Neurophysiology Of Magical Alphabets

ב' באב תשס"ז

An excerpt from Nigel Pennick's Magical Alphabets:

It is generally recognized that all archaic symbols had a magical and religious significance. In legend, they were given by the gods to human beings. But modern research on human perception may provide us with another possibility, one embedded deeply within our own human consciousness. Modern neurophysiology has identified phosphenes, geometrical shapes and images that are present subconsciously in the visual cortex and neural system. These are present in all humans: they are described as entropic, being visible when the eyes are shut. They can also be seen when the consiousness is altered by some means: during meditation, in trance, or in hallucinations induced by fatigue, illness or drugs. Geometric shapes related to letters are often perceived in the early stages of trance.

These states of consciousness are the domain of the shaman, the human who treads the thin line between life and death in his or her quest for enlightenment. By means of their esoteric techniques, altered and novel states of consciousness can be achieved, through which new insights can be obtained. As a matter of necessity, to be transmitted to other human beings at all, these insights must appear within a format which coincides with inherent patterns of human consciousness.

Letters, whether they be from the Hebrew, Greek, Etruscan, Latin, Runic, Coelbren, Gothic, Westphalian or even those of our own familiar Roman alphabet, are inherent aspects of the neural circuitry of each human being. At the same time, they are also metaphors for the various aspects of the nature of reality.

Thus, we can see how the soul of each human being contains patterns of consciousness which may be pre-cognitively "programmed" toward primary particular "Divine" magical-mystical alphabets to the exclusion of most others.