Light Visions, Shaman Control Fantasies & The Creation of Myths

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Light Visions, Shaman Control Fantasies & the Creation of Myths
Conference Paper · April 2006
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Nicholson: Light Visions - Page 1
LIGHT VISIONS, SHAMAN CONTROL FANTASIES

& CREATION OF MYTHS
Presented at the Harvard-Peking University International Conference

on Comparative Mythology, Beijing, China, May 2006.
© 2006 Philip T. Nicholson
ABSTRACT
Internally-generated light sensations ("phosphenes," "entoptic images")

play an important role in many myth-systems, including myths of the world's
major religious traditions. References relating to these light visions are often
encoded in symbolic form and include descriptions of the following: the
behaviors known to induce light visions, the characteristics of light images a
practitioner can expect to see, the links between specific light images and
particular spirits or deities, the kinds of extraordinary powers bestowed on
someone who induces light visions, and the metaphysical significance assigned to
cultivation of light visions. Light visions are easily induced, even without
instruction, which means this capability could have been discovered
independently in many different contexts. The objective of this paper is to
evaluate the role that light visions play in the creation and reinforcement of myth-
systems. Here I focus on two kinds of visions - visions of "green receding rings"
and "white flashes" - to examine how these images have been incorporated in
selected myth-systems. Some examples will be drawn from cultures in which
light visions appear to fit Witzel's hypothesis of an early, out-of-Africa
"Gondwanan" myth-family (e.g., San Bushman of South Africa, the Dani of New
Guinea and Australian Aborigines); other examples will show light visions
embedded in more complex storylines characteristic of the "Laurasian" myth-
family (e.g., the Indo-Aryan Rig Veda, the Shangqing "Highest Clarity" School
of early Chinese Daoism, Tibetan Buddhist "Highest Yoga Tantra," the classical
Maya myths of Mesoamerica, and the Tukano Indians of Amazonia). This
analysis suggests that light visions need myths (to explain why light visions
appear and what they mean) and that, conversely, myths need light visions (to
restore or reinforce belief in the continued potency of the myth).
TEXT
§1. Hypnotizability, Light Visions and Myths: The Theoretical Background
The basic hypothesis underlying the analysis presented here is (1) that humans have
evolved a neurophysiological capacity to become hypnotized [McClenon, 2004]; (2) that this
hypnotizability enables humans to induce trances that generate visions of pure light [Nicholson,
2001; 2002d]; (3) that seeing visions of light provides the seer with perceptual "evidence" for the
existence of an otherwise unseen "spirit" world; and (4) that seeing evidence for the existence of
a spirit world serves as a foundation for the creation of myths and/or fostering confidence in the
efficacy of existing myths. In many tribal cultures the ability to induce visions of strange,
unworldly lights is a prerequisite for becoming a shaman or healer, an observation which many
field workers have reported [see Nicholson P, 2002c; Nicholson & Firnhaber, 2001].
§2. Trance Induction Techniques and Visual Outcomes
A survey of ethnographic studies of contemporary tribal peoples and of the mystical

literatures of the world's major religions suggests that there are three different strategies that
humans can use to self-induce hypnotic trance states that produce visionary experiences. These
three types of trance induction techniques are summarized in Figure 1. The content of the
trance-induced visions ranges from pure light sensations with predictable geometric shapes to
dream-like scenarios with figurative images - images of people, places and things formed by
recombining visual fragments implanted in the individual seer's memory-bank by his or her life
experience. Psychologists call these light sensations that are not generated by external light
energy striking the retina, "phosphenes," and anthropologists call them "entoptic images"
("formed within the optic system") In this paper, I use the term "phosphene" interchangeably
with "light vision."
<INSERT FIGURE 1 & LEGEND HERE>
The primary characteristic of the first trance induction technique, "External Stimulus
Overload," is pushing the human organism to the point of physical collapse in the hope and
expectation that the fatigue and sensory overload will trigger visionary experiences and invest
the seer with potent spiritual powers. The visions that result can be either clear light visions
(phosphenes) or figurative, dream-like visions, or both. Extensive research on the use of external
stimulus overload in religious contexts to push the body into a sleep-like state ("parasympathetic
collapse") is summarized in Sargant [1974] and in Winkleman [1992].
The second trance induction technique uses meditation or self-hypnosis as a preliminary
preparation en route to some other altered state of consciousness which is the ultimate goal of the
ritual. The ultimate goal here, as with extreme stimulus overload, is usually to induce dream-like
(figurative) visions with visions of light being regarded as harbingers of the dream-like visions.
In practice the two types of visions tend to appear at different times in the induction ritual: the
meditation-induced light visions appearing early, signaling the entry into the spiritual dimension,
then giving way to more elaborate dream-like scenarios. Some cultures use meditation in
conjunction with hallucinogenic drugs while others use only meditation.
The third trance induction technique relies exclusively on prolonged meditation. Its goal
is to extend the sequence of light visions by generating an elaborate, predictable progression that
culminates in lightning-like flashes, paroxysmal sensorimotor symptoms and an aftermath of
euphoria and dramatic emotional transformations.
§3. Examples of Light Visions Induced By Extreme Stimulus Overload
(3.1) Light Visions and Myths of the San Bushmen of South Africa
The San Bushmen have been identified as having the oldest genetic profile of all
anatomically-modern humans and also as being speakers of the world's oldest known language,
Khoisan [Cavalli-Sforza, 2006, 2000; Underhill et al., 2000]. Some San hunter-gatherer bands
have remained relatively isolated until the modern era. Recent research findings suggest that the
ancestors of the San originally lived in the region of Ethiopia but were driven south by the
pressure of immigrant pastoralists [Cruciani, 2002; Semino et al., 2002]. This convergence of
genetic, linguistic and archeological evidence has led experts to point out that the ancestors of
the San would have been well-positioned to have launched the Out-of-Africa emigration that
eventually resulted in the population of the modern world [Cavalli-Sforza, 2006, p.271].
The myths of the San emphasize the process of change that continually transforms
everything in life, including the supreme spiritual power (G//aoan), whose transformations
include a Sky God and a Trickster, the spirits of animals and deceased ancestors, and those living
men and women who are recognized as spiritual healers [Keeley, 2003, p. 145-146; Katz, 2005,
pp. 425 - 442; Guenther, 1999, p. 3 - 6]. The primary ritual of the San people - and the medium
through which they express their spiritual understanding of the universe - is an all-night dance to
attract the attention and favor of those spirits who possess the power to bless worthy dancers by
activating within them a potent healing energy called "n/um." The dancers circle a campfire and
their fellow tribesmen gathered near the fire to watch, clap and sing. After several hours of
exertion and ritual posturing, some of the dancers begin to feel the n/um energy manifesting as
abdominal spasms, trembling limbs and a sensation of intense "boiling" heat. At that point, they
try to remain calm and project themselves into an altered state of consciousness call !kia. Those
dancers who are in a state of !kia then move through the crowd of onlookers, touching anyone
who wants to be healed or who simply wants to benefit by receiving a spiritual energy that
revitalizes the harmony of the life forces within them.
While in this state of !kia, many dancers report that they see a vision of white light. It is
surprising that this phenomenon has not been reported in many of the classic field studies, since
in a recent collection of interviews with San healers, 50 percent (10 out of 20) reported that the
way they themselves know they are in a state of !kia and ready to heal is that they see a vision of
a white light while experiencing the boiling sensation and the muscle spasms [Keeley, 1999]:
First I get filled with pain, then the light comes. It takes away all the pain. . . .
When the light comes,…it knocks me out. I fall down and must be brought back
to consciousness by others [Testimony of "Rasimane," Ibid., p. 47].
When the power comes to me and changes me, I see the light coming into my
face. The light shows me that there is truth in the dance [Testimony of "Ngwaga
Osele," Ibid.,p. 93]."
In the dance, the light that comes to me is like a flashlight beam….It makes you
shiver and causes your body to shake and tremble [Testimony of "Komtsas Xau,"
Ibid.,p. 105]."
The white light is variously described as looking like a cloud or like a rope. It is
accompanied by a feeling of floating and sometimes also of being pulled up into an otherwise
invisible spiritual realm where the ancestors and the great Sky God live. After encountering
these spiritual beings, the dancer's spirit returns to earth, empowered to begin the healing
process. Here are some revealing descriptions of this phenomenon in the words of other healers:
As the steam is pumped into my head, my eyes start changing. One way to
describe this is to say that the front of my eyes drop away and a second set of eyes
behind them become opened. These second eyes are like seeing from the back of
the eyeballs. With this second sight I still see even when I close my eyes. This
new sight differs from everyday vision. / * * * / If the power inside me is strong
enough, I will see a special light. Bushmen doctors see different kinds of light. It
may be a cloud of light in front of them or a light hovering over the entire
community of dancers. when you're very strong you will see lines or strings of
light that go up to the sky. . . . When they go up to the sky they are white in color
or shiny like silver metal [Testimony of "Bo," in Keeley, 2003, p. 38]
For me, the lines are usually bright and shining. They pulse, like a pulsing
smoke. They look and feel alive. The ropes go to the top of your head and your
stomach. They pull your body up and down. The rope is what opens your eyes. .
. . The ropes are the most important things in our spiritual world. . . . The rope is
the power. It does not carry the power like a pipe carrying water. It is the power.
It is like God's finger: it stretches out into a long thin line that reaches us
[Testimony of "Cgunta /kace," in Keeley, Ibid., p. 80]."
For the San, the n/um energy - and the white light that many see when n/um is present -
represent spiritual potentials that are latent in nature, potentials that can be activated by those
members who have the requisite personal qualities and who exert themselves for the benefit of
their fellow tribesmen. There seems to be little interest in providing detailed explanations for
this phenomenon in the form of elaborate myths. The dancers just want to propitiate some
vaguely-defined spirits and to attract their favor in order to better solve the practical problems
that arise in their ever-changing lives - how to attract more wild animals in the hunt, how to heal
those who become sick and how to cope with death and the spirits of the dead.
(3.2) Light Visions and Myths of the Dani Tribes of New Guinea
Induction of trance states by means of extreme stimulus overload is also used by shamans
of the Dani tribe, a people with Stone Age culture who live in relative isolation in the Irian Jaya
highlands of New Guinea. Genetic evidence suggests that the ancestors of these aboriginal
people participated in the beachcombing migration that led the original Out-of-Africa emigrants
along the coasts of southern Asia and on to New Guinea for which there is evidence of
settlement as early as 70,000, BCE [Oppenheimer, 2003; Cavalli-Sforza, 2000].
Ethnographic studies report that the religious practices of the Dani are primarily
concerned with propitiating the spirits of the recently-deceased (called mogat, or "ghosts"),
although these beliefs about ghosts are not systematized, nor do the Dani show much concern
about ghosts except for short outbursts when something untoward happens to one of them
[Heider, 1997]. They show even less interest in mythical explanations. Their main religious
rituals are funerals and pacifying the ghosts of the recently deceased by "Making Sacred
Ancestor Stones" (Ganekhe hakasin) [Hampton, 1999, p.159]. As people die during the year,
their bodies are cremated but their spirits (mogat) are thought to linger in the area; to insure that
these spirits do not become antagonistic, each clan will periodically organize a special "Making
Sacred Ancestor Stones" ceremony. The goal is to attract the spirits of the recently-deceased and
to convince them to take up residence in an attractive stone that has been specially selected for
this purpose, a stone that will thereafter be guarded and attended by the tribesmen.
In Hampton's detailed account of his observations of the Ganekhe hakasin ritual, the
shaman (wusahun) - here the shaman's name is "Wali" - sits among the other male tribesmen of
the clan, talking, chanting, sometimes switching into a special religious language that the Dani
believe to have been passed down from their ancestors. At the climax of the ceremony, the
shaman "enters" into the spirit world: he does this by beginning to emit high-pitched "yips"
while forcefully pressing his thumbs against both eyeballs. Hampton writes:
The look on Wali's face was one of pain mixed with ecstasy. I could not believe
the degree with which [he] put pressure on the eyes. Tears began to run down his
face. Wali, the shaman, the wusahun, had entered the 'other world,' the world of
the unseen, and without the visible use of chemical hallucinogens but by the
pressure-induced phosphene experience [Ibid., pp. 163-164]."
Pressing the eyeballs for so long and so hard would mechanically discharge all of the
visual receptors in both retinae; since the stimulation of all cone color receptors generates a
perception of white, this eye-gouging variant of the extreme stimulus overload technique is likely
to generate a visual field filled with scintillations of white phosphene. The significance of the
act is that, by overloading his visual receptors, the Dani shaman obtains perceptual evidence that
he has "left" the natural world and "entered" the world of light where spirits reside, whereupon
he can beg the spirits to accept the permanent lodging offered by their former kinsmen. The
"Making Sacred Ancestor Stones" ritual of the Dani highlanders, like the n/um dance of the San
Bushmen, emphasizes practical strategies to manage disembodied spirits rather than abstract
myth-making - and for the Dani shaman, as for the San Bushman, there is great spiritual import
in their seeing visions of phosphene light.
§4. Phenomenology of Meditation-Induced Light Visions, Part I: Threshold Images
Phosphene images can be easily induced by those who are able to effortlessly combine
the behaviors common to most kinds of meditation: inducing a physical relaxation so deep that it
almost approximates falling asleep, keeping the eyes closed with a fixed stare (preferably
directed inward toward the nose or forehead), and focusing attention intently on the center of a
visual field kept dark and "emptied" of importuning thoughts or mental images. Readers will
recognize that this is the meditational style used by Hindu yogis and Buddhist monks.
4.1. Content of the Threshold Phosphene Images
Figure 2 contains schematic drawings of the first three phosphene images to appear in a
meditation-induced sequence. The first phosphene image to appear is a green (or yellow-green)
ring that flows into view from the perimeter of vision and then shrinks steadily in diameter so
that it looks as if it were "receding" toward a distant point in the dark mental void, as shown in
Figure 2(A). The rings arrive at 5-second intervals and stop automatically after a volley of 3 to 7
rings, a number which is predictable for each individual but which varies from person to person.
Experienced meditators will see a sudden and dramatic change in the ring image: instead of a
ring by itself, the viewer will see the ring fill in with a blue disk about midway along its
trajectory. The image then looks exactly like the eye of a peacock's feather - a deep blue disk
surrounded by a green ring. After the volley of ring-and-disk images terminates automatically,
the next image to appear is a blue or purple-colored cloud-like mist that collects near the center
of vision, as shown in Figure 2(B). The borders of the cloud-form are amorphous and ever-
changing. After these cloud images have been induced for a long time, they may begin to
remain in view for longer intervals and also to display a bright, opaque and shining ring of light
at the center of the phosphene cloud. This bright inner ring has outer and inner borders that are
constantly fluctuating. On the inner ring, tiny strands of light shoot out into a dark, pupil-like
space at the center of the ring, then are quickly reabsorbed, whereupon new strands poke out.
This combined image consisting of the outer cloud, the bright inner ring and the dark central
pupil create the illusion of seeing a disembodied "eye" - an image often called "the third eye." If
meditation continues at this same level of intensity, the light-cloud with its bright, eye-like
interior will eventually condense into a tiny, star-like dot at the center of the visual field, as
shown in the far-right panel of Figure 2(C).
4.2. Neurological Origins of the Threshold Images

