Tal Brooke's "Riders of the Cosmic Circuit:" the experience of "enlightenment"

The book, Riders of the Cosmic Circuit by Tal Brooke, was my subject two blog posts ago, but now I want to link to this review of it by Elliott Miller that interested me. It's particularly interesting to me because during the 70s I was surrounded by people who followed one or another of the gurus whose lives the book chronicles -- Sai Baba, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and Swami Muktananda -- among others he doesn't cover in the book, including Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who through the Beatles brought us "Transcendental Meditation." The country is now well-sprinkled with the teachings of these and other Eastern religious and occultic influences.

The practitioners of Eastern religions often speak of "enlightenment," which in differing forms is the goal of the practice of all of them, as a necessary insight into the meaning of life that can be gained through the specific disciplines of the religion. A release from the sufferings of this life is the goal of some of them but I may not understand this well enough myself to be characterizing it accurately.

Tal Brooke practiced in India with the Hindu guru Sai Baba and claims to know what the enlightenment experience entails and in this book apparently attempts to make it understandable to others, both Christians and unbelievers. Whether he accurately characterizes it or not is a question the reviewer raises, but it sounds like his analysis is worth pondering.

I'll just quote some of this review and then later probably some from the book:

... At the heart of the New Age movement is the phenomenon of mystical/occult experience, and, resulting from that, the quest for a permanent and com­plete state of mystical “Enlightenment.” Brooke presents case studies of three Indian “super gurus” who have probably been more widely regarded by New Agers as being enlightened than any other spiri­tual leaders of our time: the legendary Sai Baha [typo: should be "Baba"], the notorious Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, and the recently deceased “power yogi,” Swami Muktananda.

Brooke provides interesting background concerning each of these “riders” spiritual odysseys. Culminating in what he terms the “Explosion” point, in which Enlightenment is achieved. He demonstrates that in each case the attainment of such a state required a deliberate annihilation of conscience and morality. Thus, by highlighting the evil that predictably concentrates in the most advanced cases of “Enlightenment,” Brooke brings into focus what New Age spirituality ultimately holds for the individ­ual as well as society.

Second, Brooke writes with the authority and insight of one who has been there, both externally and internally. Externally, in India during 1969-71 he served in the inner circle of Sai Baba — his most privi­leged Western disciple. Internally, he him­self had journeyed far on the mystical path, reaching the very threshold of Enlightenment (where he was continually kept back by encountering something “unbelievably sinister to my deepest feel­ing”).

A third quality which distinguishes Riders is that it is written for the unbeliever, in secular style, as few Christian books have been. Thus, its chief value lies in its utility as a book to give non-Christians who are on the mystical path. While most Christian books would alienate them, this one will most likely intrigue them.

The book also offers insight to Christian readers. A particularly provocative feature is its profound analysis of the Enlight­enment experience. The author probes deeply into its spiritual nature and poten­tial eschatological significance.

Ex-Disciple of Sai Baba: The Deception of "Higher Consciousness"

I can't afford books these days, but sometimes the ads for them carry enough information to be useful.

Tal Brooke who is President of Spiritual Counterfeits Project in Berkeley, California, spent a few years in India in the late sixties or early seventies as a disciple of the guru Sai Baba who recently died. While in India he was converted to Christ and then came back to the US where he joined the SCP and wrote a book about his experiences in Sai Baba's ashram (Avatar of Night), as well as other books about the spread of a dark deceptive spirituality that has been growing through the influence of eastern religions and New Age teachings.

Here is the blurb for a recent book from the SCP website:

RIDERS OF THE COSMIC CIRCUIT
by Tal Brooke

A Rider of the Cosmic Circuit is one who emerges from that rare explosion into superconsciousness called enlightenment, an exalted state attained by a mere fraction down the ages. Family and friends do not recognize him, for the Rider has changed on a fundamental level. Claiming Godhood, the Rider operates behind an unreadable face, manipulating the buttons of human reaction within those who believe his claim to deity. But his outer form masks an unknowable intelligence. Who is he really?

To the ordinary mind, enlightenment is like a black hole in deep space whose event horizon descends into unknowable blackness. What measuring stick can the normal mind use to judge those who claim to be enlightened and One with God. How can you judge one who claims to be as beyond ordinary human consciousness as it surpasses that of the ant?

The author, Tal Brooke spent years in India and came right up to the mouth of the flame. He himself was being [pr]epared for a leap into superconsciousness by India's premier godman, Sai Baba. Then he spotted a crack in the cosmic puzzle (the full story is in his intimate account, Avatar of Night.).

RIDERS OFTHE COSMIC CIRCUIT explores this deepest of conundrums and asks: Is there a dark side to superconsciousness? Does it have motives beyond the reach of most people? Is it capable of deception and evil? And is there any kind of pattern or map we can use to interpret this alien terrain of the metapsychology of cosmic consciousness? Indeed, is so-called superconsciousness in reality a state of perfect possession? And what is it that possesses the human host who has willfully abandoned the controls of his soul and mind in this all-or-none quest for Godhood?

I have to admit that sometimes Tal Brooke's writing (I assume this is his) is as mystifying as the descriptions of such things by the practitioners themselves. "Changed on a fundamental level" means what in simple descriptive terms? And I do have to ask: What exactly is this superconsciousness conscious OF? Puhleeze, this whole black hole darkness metaphor conveys exactly nothing. Is it really impossible for someone who has this experience to say something coherent about it?

But in response to his last paragraph I just wanted to say that a believer in the Bible should have no doubt: any supposed superconsciousness is imparted by demon spirits that possess the mind of the practitioner. Demon spirits or fallen angels no doubt do possess a higher, or at least different, mind than we do, and they are capable of much illusion and deception. There is simply no other explanation if you believe the Bible.

People who have become involved in these practices need to be set free, and only Jesus Christ is capable of setting them free.

"All who call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved."