Black Hole and Dark Night Radiation

In this entry I will attempt to convey some of flavour of the holistic approach to physics.

The starting point here is the recognition that all physical understanding of reality serves as a reflection of the psychological constructs (used to interpret such reality).

Therefore there are both physical and psychological aspects to all such understanding which operate in a dynamic complementary manner.

In the holistic vision of such reality - which reflects the ultimate interdependence of both physical and psychological aspects - a developed refined intuition plays a key role.

However indirectly this finds intellectual expression in a circular form of reason (which appears paradoxical from the conventional linear perspective).

Indeed the very process of viewing the world in a holistic manner gradually enables one to appreciate more fully the true complementary nature of both the physical and psychological aspects of reality. This can then serve as an immensely creative process enabling one, from one perspective to reformulate physical understanding of the world in a manner directly amenable to psychological understanding and equally from the other perspective, to enable one to reformulate corresponding psychological reality in a manner directly amenable to understanding of the physical world.

To give greater content to these remarks, I will now deal with two such deeply complementary issues - though not at all yet properly realised - that strongly engaged my attention some years ago.

Having embarked on a spiritual journey, which still thankfully continues, I became deeply immersed in the early 1970’s in the writings of St. John of the Cross. It was especially the Ascent of Mount Carmel - incorporating his treatise on “the dark night” - that then engaged my attention. At last I felt I had found someone who could give deep expression to the many trials and tribulations that I was experiencing at the time.

Indeed for a number of years his insights and descriptions proved an invaluable support at a time of intense personal solitude and anguish. 

However rather than entering into a new world of spiritual radiant light, as time went by, things steadily became more difficult with the initial fervour, still experienced in the darkness, giving way to deep depression.

And it was only by finally detaching my approach from St. John’s guidance that I was enabled, very slowly at first, to find a solution to my plight.

The very title of his famous treatise “the Ascent of Mount Carmel” gives a clue as to the nature of the problem.

Traditionally in the mystical spiritual tradition - especially with respect to such an uncompromising exponent as St. John - undue attention is devoted to the transcendent aspect of spiritual development.

So the spiritual disciple - admittedly inspired by an ardent desire for God - is advised to exercise great discipline in erasing attachment to all sensory impulses and thoughts, even as the indirect expression of spiritual consolations.

And this indeed constitutes an extremely important dimension of authentic contemplative development.

However when carried to extremes, it brings significant dangers.

For it constantly disciplining one’s lower nature in the name of spiritual progress, one unwittingly is led to repress basic primitive instincts, before they can be properly uncovered in personality.

So I would maintain that much of the depression that can accompany a severe “dark night” episode is likely to arise from the unwitting repression over a lengthy period of one’s natural instincts.

And this is especially so, with someone trusting St. John as a reliable guide for all of the journey.

For what is not at all dealt with in St. John’s treatise on “the dark night” - though somewhat indirectly in other works - is the complementary immanent aspect of spiritual development, whereby physical nature is allowed to speak for itself.

So in the transcendent approach, nature follows spirit. Thus the world of sense and even reason are considered part of one’s “lower” human nature, which must be constantly disciplined in accordance with the pure desire for spirit.

In the immanent approach however, spirit follows nature. Here the primitive instinctive self must be allowed to freely express itself, so that one can properly acknowledge natural desires including most importantly one's sexual longings.

I would now contend that it is indeed appropriate for one seeking genuine spiritual development to initially place emphasis strongly on the transcendent aspect. This is necessary to sufficiently escape the strong pull of conventional worldly activities and concerns. 

However at a certain point - which depends very much on personality and circumstances - to avoid severe imbalance, a switch must be made in the complementary immanent direction. 

In my own case what happened is roughly this!

After five years totally confined in psychological darkness, a crisis point was reached.

Despite my initial conviction that the darkness represented a period of rapid contemplative development, this now seemed completely in vain as I slipped ever further into depression, experiencing great difficulty in carrying out normal tasks.

So eventually there was an inner form of surrender, whereby I no longer felt compelled to keep pushing myself, as it were, against nature.

And then, very slowly at first the situation began to improve. Though still immersed deeply in a strange underworld, the darkness imperceptibly lightened.

Then I gradually emerged back into the world again, changing job, acquiring new skills, making friends and getting involved in a range of social activities.

For a few years life appeared to have returned to normal, with the past extended “dark night” like a strange aberration that thankfully had now passed.

However I soon started to realise that the nature of this new experience was “imaginary” rather than “real” and of a very transient nature.

And as the attempt to obtain any lasting satisfaction from these “imaginary” phenomena was proving futile, I was led increasingly back to my original spiritual desire with even greater commitment to continue the contemplative journey.

Around this time I started reading about black holes and recognised very strong parallels as between this unusual physical phenomenon on the one hand and the “dark night” associated with mystical spiritual development.

In particular I could see a close connection as between - what was now referred to as - “Hawking radiation” and my own recovery from the extended “dark night” experience.

When a physical star of a certain size burns up all its fuel, it can then collapse under the weight of its own gravity and form a black hole.

It is somewhat analogous in psycho-spiritual terms. When a spiritual “star” uses up all his/her conscious energy a collapse into a “dark night” can occur.

So typically a “dark night” especially it its most severe form - referred to by St. John as the “the passive night of spirit” - follows a previous period of intense spiritual illumination.