The ring, swirling-cloud and eye-like images are generated as epiphenomena by the same
brain mechanisms that normally cause a person to fall asleep [Nicholson, 2002d, 2001, 1996a],
specifically, by the activation of "spindle bursts" in thalamo-cortical circuits. The presence of
spindle wave activity in the cortical EEG is the criterion used to identify onset of stage 2 non-
rapid-eye-movement sleep (NREMS), the first episode of fully-synchronized slow wave sleep.
Therefore, seeing images that could only be generated by activation of stage 2 spindle waves
means that some parts of the body are entering a sleep-state while the vision centers and the
attention centers remain conscious and continue to process the internally-generated visual signals
as they would process sensory signals during a waking state. After the termination of the ring
volley, the next phosphene image to appear - the amorphous blue cloud - is also generated by
activation of sleep rhythms in thalamo-cortical circuits, but in this case the waves consist of the
much slower "delta wave" activity, the EEG criterion for installation of "stage 3" NREMS.
This analysis of phosphene characteristics and of the generative mechanisms that I've
described here builds on earlier studies designed to produce a taxonony of phosphene images,
including a summary of mescaline-induced "form-constant images" by Klüver [1966 (1942)],
electronic simulation experiments by Max Knoll [1958] and by teams of researchers organized
by him [Knoll and Kugler 1959; Knoll et al., 1962, 1963; Kellogg et al., 1965], and by others
who have attempted to apply these taxonomies in anthropological settings [Lewis-Williams and
Dowson, 1988, 1993; Lewis-Williams, 1995a-b; Reichel-Dolmatoff, 1972, 1975, 1978, 1996].
My analysis moves beyond these early efforts at constructing taxonomies; it presents detailed,
vertically-integrated, causal explanations identifying specific neural mechanisms [Nicholson,
2001, 2002d; Nicholson and Firnhaber, 2004 (2001); see note 1].
§5. Examples of Light Visions When Meditation Is Used As Preliminary Preparation
5.1 Light Visions and the Myths of Australian Aborigines

The ancestors of the Australian Aborigines are thought to have been participants in the
early coastal migration along the Indian Ocean to Southeast Asia and Oceania. Genetic evidence
suggests that the ancestors arrived in Australia sometime between 70,000 and 50,000, BCE
[Oppenheimer, 2003]. The geographical remoteness of Australia isolated its inhabitants from the
rest of the world until well into the modern era.
One of the most fundamental and sacred symbols in Aboriginal culture is the abstract
geometric figure of several concentric circles, usually numbering from three to six rings. An
example appears in the left panel of Figure 4: it's a photograph of three Aborigines conducting a
ritual for which they've created the symbol representing a sacred "waterhole" - an abstract
geometric image of several concentric rings [Lawlor, 1991, Fig. 89, p. 108]. These celebrants
are most likely "Men of High Degree," men who have achieved special recognition by virtue of
their having mastered the secret knowledge and sacred rituals of their people [Elkin, 1994
(1977)]. The ritual honors the mythical Ancestors who shaped the world into its present
condition during the ancient "DreamTime." As spirits the Ancestors can now move back and
forth at will between the earth and the Otherworld by means of these energy portals, the sacred
"waterholes."
Aboriginal informants have explained that concentric circle symbols are representations
of "camps" or "waterholes" which constitute "energy centers" that have a special spiritual
potency, but recently anthropologists have begun to suspect that these informants may not have
provided a full explanation of the meaning of the abstract geometric symbols [Morphy, 1999].
In my opinion, a mix of partial explanation and strategic omission must indeed be the case for
the "waterhole" symbol. Based on what we know about the nature of meditation-induced light
visions, we can make informed inferences about the nature of the secret meanings associated
with the symbol of concentric circles.
Among the aborigines, the Men of High Degree (and others who wish to do so) are
accustomed to moving away from their fellows in order to conduct a solitary retreat. There they
meditate, hoping to enter into an alternative dimension of reality - into the Otherworld of the
Ancestors and the DreamTime that has always existed in parallel with the visible world of
everyday reality. This Otherworld is separated from the everyday world of earthbound creatures
by the thinnest of barriers, and the Man of High Degree believes that he can pass through a
portal, enter the DreamTime and commune directly with the Ancestral spirits. This Otherworld
is said to be a realm of light, so seeing visions of light would naturally be regarded as evidence
of having entered the Otherworld. Since we know, based on our analysis of meditation-induced
light visions, that a Man of High Degree who is meditating will likely see a threshold image of
from three to seven light-rings, it is reasonable to conclude that the symbol of a sacred waterhole
consisting of several concentric rings is in fact an iconic image that points beyond itself to a
vision of otherworldly light seen by a Man of High Degree as he meditates. The first vision to
appear would be the vision of from three to seven receding rings. This inference supports the
hypothesis that visions of light have an important place in the sacred myths of Australian
Aborigines, but there is also more evidence to be considered.
Another important mythical symbol is the "Rainbow Serpent." This Ancestral Spirit
manifests from time to time in external nature as a visible rainbow with its snake-like arc of
translucent, colored lights bending down to touch the earth. According to Aboriginal lore,
rainbows touch down at sites where sacred waterholes are located. This suggests that different
levels of visionary experience are linked in the minds of the Aborigines: (1) there is the seeing
of the rainbow, a natural atmospheric event but also a manifestation of the Rainbow Snake
Ancestor; (2) wherever a rainbow touches ground there is a sacred "waterhole" that constitutes a
portal between the everyday world and the DreamTime; (3) the Aborigines believe that they can
themselves define the location of a sacred "waterhole" portal by drawing an icon of concentric
rings and performing the prescribed rituals; (4) there is the actual seeing of the meditation-
induced phosphene ring volley to which the icon of concentric rings points; and (5) there is the
continued progression of light visions and other kinds of visions as the meditator's mind journeys
through the Otherworld.
Yet another Aboriginal symbol, one which is also likely to have esoteric associations
related to visions of light, is the wearing of a head-dress that forms a wreath around the face, as
shown in the right panel of Figure 4 [From Mountford, 1976, Plate 350, p. 304; also, p. 82].
This kind of head-dress, which is only worn by men who are recognized as having achieved
special powers, is called a nuiti. Paintings of nuitis and other kinds of wreath-like head-dresses
appear in the cave wall-paintings at Ayres Rock. What do these wreath head-dresses symbolize?
It would seem reasonable to infer that wearing a nuiti (and perhaps also other similar head-
dresses) is a reference to the wearer's having seen visions of the light of the Otherworld.
(5.2) Light Visions and the Myths of the Tukano Indians of Amazonia
The first migration of humans into the Americas is now thought to have taken place just
before the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), a time when the level of the earth's oceans was so low
that a large land mass, called Beringia, linked Siberia and Alaska. Based on genetic and climatic
studies, this initial migration is estimated to have taken place substantially earlier than 12,000 to
10,000 BCE, the date that has long been associated with the Clovis theory. Oppenheimer [2003]
concludes that, based on current knowledge, the best estimate is that the migration took place
sometime between 30,000 and 23,000 BCE. Also, genetic research shows that the descendents
of these immigrants who now live in North, Central and South America have four different
genetic profiles, which means that immigrant bands came from several different regions in Asia.
The Tukano Indians are hunter-gatherers who live in the remote jungle regions of the
Amazon. The ritual practices of a group of Tukanos who live in the Amazon region of Columbia
have been studied extensively by anthropologist Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff [1975, pp. 157 -
203; 1996, pp. 162 - 172; also see 1978; 1987]. One of the most important rituals of the Tukanos
is a celebration, open to the participation of all members of the tribe, in which the central feature
is ingestion of the hallucinogenic drug, ayahuasca (also known as yajé) . We can look at the
Tukanos, then, as an example of the second type of trance induction technique in which
meditation is used as a preliminary preparation for something else - but where meditation is
augmented by the use of hallucinogenic drugs.
The goal of the yajé ritual is to see visions that inject an emotional exhilaration into the
everyday lives of the participants, revitalizing their solidarity with fellow tribal members and
their feelings of identification with their jungle environment. The tribal shamans are responsible
for initiating, planning and supervising the ritual. They also prepare the participants by
describing what they can expect to see and then, after the event, they assess the meanings of the
visions that participants report to them.
When the ritual begins, men and women who are participating swallow a beverage in
which ayahuasca is mixed with several other ingredients. At the outset, before the drug takes
effect, the participants sit quietly, sometimes singing or swaying but always maintaining a
solemn, introspective and expectant demeanor. During this preliminary quiet waiting period,
they enter what is, in effect, a meditation-like state, and the evidence for this is that Reichel-
Dolmatoff's informants told him that, during this stage of the proceedings, they begin to see light
visions which have the distinctive geometrical shapes that I've identified as the early-stage light
visions in a typical meditation-induced sequence.
The Tukanos themselves talk about seeing rings and waves of light: in Figure 5, the
photograph in the left panel shows a Tukano shaman drawing a picture in the sand of the ring-
like images he during the yajé ritual. The photograph in the right panel shows how drawings of
concentric circle images are sometimes used as artistic motifs, in this case on the façade of a
longhouse (maloca) used for ritual events. In addition to the concentric circles, abstract
geometric symbols of wave-like lines and eye-like figures, inspired by the same trance states, are
also painted on the walls of Tukano dwellings [Nicholson and Firnhaber, 2004].
When the Tukano shamans draw these kinds of "closed forms," including images such as
circles, squares, diamonds and spirals, they regard them are more than simple decoration; they
are icons that point beyond themselves to some inner experience. As Reichel-Dolmatoff
explains:
[C]losed forms are contemplative devices that express highly abstract thoughts
and cannot be referred to as "designs." They are gurunyá dohpá deyóri, "design-
like-similar-to," but they cannot be drawn with stark, simple lines; "One can
imagine them, but one seldom draws them," a commentator said. . . . Shamans
will trace them in the sand, or draw them on objects, but there they have the
function of contemplative objects, not simple reminders of marriage rules. It was
also pointed out that closed forms were "states . . . that appear and disappear,"
and thus were far more difficult to identify and reproduce than linear motifs
[Reichel-Dolmatoff, 2005 (1981), pp. 170-171].
The Tukanos myths explain how seeing of light visions during ayahuasca rituals is
connected with seeing other kinds of light one sees in the natural world. They believe, for
example, that the visible sun draws its energy from a dark, invisible "Father Sun" [Reichel-
Dolmatoff, 1996, pp. 32-38]. This invisible sun radiates the life-energy that animates everything,
an energy called "bogá." Sometimes "bogari" energies which are normally invisible suddenly
become visible, as, for example, when a person sees dust motes floating in a shaft of sunlight,
sees a rainbow or a shooting star or a flash of lightning - and light visions that appear in the
mind's eye are said to come from this same source:
A significant category of bogari energies is perceived during narcotic trance

