta-insight consisting of rapid, far-reaching extrapolation."

In concluding, the author states: "It is possible only to a mind harbouring Accelerated Thought in its maturing stages -- a mind illuminated with the fusion-like brilliance of objective consciousness."

The book PROJECT MIND is available at the Salt Spring Island library. Both the sister and the brother-in-law of PROJECT MIND's executive director are residents of Salt Spring, BC. David S. Devor resides in Jerusalem, where he may be contacted at 8 Mevo Hamaavak/French Hill/Jerusalem 97877/ISRAEL c/o PROJECT MIND FOUNDATION.

 Francois Jaubert
Beaver Point
British Columbia, Canada

In this wonderful blending of the sacred and secular, the author presents the results of his 40 year quest to resolve the cosmic enigma culminating in Project Mind. The book is written to recruit "allies" for participation in this project, a "higher creativity mind tank," which is designed to reconcile science and spirit and reveal humanity's latent, creative genius. This, in turn, is calculated to produce holistic, non-polluting sciences and technologies fulfilling the promise of blessings and abundance that science has always extended.

It is rare to encounter a metaphysics/newage book that offers such a wealth of knowledge and presents truly new ideas of which there are at least four:

1. In a time of growing global crisis of over population, pollution and war, Project Mind brings hope and the means to fulfill that hope. The way out of this crisis is through universal "utopian abundance" created by a holistic breakthrough science which is the object of the project.

2. It shows that total abundance, implicit in the mastery of matter, will, through the devaluation of material possessions, eliminate materialism, wage-slavery, suffering, injustice, etc. and reveal the potential and destiny of us all, initiating a new age of "transparent, coherent and harmonious development" generative of omniscience and immortality. Human desire, that habitually attaches itself to rare and valued objects, will have no choice but to cleave to the metaphysical once the physical embodiments of concept and form - what we call "objects" - can be replicated at will.

3. The new breakthrough science it proposes will be purely "contemplative," "vision-driven" and creatively connected, through consciousness, to "higher potentialities" without the need to lean upon the crutch of the mechanical paraphernalia so characteristic of conventional science.

4. The book argues for the existence of individuals who have secretly yearned, all their lives, to unravel at least one of nature's fundamentals. For reasons carefully explained, these individuals have a special degree of aspiration, intensity and integrity capable of making unprecedented efforts of "confrontative thought" and "meditation" on "intractable scientific problems." This, it maintains, is possible because individualizing "essence-desire," that is only latent in the rest of us, is operative in these rare individuals as the motor of "Accelerated Thought." In the words of the author:

"Accelerated Thought is a high-energy mind process whereby realizations arrive second by second in rapid-fire sequence rather than once a week, once a year or once in a lifetime as is typical with Eureka experiences. Just as the Eureka experience provides brief moments of brilliant insight - the divine sparks of genius and inspiration that have fueled the sudden advances in scientific progress until now - Accelerated Thought will provide sustained creative vision. This will establish an ongoing link with higher consciousness, producing a powerful cosmic current channeled through essence from a higher dimension."

The author is coherent in his presentation of what he calls "the essence theory of reality" and walks us through the conscious unfolding of the various stages of Accelerated Thought. He draws liberally from popular literature quoting authors from Woody Allen through Arthur Koestler all the way to Ayn Rand. He also quotes fairly esoteric sources such as Gurdjieff, Ouspensky, Theon, Brunton, Tesla, Ashlag and others to illustrate his points. References to spirituality and "perennial philosophy" are mainly restricted to the appendix which also includes a glossary of esoteric terms, as some of this book's arguments derive much of their force from this field which is not accessible to everyone.

The author does not make spirituality a condition for understanding his book or even for participating in his project. He even goes as far as to point out that he considers the shortcomings of classic spirituality as having failed to confront the enigma of material restriction as the prime source of human corruption and suffering, and thus in failing to appeal to the mass of modern humanity.

This book will appeal to anyone who dreams of throwing off the yoke of limitation so characteristic of life as we know it and who believes we can find a practical rational for realizing that dream. It seeks those who share this vision and wish to help realize this project. A journey of discovery of self and humanity from beginning to end, this book is a must read for anyone searching for their own and humankind's destiny in our times as we enter the "Age of Mind."