This illumination leads to a great burst of conscious activity, that is directly fuelled by spiritual intuition (emanating from the unconscious). However as this intuition fades, it puts increasing strain on the psychological apparatus with the need for unconscious regeneration keenly felt. (Though writing in the early years of the 20th century these dynamics are portrayed extremely well by Evelyn Underhill  in "Mysticism".)

And when this desire is especially intense it leads to the emergence - sometimes dramatically - of an extended “dark night” period. 

Now the collapse of the physical black hole leads to the intense generation of gravity so that all matter within the vicinity of the black hole gets sucked inwards. Indeed this gravitational force can become so strong that no light can escape from within the black hole. So it is very difficult for an outside observer to detect a black hole.

Again a remarkable analogous situation exists in psycho-spiritual terms. The psychological collapse into an internal “dark night” leads to the intense generation of psychological gravity, which can accurately be referred to as grief (which has close etymological connections to gravity).

In human terms grief is the normal human reaction to the loss of what - literally - matters most to us. And when this happens our experience becomes deeply internalised with outer events tending to get drawn in to compound this grief.

Now the “dark night” represents an intensification of this process where all the conscious phenomena that previously sustained one's meaning in the world, become eroded.

So this erosion of “psychic matter” is experienced in profound terms as a great loss causing huge internal grief. In the mystical literature this grief would be attributed to the experience of the loss of God but more accurately it refers to the loss of all the phenomenal circumstances through which one’s former contact with God was mediated.

And this grief is so great that no spiritual light can escape. So it is possible and some rare individuals experience this - Mother Teresa is a recent example - where though spiritually advanced, they can spend a great proportion of life in total darkness, experiencing no form of spiritual consolation (which requires some intervention of light). 

Also it is very difficult for an outsider to recognise that one is going through a “dark night” episode. Typically one draws so little attention to oneself during this time that one remains completely unnoticed by outsiders.

Unfortunately this makes communication about the true nature of the situation highly problematic as there are no outer signs that anything out of the ordinary is taking place.

However it’s the psycho-spiritual connections with Hawking Radiation, that I wish to address here.

Stephen Hawking in the mid 70’s made an important contribution by showing that a black hole could radiate, thereby enabling it to evaporate over time and to eventually disappear.

So Hawking reasoned that due to the uncertainty principle that at the event horizon of the black hole that virtual particle pairs (with matter, anti-matter particles) would form with the possibility of separation taking place. So the positively charged particle would then be seen to radiate outwards by gravity from the event horizon, while the negatively charged could be drawn back inwards, thus reducing the mass of the black hole.

And this finding regarding quantum gravity served as an initial attempt to reconcile the theory of relativity (with which the black hole had been associated) with quantum mechanics (relating to the uncertainty principle and the formation of virtual particles).  

When I reflected on my personal “dark night” episode, coincidentally occurring at the time that “Hawking Radiation” was announced, I could see an analogous pattern of behaviour.

Following the crisis at this time, I relaxed sufficiently to allow my lower nature, which had been continually repressed during the transcendent “dark night” journey, to express itself directly in its own appropriate manner. And this took place in the form of “imaginary” projections, deeply resonant of hidden holistic unconscious desire.

In this context the “real” aspect relates to what is directly of a conscious nature, which in a scientific context would be associated with the analytic approach. However “imaginary” by comparison relates in a direct manner to the holistic unconscious, which then indirectly projects itself into conscious experience in a psychological manner.

Though these projections do indeed become embodied with conscious phenomena (and often confused directly with such phenomena) their true nature is hidden i.e. of unconscious origin.

Now when “imaginary” projections are very refined in nature, undue attachment to the phenomena (through which they are mediated) does not take place and instinctive can then be properly integrated with conscious behaviour.

The term “imaginary” in this context is very similar to the corresponding notion of “virtual” in physics.

Because the “imaginary” is directly expressive of the unconscious, it occurs as closely complementary pairings (that are external and internal) with respect to each other.

In ideal circumstances these opposite poles quickly fuse leading to the generation of an unconscious form of instinctive energy.

However with repression, a certain blockage in this energy takes place. Here poles can become separated with the positive pole projected into consciousness in an external manner and the negative in a corresponding reverse internal fashion.

This can play however an important psychological role. Though initially, a certain confusion is likely to arise through misinterpretation of projections in a merely conscious manner, gradually they draw attention to the neglected primitive desires within (to which they inherently refer).

In this way one better learns to let nature speak for itself by not attempting to repress such desire (in the name of spirit) but rather in allowing it speak for itself, giving one an accurate insight into the important role of instinctive response.

And when this process has continued for a sufficient time, enabling spiritual development in a complementary immanent fashion, their involuntary nature eventually ceases. And its is not that natural human desires cease but rather that they can now be properly integrated through the will with one’s remaining experience!

And this likewise signals the ending of the “dark night” through appropriate balancing of the immanent with the transcendent aspects of spiritual development.

So there we have it!

On the one hand we have black hole radiation, emanating from virtual particles, which leads to a reduction in the mass of a black hole and its eventual evaporation (though this may take an extreme amount of time)..

On the other hand we have “dark night” radiation, emanating from “imaginary" projections, whereby the massive grief (psychological gravity) formerly experienced within the “dark night”, is gradually reduced through the new external focus with phenomena that is thereby enabled, eventually leading to the complete elimination of such grief.

And whereas the black hole radiation represents a certain marriage of relativity physics with quantum theory, “dark night” radiation represents a corresponding marriage of the transcendent with the immanent aspect of spirituality.

This all strongly suggests that there are further crucial holistic connections that can be made as between both areas, some of which I will return to in the next entry.