states, but [these] can also be observed during fleeting states of dissociation, day-
dreaming, hypnagogic states, isolation, sensory deprivation, or other situations of
stress. The invisible sun is said to emit a spectrum of chromatic energies called
dári, meaning 'rays' or 'threads' [Reichel-Dolmatoff, 1996, pp. 32-33].
When the anthropologist took part in an ayahuasca ritual, he tape-recorded his comments
about the visions he was seeing as best he could given the elusive and fast-paced
transformations. Here I'm quoting his first observations without deletions but including the many
pauses that occurred as he struggled to put his perceptions into words:
I'm seeing something . . . well, like . . . it's dark, but I see something like the tail of
a peacock…but at the same time it's like…everything in movement…like
fireworks, no? Much like a . . . the background of, let's say . . . of certain Persian
miniatures. There's something Oriental about all this. Oh tapestries, Tibetan
tapestries. . . [Reichel-Dolmatoff, 1975, p.164; emphasis added].
Based on Reichel-Dolmatoff's own experiences and also on the descriptions of his tribal
informants, it is clear that, at this preliminary stage of the proceedings, the participants in a
Tukano yajé ritual see visions of light with the distinctive characteristics of the early light visions
in a typical meditation-induced sequence: certainly they see the threshold images of rings or of a
green ring with a dark blue disk within - the eye of a peacock feather.
As the hallucinogenic drug reaches effective levels in the blood, the preliminary,
meditation-induced visions are eclipsed by the rush of much stronger visions that display very
different characteristics. These new, drug-driven visions may include visions of pure light, but,
if so, the spatial and temporal characteristics of the images are more chaotic, much less
structured and much less predictable. The drug-driven visions also feature veridical
hallucinations of dream-like figures and scenarios. The Tukanos told Reichel-Dolmatoff that, in
these hallucinations, they see people, places and things that are familiar to them from their life
experiences; they do not incorporate the kinds of bizarre, recombinant creatures portrayed in
movies like StarWars. In the drug-driven vision, these familiar things are charged with a
heightened emotional intensity and a deepened sense of the meaningfulness of their lives in the
jungle.
After the climax of the drug-driven hallucinations, the Tukanos report that there is a third
stage in the evolution of visual phenomena. Tranquility returns and "Now there is said to prevail
a yellowish-green light like young coca leaves, the light of paradise [Reichel-Dolmatoff, 1975,
pp. 172 - 173]." This third stage appears to be a return to kind of clear light visions associated
with a meditative state, to be specific, a return to the play of amorphous, cloud-like light
generated by the delta waves of "stage 3" NREMS, in this case, the green variant of the
amorphous clouds [Nicholson, 1996].
Like the other tribal cultures living as hunter-gatherers that I've examined in this paper,
the Tukanos seem to be less interested in abstract mythical speculations than in the practical
issues of spirit-management that have implications for their daily lives - for hunting, healing and
self-defense [Reichel-Dolmatoff, 1987, p. 11]. Visions of light, being manifestations of the
bogari energies that infuse all life, play an important role in their mythical understanding of the
world, but the primary objective of the Tukano ayahuasca ritual appears to be the sense of
revitalization and renewed engagement with other members of the tribe and with the natural
environment.
(5.3) Light Visions and Myths of the Mesoamerican Olmecs and Mayas
Several city-states flourished in ancient Mesoamerica. The Olmecs were the first to
leave behind an "Early Hunter Period" that ended about 7,000, BCE, and, during the "Formative
Period" that lasted from 7,000 to 1500, BCE, to develop an agriculture-based society with
differentiated social ranks, large construction projects, trade networks with neighbors, and
specialist groups - artists, craftsmen, priests, scribes, and such. During the classic era of Olmec
civilization (1500 - 400, BCE), the culture developed a writing system, which has been lost to
history, but many aspects of their worldview can be deciphered by analyzing their public
architecture and myriad works of art [Diehl, 2004, p. 13; Joralemon, 1996, p. 52]. Many leading
scholars believe that the basic religious outlook formulated by the Olmecs and their important
deities were adopted and elaborated by successor civilizations, first by the Maya, who became
the ascendant culture from 250 to 900, CE, and by a contemporary culture in Tenochtitlan, then
later by the Toltecs (who defeated the Maya and took control of their territories) and, even later,
by the Toltec's successors, the Aztecs [Joralemon, 1976, pp. 29-33, 58-59]. Based on genetic
and archeological evidence, the ancestors of all of these Mesoamerican cultures are thought to
have emigrated from Siberia to the Beringia land-bridge and to have eventually reached North
American sometime before the Last Glacial Maximum in 23, 000, BCE [Oppenheimer, 2003,
Fig. 7.6, p. 328].
One aspect of the religious beliefs of the Olmecs is revealed by an analysis of "The Las
Limas Figure," a jade sculpture of a human, kneeling like a supplicant, whose skin bears
hieroglyphic inscriptions of the four principle Olmec deities, and who holds in his arms a baby
"were-jaguar" (i.e. a human combined with a jaguar). This were-jaguar symbolism appears
frequently in Olmec art (and also in the art of the successor civilizations who adapted Olmec
ideas). A second sculpture with a similar theme is a fragment which has been interpreted (but
not without controversy) as representing a human - a shaman - in sexual intercourse with a jaguar
[Joralemon, p. 29]. These sculptures, and the many others featured in Joralemon's work that
embody the same were-jaguar themes, suggest that Olmecs believed that shamans could
symbolically transform themselves into jaguar-spirits. In becoming a jaguar-spirit, the shaman
emulated the voluntary "death" of the sun-god that occurred at the moment when the sun dipped
below the horizon and entered the dark, dangerous Underworld of Xibalba embodied as the sun's
alter, the Jaguar-Spirit [Coe, 1999, p. 204]. Just as the Jaguar-Spirit, god of the Underworld,
represented the hidden light of the sun, the shaman who took on the identity of a were-jaguar was
thought to have entered into a world of dark in which he becomes a spirit able to meet and work
with other spirits:
Central to Olmec life were the shamans and priests who understood the
supernatural dimension of the universe and knew the rituals necessary to
propitiate the gods. . . . Through trance techniques and hallucinogenic drugs,
shamans were able to transform themselves into their animal companions and in
this altered state travel through the cosmos and interacts with the spirit world. A
small number of Olmec sculptures portray shamans at various stages of the
transformational process. . . . [Some sculptures] show the shaman midway
through the crossover with features of jaguar and human mingled in his body. A
few portray the climax of the shaman's journey when his transformation into a
jaguar is complete [Joralemon, 1996, p. 59].
The theme of were-jaguars and spirit transformation resurfaces in the myths of the Maya,
but the divine entities of the Maya have evolved so that some old Olmec gods resurface with new
names, new attributes, or, in some cases, with a higher profile and a more important station.
With the recent deciphering of the Maya writing system with its mix of hieroglyphic pictures and
phonetic symbols, there have been many new discoveries about their religious myths. In the
account that follows, I rely heavily on analyses by Freidel, Schele and Parker presented in
Cosmos: Three Thousand Years on the Shaman's Path [2001 (1993)].
One of the important mythical beings in the Maya pantheon is a divine entity called
K'awil, master of the life-force and of transitional states. K'awil appears in the drawing of a
carving from the Mayan temple at Palenque, shown in Figure 6, which depicts a deceased king
named Pakal in the process of being transformed from a human but quasi-divine king into one of
the celestial star-gods in the night sky [Ibid., p. 194]. During this transformation, Pakal takes on
the attributes of K'awil, the god of transformations, and here Pakal-as-K'awil is depicted as
falling through a dark hole in the Milky Way, the "Dark Transformer," which was also called the
gullet of K'ukumatz, the mythical Plumed Serpent. Knowing that the gullet of the Plumed
Serpent was envisioned as an invisible portal that gods, kings and shamans could use to move
back and forth between earth and the Otherworld is an important insight, as will soon become
evident.
The identification of the deceased Pakal as representing K'awil is based the inclusion of
two details that were considered the attributes of the god of transformations: first, there is a
smoking celt (i.e., a stone axeblade) in Pakal/K'awil's forehead, and, second, one foot has already
been transformed into the head of a serpent, signaling that K'ukumatz, the Plumed Serpent, is a
participant in this transformative event [Ibid., pp.193 - 202]. Put another way, the Plumed
Serpent, who is the animal spirit companion (way or uay) of K'awil, is also the way of King
Pakal in his journey to the Otherworld. The feathers of the Plumed Serpent are green and blue,
the same as the feathers of the quetzal bird - which happen to be the very same green and blue
colors that form the eye of a peacock's feather. If dead kings are said to fall into the mouth of a
snake plumed in green and blue feathers en route to the Otherworld, and if gods from the
Otherworld move through this same passage en route to the earth, the question arises: why this
passage is said to be wreathed in green and blue? One reason why religious specialists might
want to emphasize these colors is to instruct those humans (kings, priests or shamans) who want
to emulate K'awil by moving through the gullet of the quetzal-feathered serpent to be alert and to
look for the tell-tale flickers of inner lights that shine with the same green and blue colors as the
familiar quetzal - the inner light that signals entrance into a world of spirits and into the portal
that leads to the stars. But this is only one of many references to quetzal-green-and-blue lights.
Yet another reference to green and blue colors is encoded in the second detail included in
the portrait of Pakal-as-K'awil: the smoking axe planted in the forehead. The smoking axe is
thought to be a symbol of lightning, because the Maya believed that the flintstones they dug out
of the ground and then used to make axeheads were created when lightning bolts struck the earth.
The most important divinity in the Maya pantheon is "Jurakán," the "Heart of the Sky," god of
thunderstorms and lightning. When the energy of Jurakán manifests as lightning (caculhá), the
Maya distingguished among three variants: (1) "one-legged lightning," which clearly indicates
forks or bolts of lightning; (2) "little lightning" or "dwarf lightning," which has been variously
interpreted but probably refers to the next most awesome spectacle during a thunderstorm, a
flash of "sheet lightning" that illuminates a stormcloud from within, and, finally, (3) lightning
described by the Mayas as Räxa-Caculhá. This third kind of lightning continues to puzzle
scholars who study Maya religion, and their proposed translations are often contradictory [see
Freidel et al., 2001, p. 199 & fn 50, p. 444; Goetz and Morley, 1950, p. 82 & fn 7; Preuss, 1988,
p. 76]. Pruess' proposal provides a hint about how to resolve this puzzle:
Räxa Caculjá can mean "green," "blue" or "precious lightning." Since we can link
the color blue with human sacrifices and death, the conclusion can be drawn that
this lightning symbolizes the underworld, which is the level corresponding to
death [Preuss, 1988, p. 76].
Drawing on what we know about the colors of meditation-induced light visions and also
recognizing the many references to green and blue colors in Maya myth - many of which have
still to be enumerated - I believe the best translation for Räxa-Caculhá is to regard it as a
composite, that is, to regard the term as embodying all three of potential meanings it could be
assigned based on what is known about Maya vocabulary. In this view, the word should be
translated as "Precious-Green-and-Blue-Lightning." If this translation is indeed correct, then
clearly it does not refer to lightning flashes observed in the sky, since they never have these
colors nor are they said to be "precious." This translation would, however, be a very apt
description of what a shaman or priest would see if he were practicing some kind of meditation,
hoping to "enter" a path to the stars or the Underworld.
By pursuing the myth of K'awil, we were led to K'ukumatz, the Plumed Serpent, and in
pursuing K'ukumatz, we were led to Jurakán, god of lightning, this is as it should be, because the
classical Maya conceived of the divine entities as spiritual forces that can transform themselves
into many different manifestations: K'ukumatz, the Plumed Serpent, is considered to be one of
the forms which Jurakán can assume, and so it makes sense that both K'ukumatz and Jurakán
would be associated with the distinctive blue and green of the quetzl bird's feathers.
And there are other important references to green and blue in the Maya myths. In the
Popol Vuh, one of the few written accounts of ancient Mayan myths (compiled in Spanish after
the Conquest), these colors are said to have been the hiding place of gods before the creation of
the world. The opening verse of the Popol Vuh states that, just before the beginning of creation,
nothing existed but water, darkness and silence, but that there was a light in the dark water which
surrounded the key figures in the creation story ("the Creator, the Maker, Tepeu, K'ucumatz and
the Forefathers") who hide beneath green and blue quetzal feathers [Goetz and Morley, 1950, pp.
81 - 83].
A blue-green color also figures in the Maya myth of the Four Directions that stretch out
the corners of the earth. Each Direction has its own color, and so too does the place where the
axes of the Four Directions intersect - the color blue-green. Piercing this intersection is a
perpendicular axis, the "world-tree," that rises above the earth to support the sky and descends
below the earth to sustain the Underworld, and the world-tree has the same color as the
intersection - blue-green [Coe, 1999, p. 203]. Finally, the use of blue as a symbolic color is
apparent in the palace at Palenque: there the murals have a color code that differentiates between
humans and gods: "the exposed skin of humans was painted red, while that of gods was covered
with blue [Ibid., p. 131]."
These many references in Maya myths to blue or green light in association with deities or
the path to the Otherworld implies that they were familiar with trance-induced visions and that
they valued them highly. There is also evidence that the Olmecs and Maya may have used
hallucinogenic drugs to induce trance states [Miller and Taube, 1993, p. 90].
(5.4) Light Visions and Arctic Shamans in Siberia , Alaska and Greenland
Where shamanism is practiced, the ability to induce visions of inner light is often
considered a prerequisite for being accepted as authentic [Noll, 1985]. Among the Iglulik
Eskimos of Alaska who were still living the traditional lifestyle when visited by the Danish
explorer, Knut Rasmussen, the inner "illumination" is called angákoq or quamaneq:
[A] mysterious light which the shaman suddenly feels in his body, inside his head,
within the brain, an inexplicable searchlight, a luminous fire, which enables him
to see in the dark, both literally and metaphorically speaking, for he can now,
even with closed eyes, see through darkness and perceive things and coming
events that are hidden from others [Rasmussen, 1930, p. 111].
The Eskimo shaman often "gets his visions sitting or lying in deep concentration at the
back of the sleeping platform, behind a curtain or covered with a skin. The drum is not used in
this connection [Holtved, 1967, p. 47]." Given this description of Eskimo trance-induction, we
should expect to find references to the earliest of the meditation-induced light visions in native
artwork from the far north, and this is indeed the case. Some particularly interesting examples of
concentric circle imagery used to decorate shamans' costumes can be found in an article by
Benson and Sehgal [1987]: there are illustrations of an Eskimo shaman's mask which is a
wooden circle with a single eye-hole at its center and with four concentric rings painted on the
surface, covering it completely [Ibid., p. 8]. Also displayed there are drawings of ritual shirts
used by shamans from the Goldi tribes of Siberia which have two concentric circles prominently
displayed on the fronts of the shirts [Ibid., p. 6].
Now that we've considered examples of two out of three trance induction techniques - the
use of meditation (with or without drugs) as a preliminary preparation, and the use of extreme
stimulus overload - we are ready to turn to the third trance induction technique in which
meditators attempt to extend and amplifying the sequence of clear light visions until the process
culminates in paroxysmal flashes of white light. Before we begin, we need to take a brief detour
for background information about the paroxysmal sequence of meditation-induced light visions.
§6. Phenomenology of Meditation-Induced Light Visions, Part II: Paroxysmal Visions
The earliest phosphene images to appear during meditation are generated by activation of
the brain mechanisms that govern the transition from wakefulness to drowsiness to slow wave
sleep, as described above. If brain starts the transition to sleep by activating sleep rhythms at a
time when neurons are abnormally excitable - as happens, for example, when a person has lost a
lot of sleep - then it is relatively easy for the synchronous firing to become destabilized. This is
what occurs in patients who have sleep-onset epileptic seizures. If someone with a substantial
sleep deficit (and thus with hyper-excitable neurons in the brain) begins to meditate, this can
trigger a paroxysmal, seizure-like episode and a distinctive sequence of paroxysmal light visions,
a process I've described elsewhere at some length [Nicholson, 2002d; see note 1]. Figures 7 and
8 illustrate the intermediate and final sequence of paroxysmal phosphene images.
<INSERT FIGURES 7 & 8 & LEGENDS HERE - ON OPPOSING PAGES PLEASE >
§7. Examples of the Full Light Vision Sequence Induced by Prolonged Meditation
(7.1) Light Visions and Myths in Ancient India

The frequent practice of prolonged "empty-mind" meditation has been an important

feature of Indian meditation practice from Vedic times into the present day. Those who are
familiar with meditation texts inspired by the Indian experience will recognize that meditation
and meditation-induced light visions are subjects that are explicitly addressed in the Upanishads
(ca.1000 to 500, BCE), in Patañjali's Yogasutras (ca. 200, BCE), and in Tantric treatises from
Medieval India (ca. 1000, CE), for example, Abhinavagupta's Tantraloka ("Light on Tantra"),
Goraksanatha's Amaraughasasana ("Immortal Flow"), and Ksemaraja's Shivasutravimarshini
("Commentary on the Shivasutras"), but the seminal importance of meditation-induced light
imagery in the hymns of the original Rig Veda (ca. 1300 - 1000, BCE) has been overlooked and
neglected until recently.
The charts in Figures 9 and 10 illustrate the metaphors used by the Indo-Aryan poets to
describe a complete sequence of meditation-induced light visions. By juxtaposing these
descriptions with those of successor texts, the essential continuity of metaphors used to refer to
light vision in all of these texts is quite evident, as is the amalgamation of that light imagery
with abstract mythical entities.
<INSERT FIGURES 9 & 10 & LEGENDS HERE - ON OPPOSING PAGES PLEASE>
The threshold vision in the hymns of the Rig Veda (RV) is the vision of the mythic
"chariot of the Asvins," said to be a "radiant vision" (dhih or manisa) of a "chariot" which is seen
in the form of three radiant wheels [Rig Veda, 4.36.1-2, in Wilson, 1888]. It is important to
point out that this vision is induced by the priests, that is, it appears when the priests use their
minds to bend the shape of these radiant wheels [Wilson, 1888, RV 4.36.1-2; sGonda, 1963, pp.
33]. As Figure 9 shows, the characteristics of the Asvin's "chariot" match the characteristics of
the phosphene "receding rings." The hymns also refer to visions of the "flame-arrows of Agni"
(dhitayah) which are "smoke-like" [RV 1.27.11; 5.11.3; 7.2.1; 1.3.3] and which flow like
streams or fountains [RV 1.67.7; 3.10.5]. These smoke-like streams of flame "assemble like the
streams of water into holes [RV 10.25.4] [Gonda, 1963, p. 173]," an apt description of the
visions of amorphous phosphene clouds.
One of the important and auspicious visions in the hymns is the vision of "Soma." That
Soma is a vision as well as a plant used to make elixirs and a celestial deity has often been
overlooked. Soma the vision is described by many metaphors, all of which share the connotation
of being a translucent white object with a bulbous shape: for example, the vision of "newborn"
Soma is said to look like "a swollen udder filled with milk" [RV 10.64.12], like a "navel" [RV
1.43.9; 9.74.4], like a "waterskin" [RV 9.1.8], and like a boll of "white wool" [RV 9.12.4]. The
shaman/priests who see this vision of "newborn Soma" then try to use their singing of the hymns
to move the Soma vision forward to the next stage of its manifestation - the metaphor in the
hymns is that the priests use their "fingers" (a euphemism for their songs to the gods) - to
"express" the white fluid contained in the "woolen filter" of the Soma bulb. What they hope to
see - and what the hymns describe - is that the Soma bulb will split and "express the streams of
Soma." The appearance and the movements of the Soma-streams are described in great detail, as
shown in Figure 8: three white rays appear, these three rays become seven, and the rays then
seem to droop like birds dropping down to alighting on their nest [Nicholson, 2002b, pp. 57-59].
These descriptions closely match the drawings of the final sequence of paroxysmal phosphenes.
In the myths that refer to this visionary experience, it is said that the rising jets of Soma
fluid are drunk in by Indra, god of lightning and thunderstorms. Indra then becomes exhilarated
and possessed of enough strength to hurl a bolt of lightning at the demons who hide the sun in a
dark cave. Indra's bolt of lightning releases the light of the hidden sun, and it is this vision of the
lightning and of the sun, newly liberated, that is the final vision of the sequence described in the
Rig Veda. This culminating vision is said to look "bright-like-lightning," but some verses are
more specific, stating that it looks like sheet-lightning ("lightning milking the clouds"), and, to
the seer, it feels like "wearing the fire-bursts of the sun," like being "sun-eyed" [Nicholson,
2002b, pp. 62 - 63].
This analysis suggests that a significant portion of the ancient Vedic myths were devoted
to homologies, that is, to explanations of how phenomena observed in nature, such as lightning
storms and the nightly disappearance of the sun, are linked to events that are invisible because
they take place in the celestial world of gods and spirits - and how both of these are linked to the
light that humans can produce within themselves, thereby replicating in a microcosm (and in a
controllable version) the important and frightening events observed in the macrocosm.
(7.2) Light Visions and Myths in Buddhist Tibet
The light vision imagery in Tibetan yoga meditation texts is an adaptation of Tantric
teachings being taught in northwest India during the Middle Ages (ca. 1000, AD). In Kashmir, a
famous Mahayana Buddhist teacher named Naropa compiled an anthology of short treatises
which he called The Epitome of the Six Yogas [Evans-Wentz, 1958]. Naropa's Six Yogas that
collectively describe meditation techniques that are considered to be the most efficacious for
attaining the release of nirvana within a single lifetime. These techniques are known as maha-
anuttara-yoga, or "Highest Yoga Tantra," and they are reserved for the practice of advanced
lamas who have already mastered other meditation techniques. A disciple of Naropa named
Marpa translated the anthology and took it back with him to his native Tibet where he used it as
a foundation of practice in the Tibetan version of Mahayana Buddhism, called Vajrayana, "The
Vehicle of the Thunder-Bolt."
Descriptions of meditation-induced light visions in Tibetan texts parallel the descriptions
in Indian texts shown in Figures 9 and 10. The meditator is advised to heed the old saying,
"Meditate on the four wheels, each like an umbrella or like the wheels of a chariot" ["Yoga of the
Psychic Heat," I: ii: 62, in Evans-Wentz, 1958, p. 190]. The reference to "umbrella" in
conjunction with "wheel" does not mean the wheel-visions contain visible spokes but rather that
the wheel-visions shrink in diameter in the same way that the circumference of an umbrella
shrinks in diameter when a user collapses it after the rain ends. Marpa, in his own teachings,
described a similar image: the first light visions to appear, he said, are the "hallucination-like
signs" which look like a "halo of five lights" [Mullin, 1996, p. 167]. The most graphic
descriptions of meditation-induced light visions appear in The Natural Liberation of Seeing, a
text written by a 17th-Century Tibetan lama named Karma Lingpa [Chagmé, 2000]. Excerpts
from Lingpa's treatise are included in Figures 9 and 10.
In Tibetan Vajrayana, the penultimate vision is the auspicious appearance of the "Pure
Illusory Body." All of the metaphors used to describe the Pure Illusory Body refer to seeing a
translucent white bulbous-shaped figure that moves against a water-like background: in "The
Yoga of the Clear Light," the vision appears as a "fish leaping out of a pond," as the "moon
reflected in water," or as the form of a meditating Buddha (i.e. shoulders and head hunched
forward) which moves as if the meditator were rising from sleep. Similarly, in "The Yoga of the
Psychic Heat," the vision of the Pure Illusory Body is described as "an invisible psychic
protuberance" that glows from within because it contains white semen that has been raised up
from its reservoir in the genital area through a process of purification until it has collected in this
more spiritually-elevated station. The meditator contemplating the vision of the Pure Illusory
Body hopes to see this "psychic protuberance" rupture, releasing streams of white fluid that
"flow up to the top of the head and then fill the head completely," at which point the meditator is
said to have attained "the state of Dorje-Chang," or "Wielder of the Thunderbolt" and to have
thereby achieved mastery of the "Very Bright and Enduring" ["Yoga of the Clear Light," Evans-
Wentz, 1958, p. 231].
(7.3) Light Visions and Myths in Early Daoist Texts
If we now shift to China during the period that extends from the 3rd Century, BCE, to the
4th Century, CE, we find many references to visions of light that are likely to have predated the
arrival of Buddhist missionaries from Kashmir who came to China via the Silk Road. The early
Daoist texts (and pre-Daoist texts which were later adopted into the canon) were hand-written
treatises that typically passed from master to disciple or from father to son. These texts mix
different kinds of materials - instructions for preparing alchemical elixirs that were said to confer
immortality, myths describing the attributes and palaces of "celestial" deities, depictions of
mythical "spiritual landscapes" that were said to be microcosms located inside the human body,
and of course practical guidance for those aspirants who hoped to transform themselves into the
pure celestial light of the Perfected Beings. The ultimate goal in most Daoist practices was to
achieve personal immortality [Pruett, 2002].
There are two types of meditation in early China: the first type, called "Preserving the
Light of the One" (Shou-i), is essentially the same as the Indo-Tibetan "empty-mind" meditation
we discussed earlier. Here is a description of this approach to inducing light visions excerpted
from the Taiping-jing, or "The Scripture of Great Peace," written about 32, BCE:
With prolonged practice . . . you will be able to see within your body. The
physical body will become lighter, the essence more brilliant, and the light more
concentrated. . . . / To practice guarding the light of the One, when you have not
yet attained concentration, just sit quietly with your eyes closed. There is no light
seen in the inner eye. / Practice guarding the One like this for a long time and a
brilliant light will arise [Kohn, 1993, pp.194 - 195].
The Taiping-jing also contains descriptions of light visions that have the same
characteristics of the threshold "receding ring" visions:
When guarding the light of the One, you may see a pure green light of lesser
Yang . . . . When the splendor of Yang starts to shine and spreads its light, . . . ;
its breath [qi] turns and circles like the wheels of a chariot [Robinet, 1993,
p.110].
A second type of meditation called "Visualization" (cun-jian) was also practiced in

ancient China. This description of Daoist visualization is based on the work of experts in the
field [Bokenkamp, 1997, p. 288; Robinet, 1993, p. 61; Schipper, 1993, pp. 171 - 172; Kohn,
1997, 1993]. In "retentive visualization," the practitioner does not sit passively with attention
focused within as in "Guarding the Light of the One;" instead, the visualizer tries to draw light
energy out of celestial bodies like the sun, moon and stars. He pretends as if he were "ingesting"
the sun's rays, then he imagines seeing lights of specific colors circulating through his body and
illuminating certain "organs." It is not his own physical organs that the visualizer imagines but
rather a series of symbolic way-stations spread across a mythical "landscape" which was
believed to exist within the human body as a microcosm aligned with the macrocosm of earth
and sky. As the visualizer imagines these colored light energies circulating within his body, he
expects that "like will attract like," that is, he hopes that the circulation of the colors that he has
induced himself using his imagination will attract the attention of the celestial deities and cause
them to send down streams of a purer, more spiritualized form of colored light. The sign of
success is seeing visions of clear light flowing spontaneously into the mind of the meditator.
This spontaneous flow of pure, "celestial" light in the mind's eye is called the "Returned View"
(fan-guang). The goal of the visualizer, then, is to evoke the same kind of spontaneous flow of
light as the meditator who is "Guarding the Light of the One." In the "The Elegies of Chu"
[Chuci], a very old pre-Daoist text dating from the 3rd Century, BCE, there is a poem about
shamanic flight called "The Far-Off Journey" (Yuanyou). This poem presents a lyrical
description of visualization that combines meditation, active fantasy, mythical inner landscapes,
and success is eliciting a spontanous flow of light from the celestial gods:
I look within, try to get back my grip, / To find the place where life's energy
arises: / All vastly empty and tranquil, there is serenity. / Quietly in non-action,
spontaneous truth is found [Kohn, 1997, p.252]
* * *
So I eat the six energies and drink the nightly dew, / Rinse my mouth with yang
itself and swallow morning light. / Guarding the purity of the spirit within, / I
absorb essence and energy, drive out all that's course [p. 253]
* * *
In the morning I wash my hair in the Sun's Own Valley; / At night I rest at the
Ninefold Yang. / I sip the subtle fluid of the Flying Spring / And hold the shining
brightness of the Glittering Gem [p. 254]
* * *
[I see] Yang in its gentle flashes, not quite bright, . . . [p. 255]
* * *
Plunging and soaring, we go up and down, / Wandering on floating waves of
unsteady mist.
* * *
Traversing fresh blue clouds, I am floating freely, . . [p. 255]
While there are vague allusions to meditation-induced light visions in the texts of the
earliest schools of Daoism - for example, in the texts of the Great Peace Movement of the 1st
Century, BCE, and in the texts of the Celestial Masters of the 2nd Century, CE - it was not until
the the 4th Century that Yang Xi's Shangqing "Highest Clarity" school recorded descriptions
which are unequivocal references to a complete sequence of meditation-induced light visions.
Excerpt from Highest Clarity texts like The Upper Scripture of the Purple Texts Inscribed by the
Spirits, The Book of Great Profundity (Ta-tung jing), and The Book of the Yellow Court
(Huanging jing) are presented in the charts of Figures 11 and 12.
<INSERT FIGURES 11 AND 12 ON OPPOSITE PAGES + ACCOMPANYING
LEGEND>
I've described how brain mechanisms that govern the transition to sleep are sensitive and
can be easily destabilized. One might expect, then, that sleep loss would be an effective strategy
for destabilizing meditation-induced light visions and thereby seeing an extended, paroxysmal
series of lights, and, indeed, this strategy was recognized by the authors of The Book of the
Yellow Court: "Stay awake, day and night, and you will be immortal [Schipper, op. cit., p.
135]."
We also find evidence that Shangqing Daoists were familiar with paroxysmal light
visions. In The Book of Great Profundity , the meditator who has already awakened the light
energies of his body - and who has also elicited the "Returned View" of light from the heavens -
is advised to use "inner alchemy" to "fuse" these two types of light-energy into the One: ". . . by
the fusion of the One (hun-i), one is born into the light of the (celestial) Emperor [Robinet,
1993, p. 105]." This fusion is described as a paroxysmal experience that feels like being caught
up in a "whirlwind (hui-feng)" [Ibid., p. 109]. The whirlwind is initiated by concentrating on the
visions of the twisting purple lights until they change into a wind that blows "ten thousand
things:"
The breath [qi] is then transformed into a purple cloud which goes through the
same circulatory process finally "whirling" (hui-lun) and "twisting itself" into the
form of the Emperor One, . . . . which brightens everything "like a white sun"
[Ibid., p. 110].
The Ta-tung . . . makes [the primordial breath] revolve (hui-hsün), purifies the
spirits and rejoins with the Tao, causes a propitious wind to blow and guides the
dance within the void. Suddenly (hu), the respiration disperses the form of the ten
thousand things and, at the height of movement, there is tranquility again -
obscurely, all around, the Miracle of the Emperor One. This is what is called the
Whirlwind of the Unitive Fusion [Ibid., pp.116-117].
An important detail about this process appears in another text, the Chen-kao: there the
same visionary experience is described using the word, piao, which means a "violent or wild or
fiery wind," but which also means a "fast chariot" [Ibid., pp. 113 - 114]. These adjectives
suggests that the whirlwind experience involves visions of wind-blown sparks, and this clearly
recalls the phosphene vision of the radiating spray that occurs when the brain's sleep rhythms are
destabilized. This interpretation is strengthened when we learn that this fiery wind of the piao
also produces paroxysmal symptoms that are non-visual: Robinett reports that a Daoist monk
who wrote a commentary on the Chuang-tzu said there that the meditator caught up in the
Whirlwind of Unitive Fusion "turns (hui) like a wild wind (piao), twirls around like a falling
leaf, abandons himself to things and is spontaneous [Ibid., p. 116]." Similar symptoms occur
during the vision of the radiating spray, described above (e.g., trembling limbs, a compulsion to
arch the back and let the mouth droop open), and the same symptoms are described in Tantric
texts as "the attitude of wonder (cakitamudra)" [Silburn, 1988, pp. 63, 73].
An alternative description of this same progression of visionary experiences is found in
Karl Schipper's analysis of The Book of the Yellow Court. He notes that the vision that appears
after the whirlwind is described as a "Great Ocean of Energies," an apt description of the vision
of a uniform bright sky-blue that fills the visual field after the radiating spray (Figures 7 and 8).
Poking above the surface of the "ocean" is the head of a swimming turtle:
We now arrive in the watery lower world. Here again sun and the moon are
found, this time in the kidneys. They cast their light on the Great Ocean of
Energies (ch'i-hai), which covers the whole of the lower body, and wherein a
large turtle swims [Schipper, 1993, pp. 106-7].
The turtle's head clearly suggests the presence of a bulbous image amid a field of blue,
and this inference is supported by other metaphors used by the same text: some verses state that
what rises out of the blue ocean is a vision of the sacred mountain, Kunlun, but that the
"mountain" appears to be inverted so that its peak faces downward:
In the middle of the ocean rises the K'un-lun, the sacred, inverted mountain with
its narrow base widening towards the top, giving it the outline of a mushroom.
The mountain has a hollow summit (the navel), which gives access to the deepest
recesses of the ocean [Ibid., pp. 106 - 107].
In Daoist mythology, Kunlun is often referred to as "the Tortoise Mountain"

[Bokenkamp, op. cit., p. 344], a reference that reinforces the point that the turtle's head and the
mountain are regarded here as alternative descriptions of the same visionary experience. And in
another text, The Record of the Ten Continents (Shizhou ji), describes the vision of Kunlun as
"shaped like a hanging bowl [Kohn, 1993, p. 55]."
The experts have long been puzzled about how to explain these references to oceans of
energies, mythical turtle's heads, bowl-shaped mountains facing upside down, mushrooms, and
navels. I suggest that the puzzle can be resolved if we view these metaphors as attempts to
describe the phosphene vision of a translucent white bulbous image that seems to protrude out
from a uniform blue background.
Another cluster of metaphors has also eluded explanation [Bokenkamp, 1997, pp. 285 -
286]. In verses reproduced below, the Highest Clarity text, Purple Scriptures, states that the
worthy practitioner will eventually see the vision of an inner moon that glows white with "yang-
essence," that is, with energy transmuted from seminal fluid. This is a strange symbol for
Daoists to use, because they usually consider the moon to be feminine, but yang-essence is
clearly male. But the same verses make it clear that the moon has not lost its feminine attributes:
it is filled not only with yang-essence but also hides within a "Jade Fetus" and a "newborn babe."
To confuse the concept even more, these same verses characterize a feminine concept - the "Jade
Placenta" - as an efflorescence from the masculine sun. Clearly the author has resorted to
paradox to make his point, but what is he intending to communicate? The paradoxes are
resolved if this verses are regarded as an attempt to describe what happens during the
penultimate and final stages of the meditation-induced light vision sequence, viz. the vision of
the white bulbous image appears amid an ocean of sky-blue light, the bulb moves back and forth
and then suddenly ruptures, and a vision of three white rays rising and fanning apart appears.
Someone who would normally distinguish between masculine and feminine processes would
find it difficult to separate the male properties of the vision (a phallus-like bulb filled with semen
and an ejaculation) from the female properties (womb holding a fetus and a new birth), and so,
faced with this dilemma, the authors resorted to paradox to present a graphic description of the
peculiar visions they'd seen and their sense of being reborn. Here are the relevant verses from
The Purple Scriptures:
Moon essences, phosphors of the night, / Exalted on high in the Dark Palace . . .
. / May the fetus fly in; / May the newborn babe gradually emerge. / The
circling yin joins thrice, / It's beams mystically darkening in all directions [Ibid.,
p. 319].
So that the moon now wanes, now waxes. / The luminous essence glows within,
/ Then spurts forth as a bridge across dark waters. . . . / I now feed on lunar
efflorescences, / Joining thereby with the Perfected / I will fly as a transcendent
to Purple Tenuity [Ibid., p. 320].
Bring to me the waters of lunar efflorescence, / . . . / Stored in heaven, concealed

in the moon, / The Five Numinous Ladies / Let fly their beams of light in nine
paths, / To illumine my muddy pellet [Ibid., p. 321].
The final stage of meditation in the Daoist texts is seeing a vision of white light.
References to seeing a white light begin to appear in the very earliest pre-Daoist texts. If
Schipper's translation of Lao-tzu's Dao-de ching is correct, then Chapter 10 advises the sage to
seek a state of mind beyond all cognition which presents as a white light that encompassing all
consciousness: "Can you, by Non-Knowledge, let the white light penetrate all regions of the
(inner) space? [Schipper, 1993, p. 139]." The clearest reference to the culminating vision of
white light is found in a 1st Century Daoist text from the Taiping (Great Peace) school, Three
Ways to Go Beyond the Heavenly Pass (Tiganguan santu). The adept who has arrived at the
penultimate stage of meditation is advised, in his final effort, to "[M]editate on the Passgate Star.
This is the Heavenly Pass of Mysterious Yang, the great brightness of Vascillating Radiance.
Here the Tao Lords of the Highest Jade Emperor reside [Kohn, 1993, pp. 264; emphasis added]."
In Commands and Admonitions for theFamilies of the Great Dao [Bokenkamp, 1993], a text
from the "Celestial Masters" School of the 2nd Century, the world is said to have been created
out of a primordial white light: "The Dao bestows itself by means of subtle pneumas [qi]. There
are three colors, . . . . The mystic is azure and formed heaven. The inaugural is yellow and
formed earth. The primal is white and formed the Dao. Within the three pneumas, the Dao
controls all above and below . . . . [Ibid., pp. 165-166]." All Daoist texts agree that the goal of
the sage is to recover that primordial unity by restoring the state of the One - and here the
obvious import is that, to carry out this restoration, the sage must practice visualization and
"Guarding the Light of the One" until an inner alchemy occurs and the heavens send down a
vision of white light that fills all consciousness. Finally, in her pioneering study of 4th Century
Shangqing Daoism, Isabelle Robinet concludes that the goal of these adepts was to call down a
fiery light that would transmute them into immortals:
It may be said that the exertion of the adepts who practice the Great Purity
exercises ends with an imaginary self-cremation. Thus adepts see "a red breath
envelop their bodies and everything turns to fire; the fire engulfs their bodies.
Body and fire become but one substances. Inside and outside, all is light." This is
called "purification (or "refining," lien) by the sun and moon" or "dying and living
again" [Robinet, 1993, p. 169].
After the 4th Century, Buddhist missionaries penetrated deeper into China and their
influence increased. At the same time, many new schools of Daoism appeared. The Daoists and
Buddhists would often incorporate each others ideas, so that it becomes increasingly difficult to
identify themes in Chinese religion and sacred art that belong exclusively to one religion or the
other. But both religions agreed that the colors of the spiritual world and the divinities who
resided in heavenly realms is the distinctive shades of green and dark blue that we've found in
the myths of many different cultures. To appreciate how thoroughly these distinctive hues of
green and blue have been absorbed into Chinese culture, imagine yourself as a traveler entering
the Cave of One Thousand Buddhas near Kizil or the Mogao Grottoes near Dunhuang: you step
inside and all around you are wall paintings of Boddhisattvas with robes of green and dark blue
floating in heavenly mists of the same colors. If you fly from Xinjiang to Changchun, then drive
to the Museum of Shamanism, you'll see these same colors but now in the head-dress of a
Manchu shaman shown in Figure 13: beads cover the shaman's physical eyes, but the wreath of
peacock feathers above shows that he will be able to see the spirit world - and that this will
involve his seeing green and blue light like the eyes of the peacock feathers. Now if you return
to Beijing and visit the Daoist White Cloud Monastery, you'll see a 16th-century Ming Dynasty
painting of the Daoist Primordial Celestial Deity, and here, too, you'll see those same greens and
dark blues being used as the primary colors, along with large expanses of a lighter sky-blue.
Then wandering through the precincts of the Forbidden Palace, you'll notice that the Chinese
emperors appropriated the same green and dark blue colors to paint the eaves and arches of their
palaces. No doubt they saw these colors which Daoists and Buddhists alike regarded as
auspicious as symbolic demonstrations that the Emperor of China possessed the Mandate of
Heaven.
§7. Light Visions and Myths: Concluding Comments
We've examined a number of myths that contain references to trance-induced light

visions, references which are often encoded as symbols or as of attributes of a deity. In several
instances, the original code was lost to history, so that the existence of references to light visions
and their original meanings were forgotten, even by the officiants who conducted rituals
celebrating the myths. I predict that the phenomenon of entering into trance-states with the goal
of inducing light visions - and interpreting these inner lights as spiritual entities - is virtually
universal, and, hoping to document that hypothesis, I'm currently working on a book that extends
my analysis to include cultures not examined here - the myths of ancient Egypt, for example, and
the mystical origins of the three monotheistic religions of west Asia: Judaism, Christianity and
Islam.
The wide-spread distribution of trance-induced light visions is not surprising given that
hypnotizability is an attribute broadly distributed among humans, probably as a result of natural
selection [McClenon, 2004]. In many cultures the ability to induce trances and see visions of
strange, unworldly lights is a prerequisite for becoming a shaman or healer. A shaman's ability
to self-induce light visions is likely to enhance the shaman's confidence in the efficacy of his or
her ritual performances - and it buttresses confidence by reference to a criterion that is within the
personal control of the shaman and which does not depend on actually bringing about the
intended effect in the external environment. An increase in the shaman's self-confidence is likely
to affect the confidence of the shaman's clients and thus likely to enhance the shaman's
charismatic authority. And, as McClenon points out in his study of healing rituals, it is precisely
the fact that the client believes in the efficacy of a ritual that increases the likelihood that the
ritual will indeed produce some beneficial results in those clients who are susceptible to ritual-
induced hypnosis and the placebo effects that hypnosis can mobilize. In this way, the human
capacity to self-induce light visions or to see light visions with the help of shamans can have the
effect of bolstering the credibility of a myth-system. That's what I mean when I suggest that
light visions need myths (to explain why light visions appear and what they mean) and that,
conversely, myths need light visions (to restore or reinforce belief in the continued potency of
the myth).
After reviewing the myths of a number of cultures and the references to light visions
embedded there, it becomes evident that there is a significant difference between the way light
visions are treated in the myths of small, tribal bands - the San Bushmen of South Africa, the
Dani of New Guinea, the Australian Aborigines, and the Tukanos of South America - and how
light visions are treated in the myths of cultures with a more complex level of social organization
- in ancient India, China, Tibet, and Mesoamerica. In the cultures of small tribal bands,
references to light visions are relatively clear, direct, practical (to propitiate spirits who can help
with the concerns of daily life), and defined in experiential terms which makes it easy to teach
other people how to see these light visions; by contrast, in cultures with a more complex level of
social organizations the descriptions of trance-induced visions have lost their separate existence,
having been absorbed into elaborate descriptions of abstract metaphysical concepts or of
mythical deities who live in remote, celestial heavens. How might these observed differences in
the encoding of light vision references be explained?
The level of social organization is clearly an important factor. In a monograph on the
band level of social organization, anthropologist Elman Service [1966] summarizes research that
makes it possible to predict the essential characteristics of the "ideology" of a hunter-gatherer
band. The culture of a band is highly individualistic and egalitarian, and there is no designated
chief. The myths of bands are usually implicit in the traditions of how people think and behave,
not expressed in abtract principles, and, in addition, the ideology of a band must be relatively
simple, first, because there are no full-time specialists to define, clarify, elaborate, and inculcate
the ideology, and, second, because those ritual practitioners who do exist - the shamans - need
simple rituals that they can practice on a part-time basis when they are not engaged, along with
everyone else in the band, in foraging for their daily needs. In this milieu, myths will be often
expressed in rituals because all band members can freely participate in a ritual even if individuals
hold very different views of what the ritual is about. The concept of time is usually restricted to
counting days, lunar months, seasons and the passing of human generations; there is no need for
the concept of linear, historical time - and of course here too the lack of specialists makes a
difference, since there is no one in a band who has the time or the skills to conduct the kinds of
astronomical observations that would be necessary in order to make a calendar for predicting
significant events. Given this ahistorical time orientation, the mythical account of creation is
usually relatively simple in band ideology: in the distant past there was a time when creation
took place, and since then time and existence have flowed continuously without further change.
As regards the ordering of the spirit world, band members believe the spirits live in the same
kind of individualistic and egalitarian society, so they imagine the spirits as being "highly
individualized" with a "lack of hierarchy [Ibid., p. 68]." The general characteristics of band
ideology summarized by Service are corroborated in a study of San Bushman religion by
Guenther [1999]: he points out that the most salient features of San religious beliefs and
practices is their inherent "ambiguity" which permits varied and highly individualist
interpretations. This he attributes to the lack of religious specialists:
The absence of ritual specialist deprives Bushman culture of its "religious

formulators" (Radin 1957); custodians, as it were, of belief, myth and lore. In
such a capacity they would render systematic and intelligible the culture's
complex beliefs, as well as transmit those "packaged" beliefs to other individuals
and across generations. . . . / The lack of political organization and the
concurrent absence of any institutionalization of power, also means that religion
in Bushman society is freed from one of its most essential and universal roles in
society: the legitimization of power. Wherever power is wielded in human
society, religion is co-opted in order to "celestialize" that power, through more or
less subtle, covert or overt, means [Ibid., pp. 83-4].
By contrast, in more complex societies with powerful chieftains or kings, there are
specialists - scribes and craftsmen - who can create the works preserve an account of their
accomplishments. There are religious specialists who can work fulltime at systematizing myths,
constructing calendars based on astronomical observations, conducting public ceremonies that
protect society by implementing the prescriptions of the gods embodied in religious myths, and,
in the process, legitimizing the power of the rulers. In these circumstances, descriptions of
ecstatic visionary experience that are so highly prized by the shamans who have themselves
induced visions now begin to be replaced by descriptions of abstract deities and myths in which
personal ecstatic experience is no longer necessary to fulfill religious obligations. The virtues of
shamans are replaced by the virtues of priests - instead of a pursuit of visions, there is a general
preoccupation with community, doctrine, hierarchy and continuity.
One example of this kind of transformation can be seen in the fate of visionary
experience in early Buddhism: in Gotama's own "Awakening," he saw the "Divine Eye open"
(Caksus uppadda! Caksus uppadda!), and, with this, "unlimited light-manifestations" poured
into consciousness. After Gotama died, his disciples began organizing themselves in ever larger
communities of the faithful (sanghas) and eventually formed large monasteries. As a result, the
visionary ideal was gradually replaced by a priestly emphasis on community, hierarchy, study of
the sacred texts and doctrinal purity. In Buddhist Saints in India, Ray [1994] writes that:
[A]lthough many classical texts - both Buddha-word and commentaries -

recommend meditation as a necessary component of the Buddhist path, in
monastic tradition, meditation has remained a primarily theoretical ideal, followed
more in the breach than in the observance. . . . According to the great spokesman
of monastic Buddhism, Buddhaghosa, the institution of the settled monastery,
along with its characteristic environment, tends to inhibit practice of meditation
owing to its many inhabitants, its noise, the necessary duties of communal life,
obligations to the laity, the arrival of visitors, and other interruptions [Ibid.,p. 18].
I suspect the same kind of transformation took place as ancient Vedic society was
consolidated in India, and this changed the way the hymns of the Rig Veda were interpreted. If
the hymns of the Rig Veda contain detailed descriptions of a complete sequence of meditation-
induced light visions, as I've proposed, then these verses must have been composed by men who
had either experienced these visions themselves or who were working for shamans who
described the experiences. Indeed, it seems likely that the trance induction technique of
prolonged meditation with its exclusive cultivation of light vision imagery was "invented" by
proto-Indo-Iranian nomads when they still roamed the steppes of Central Asia. But clearly this
interpretation of mythic symbols as encoding light vision references was forgotten at some early
point in Indian history, only to be rediscovered in recent years.
When the transformation of light vision references into abstract myths took place, not
only in India but also in those other cultures that we've examined here that have a complex level
of social organization - the Hindu and Tantric cultures that evolved later in India, the Daoist
culture of ancient China, and the classical cultures of the Olmecs and Maya - did any common
themes emerge in these different cultures? If so, how can we account for those commonalities?
These are the questions raised and addressed by Farmer et al. [2002 (2000)] in a monograph on
the elaboration of "correlative cosmologies" in premodern societies and also by Witzel in his
theory of generic "myth-families" [Witzel, 2006; 2005; 2001].
The primary characteristic of Witzel's proposed "Gondwanan" myth-family is the concept
that the natural world, once created by the gods or divine powers, has continued to exist in that
same form, and that an invisible Otherworld populated by spirit entities has continued to exist
alongside the visible natural world. Several of the examples I've discussed here - the San
Bushmen of South Africa, the Dani tribe of New Guinea, and the Aboriginal tribes of Australia -
involve mythologies that envision a relatively simple relationship between the visible natural
world and the invisible spirit world, and they would therefore fit well into Witzel's "Gondwanan"
myth-family. Since these are the cultures whose ancestors are likely to have participated in the
Out-of-Africa movement and the subsequent beachcombing migration along the coasts of
southern Asia, it is not surprising that the myths of these cultures would be "Gondwanan."
The primary characteristic of myths in Witzel's proposed "Laurasian" myth-family is the
presence of a more complex ("novelistic") creation story in which the natural world, once
created, continues to evolve along a linear trajectory, a growth trajectory that is analogous to the
life of human beings: in the Laurasian myths, the world is born in a discrete event instigated by
divine beings, these divine beings then create humans and other animals, and thus populated the
natural world then continues to grow like a living organism, but at some time in the future, so the
myth predicts, the world of the present creation will be destroyed, and then a new world may be
created to take its place. We've examined several cultures in which the myths (and references in
those myths to trance-induced light visions) are embedded in complex storylines like those of
Witzel's "Laurasian" family: the myths of the Indo-Aryan Rig Veda, the elaboration of Vedic
myths in Hindu India and Buddhist Tibet, the myths of the Shangqing "Highest Clarity" Daoist
School in China and the myths of the classical Olmec and Mayan civilizations in Mesoamerica.
NOTES
1. Researchers interested in a more detailed analysis of the neurological origins of
meditation-induced light visions or in a more extended discussion of light vision
metaphors in the mystical texts of India, China and Tibet can download articles in PDF
format from the author's website: <http://homepage.mac.com/philipnicholson>.
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FIGURE LEGENDS
Figure 1. Three Types of Trance Induction Techniques Designed to Produce Visual Outcomes. Adapted from
Nicholson [2004].
Figure 2. Initial Sequence of "Tranquil" Meditation-Induced Light Visions. (A) Green Rings or Blue Disks Inside
Green Rings: the first phosphene to be evoked by meditation is a yellowish-green ring that flows into view from the
perimeter of vision and shrinks in diameter at a steady rate (0.2 Hz), creating the illusion of a ring "receding" toward
a distant point in space. Each ring disappears at the center of the visual field after a total elapsed time of four
seconds, and one second later, the next light-ring arrives; this volley terminates automatically after the appearance of
from 3 to 7 rings, with this number varying in different people. In an experienced meditator who has often induced
light visions, the receding ring image changes slightly: about halfway through its trajectory, the ring suddenly fills
in with a dark blue disk, creating an image that looks exactly like the eye of a peacock's feather. The schematic
drawings in this figure do not capture the translucent, vaporous, "smoke-ring" quality of this light vision. (B)
Cloud-Like Blue or Purple Swirls: after the volley of the ring-and-disk images terminates, the next image is an
amorphous, cloud-like mist of dark blue or purple phosphene that looks as if a bucket of water had been hurled into
the visual field. The cloud condenses near the center of vision, its borders always fluctuating. By contrast with the
clock-like timing of the ring images, the cloud image appears at unpredictable intervals and can keep on appearing
indefinitely. Eventually it disappears into the center of the visual field. (C) The Eye-Like Ring Inside the Blue
Cloud: after prolonged viewing, or in other circumstances that intensify the viewing, the amorphous cloud images
begin to remain longer in the visual field and also to display a ring of bright, shiny and more opaque phosphene in
the center of the cloud. This bright inner ring, which is always fluctuating in shape, surrounds a dark, pupil-like
hole at its center, creating the illusion of a disembodied "eye" with the bright, iris-like ring surrounding the dark
inner pupil. This image is likely to be what is referred to as "seeing the third eye." (D) Inset: More detailed
drawing of the "iris" and "pupil" of the "eye-image." If meditation continues at this same intensity, the cloud with
its bright, eye-like interior will eventually condense into a tiny, star-like dot that shines steadily at the center of the
visual field. This dot-image can become a "fuse" that ignites a shift to paroxysmal light visions.
Figure 3. The Neurological Origin of the Receding Ring Image. (A) The ring image is generated by the same brain
mechanisms that normally cause a person to fall asleep [Nicholson, 2002d, 2001, 1996a]. By keeping the eyes
closed, by converging the gaze on the nose or forehead, and by focusing attention on the dark visual field, the
meditator manipulates the natural process of falling asleep by keeping the attention centers and visual pathways of
the brain activated while at the same time the rest of the body is being allowed to slip into such a profound state of
relaxation that, in effect, the body is "fooled" into initiating the bursts of synchronous brain waves that govern the
transition from a waking state to slow wave sleep. In this schematic drawing, a wave of inhibition ("bursts of sleep
spindles") moves up through the thalamic reticular network (RTN), imposing a short-lived inhibition as it passes on
thin bands of vision-relay cells (TC cells) located in the vision-relay nucleus of the thalamus ("lateral geniculate
nucleus," or LGN). The activation of sleep spindles is the criterion for the onset of stage 2, non-rapid-eye-
movement sleep (NREMS). The wave of RTN inhibition creates the barely perceptible sensation of a dark ring
moving through a dark visual field. After the inhibition is released, the vision-relay cells fire "rebound spikes" in
the same band-pattern that the inhibitory spindle wave formerly imposed. As a result, visual signals imprinted with
this band pattern are sent to the brain where they generate the visual sensation of a bright green ring. Only half a
ring appears in the drawing, which is explained by the fact that there are two of these structures (LGN + RTN), one
on the right and one on the left side of the brain, and the half-rings generated in each structure fuse in the visual field
to form a single ring image. The next phosphene image - the amorphous, swirling cloud - is also generated by
activation of sleep rhythms in the brain but by the much slower "delta wave" activity that follows the spindle bursts
and serves as the criterion for "stage 3" NREMS. (B) The second panel shows what happens when the firing of
sleep spindles becomes destabilized, which then triggers paroxysmal firing. When this happens, spindle bursts fire
at more than 2 per second (≥ 2.0 Hz), or ten times faster than the rate of the visible phosphene rings at1 burst every 5
seconds (0.2 Hz). The result is that the successive inhibitory waves arrive too fast to permit the vision-relay cells to
recover enough to fire their "rebound spikes." The EEG in such cases shows a typical "spike-wave" pattern. For a
more detailed exposition of neural mechanisms, see note 1.
Figure 4. Photos of Australian Aborigines. Left: Ritual ground-painting of a sacred waterhole or energy center
[From Lawlor R, 1991, p. 108, Fig. 89]. My analysis in the text suggests that this abstract geometric figure, which is
ubiquitious in Aboriginal art, is an icon that points beyond itself to a secret portal formed by visions of light that the
Ancestors - and the Aborigine "Men of High Degree" - can use to move back and forth between the earth and the
Otherworld which consists of perpetual light. Right: Aborigine man wearing a nuiti, a head-dress made of a wreath
of white feathers [From Mountford, 1976, p. 304, Plate 350].
Figure 5. Photos of Tukano Indians in the Amazon Jungle of Colombia, South America. Left: A shaman draws
circle shapes resembling those seen during the early stages of the tribal ayahuasca ritual (see text for more details).
Right: The façade of a longhouse used for tribal ceremonies is decorated with abstract geometric images of
concentric circles that resemble those seen in the early stages of an ayahuasca ritual. [From Reichel-Dolmatoff,
1987, Photo Plates VIII & XXX)
Figure 6. Analysis of Proposed Light Vision References in the Maya Hieroglyph of Pakal-as-K'awil from Palenque.
[The drawing of glyph is adapted from Friedel D, Schele L and Parker J, 1993, Fig. 4: 9a, p. 194].
Figure 7. Intermediate Paroxysmal Light Visions. (A) The Star-Like Dot; (B) A Stream of Dark, Fast-Moving
Rings Forming a Tunnel-Like Image: The star-like dot is suddenly replaced by a stream of thin black rings that
flows into the visual field at a rate ten times that of the illuminated green ring image shown in Figure 4, creating an
"optic flow" illusion of moving through a dark tunnel-like space; (C) A Radiating Spray: The dark tunnel image is
suddenly replaced by a spray of tiny, beige light-specks that radiates outward toward the viewer through the
peripheral region of the visual field, and this spray image is accompanied by paroxysmal sensorimotor symptoms,
e.g., microtremors of the muscles in the extremities and a compulsion to arch the back and let the mouth drop open;
(D) A Gradual Brightening and Bluing of the Visual Field: The spray of light flecks is gradually eclipsed by a
diffuse brightening and bluing of the entire visual field, creating a phosphene effect that looks exactly like a natural
dawn; (E) Installation of a Uniform Azure Blue that looks like a bright, dry, cloudless sky; (F) Faint Protrusion of a
Translucent, White Bulbous Image: After the image of the blue sky has been present for some time, the viewer
begins to see a faint white, translucent glow that has a bulbous shape. As a meditator stares at this moon-like glow,
it begins to shine more brightly and thus appears to move slightly forward so as to be "protruding" in 3-D space,
then, as attention waves, the glow dims and the image seems to recede. This alternation of brightening, protruding,
dimming and receding continues for a relatively long time before the appearance of the next image.
Figure 8. Final Sequence of Paroxysmal Light Visions. (A) The Translucent White Bulbous Protrusion against the
Blue-Sky Background (continued from Figure 9); (B1) The White Rays and Their Transformations: The bulbous
protrusion suddenly jerks forward and disappears as does the bright, sky-blue background, and, simultaneously, a
small fan of three white rays appears, forming a trident image at the same location in the visual field where the bulb
formerly appeared; (B2) One second later these three rays double in number to six and fan farther apart; (B3) One
second later the fan of six rays moves even father apart, as if the rays had just "wilted" like flower petals in a hot
sun; (C) Lightning-Like Flashes of White Light: In this final vision of a complete meditation-induced sequence, the
visual field is illuminated by serial flashes of white light that look exactly like sheet lightning reverberating back and
forth inside a dark stormcloud. The light flashes are accompanied by paroxysmal sensorimotor symptoms - the
sound of "electric short-circuit" buzzing, strong muscle spasms, sensations of unusual "currents" running through the
trunk of the body, and orgasmic sensations that are diffused throughout the body rather than being localized in the
genital region. This paroxysmal activity deep in the brain generates a characteristic, tell-tale pattern in the cortical
EEG, a pattern that I believe can be detected in the EEG studies of advanced meditators [See Nicholson, 2006].
Figures 9 & 10. Meditation-Induced Light Visions in Indian and Tibetan Texts. All excerpts cite a source by text,
translator and page number: RV = Rig Veda [sub-categories: RV/B = Bhawe, quoted in Wasson, 1971; RV/W =
Wilson, 1888; RV/G = Griffin, 1889; RV/GN = Gonda, 1963; BR = Brhad-aranyaka Upanisad, CU = Chandogya
Up., KU = Katha Up., TU = Taittiriya Upanishad, SV = Svetasvatara Up., MU = Maitri Up., all translated by
Radhakrishnan, 1992 (1953); AM = Amaraughasanana, TL = Tantraloka, and SS = Shivasutravimarshini, all
translated by Silburn, 1988; YPH = "Yoga of the Psychic Heat," YCL = "Yoga of the Clear Light," YBS = "Yoga of
the Bardo State," YIB = "Yoga of the Illusory Body," all from Naropa's Six Yogas & all translated by Evans-Wentz,
1958; TSY = Tsongkhapa's Six Yogas of Naropa, translated by Mullin, 1996; NLS = Lama Karma Lingpa's Natural
Liberation of Seeing, quoted in Chagmé 2000.
Figures 11 & 12. Meditation-Induced Light Visions in Early Chinese Daoist Texts. All excerpts cite a source by
text, translator and page number: CC = Chuci, "The Elegies of Chu" [Kohn, 1997]; DJ = Daode jing, "The Book of
the Dao" [Schipper, 1993]; DP = "Declarations of the Perfected" [Bokenkamp, 1996]; HJ = Huang-ting jing, "The
Book of the Yellow Court" [quoted in Schipper, 1993, or in Kroll, 1996]; PT = Upper Scripture of the Purple Texts
Inscribed by the Spirits [Bokenkamp, 1997]; TT = Ta-tung jing, "Book of Great Profundity" [Robinet, 1993]; TM
= Taoist Meditation [Robinet, 1993]; SY = Shangqing yupei jindang taiji jinshu [Little, 2000]; TLS = True Lord of
the Supreme One Who Dwells in the Cinnabar Palace [from Maspero as quoted in Robinet, 1993]; TG =
Tiganguan santu, "Three Ways to Go Beyond the Heavenly Pass" [Kohn, 1993]; SL = Su-ling jing, "The Book of
Immaculate Numen" [Robinet, 1993].
Figure 13. Photo of Manchu Shaman Head-Dress which was performance I observed in 2004 at the Shamanism
Museum located near Changchun in the People's Republic of China.
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Light Visions, Shaman Control Fantasies & the Creation of Myths

Conference Paper · April 2006

The Neuropsychology of Meditation-Induced Religious Visions View project

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LIGHT VISIONS, SHAMAN CONTROL FANTASIES

Presented at the Harvard-Peking University International Conference

© 2006 Philip T. Nicholson

Internally-generated light sensations ("phosphenes," "entoptic images")

§1. Hypnotizability, Light Visions and Myths: The Theoretical Background

§2. Trance Induction Techniques and Visual Outcomes

A survey of ethnographic studies of contemporary tribal peoples and of the mystical

§3. Examples of Light Visions Induced By Extreme Stimulus Overload

§4. Phenomenology of Meditation-Induced Light Visions, Part I: Threshold Images

4.2. Neurological Origins of the Threshold Images

§5. Examples of Light Visions When Meditation Is Used As Preliminary Preparation

5.1 Light Visions and the Myths of Australian Aborigines

A significant category of bogari energies is perceived during narcotic trance

§6. Phenomenology of Meditation-Induced Light Visions, Part II: Paroxysmal Visions

(7.1) Light Visions and Myths in Ancient India

The frequent practice of prolonged "empty-mind" meditation has been an important

(7.2) Light Visions and Myths in Buddhist Tibet

(7.3) Light Visions and Myths in Early Daoist Texts

A second type of meditation called "Visualization" (cun-jian) was also practiced in

In Daoist mythology, Kunlun is often referred to as "the Tortoise Mountain"

Bring to me the waters of lunar efflorescence, / . . . / Stored in heaven, concealed

We've examined a number of myths that contain references to trance-induced light

The absence of ritual specialist deprives Bushman culture of its "religious

[A]lthough many classical texts - both Buddha-word and commentaries -

Nicholson PT. 1999. Phosphene Epiphenomena of Hypersynchronous Activity Emerging in Thalamocortical

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