This page brings together a series of original research papers, essays and working manuscripts developed within the wider Breath4Balance research project.

The central theme of this archive is the exploration of consciousness, inner perception, meditation, phosphenes, visionary experience, esoteric traditions and the phenomenology of inner light. These papers move between several fields, including neurophenomenology, contemplative studies, comparative mysticism, history of esotericism, psychology of imagination and consciousness research.

Many of these texts are written from a scholar practitioner perspective. They combine first person meditative observation with historical, philosophical and scientific analysis. The aim is not to reduce mystical or visionary experience to simple brain mechanisms, nor to accept traditional metaphysical claims uncritically. The aim is to create a careful bridge between lived experience, cultural interpretation and contemporary models of perception and consciousness.

A recurring question in these manuscripts is whether inner light phenomena, such as phosphenes, grids, mandalas, tunnels, luminous beings and fields of radiance, can be studied as structured experiences rather than dismissed as meaningless visual noise. Across Tibetan Dzogchen, Christian mysticism, Sufi illumination, shamanic traditions, Western esotericism and modern meditation, similar motifs appear again and again. These papers investigate whether such motifs point to a shared architecture of inner perception, later shaped by different symbolic and religious languages.

Another important theme is the distinction between cultural covering and operative core. Esoteric traditions often speak in the language of spirits, elements, divine names, subtle bodies, magical powers, revelation or salvation. Behind that language, however, one may also find disciplined practices of attention, imagination, breath, bodily awareness, autosuggestion, moral self observation and transformation of consciousness. Several papers in this archive try to make that distinction visible.

The manuscripts published here should be read as original author versions. Some are exploratory and theoretical, others are more systematic and academic in structure. They are shared here to make the research accessible, to invite scholarly discussion, and to preserve the work in an open and transparent form.

Unless stated otherwise, these papers are unpublished manuscripts and have not been formally peer reviewed. They may be updated, revised or expanded over time.

The archive is intended for readers interested in meditation, consciousness studies, inner light phenomena, comparative spirituality, Western esotericism and the borderland between neuroscience and lived contemplative experience.

Here the first list from PhilArch:

1. The Rainbow Body and the Inner Light: Phosphenes in Tibetan Mysticism A Phenomenological Inquiry into Vision, Light, and Consciousness in the Dzogchen Tradition.Jan Keppel Hesselink – The rainbow body (jalü in Tibetan Buddhism) signifies one of the highest forms of spiritual realization, described as the dissolution of the physical form into light at death. This paper proposes that the visual dimension of this experience can be understood as a complex, dynamic phosphene-movie, a vivid internal luminosity emerging from neural and phenomenological processes. We further introduce the haptic dimension of meditative experience, including sensations of levitation and expansion, not as secondary effects but as co-creative forces shaping the (…) Download   Export citation   Bookmark  4 citations 
2. 606 The Brain’s Secret Light: How Meditation Makes Us See the Divine. From Phosphene Forms to Luminous Awareness: A Neurophenomenological Taxonomy.Jan Keppel Hesselink – This article proposes a novel hierarchical taxonomy for meditation-induced phosphenes and luminous inner light phenomena. Drawing from structured first-person phenomenological data and spiritual traditions such as Dzogchen, Bon, shamanism, and Christian mysticism, it categorizes these experiences into six levels, ranging from simple flickers to complex geometric visions and radiant white light. The taxonomy begins with spontaneous light flickers and evolves through geometric forms, dynamic structures, symbolic imagery, pure light, and final formlessness. This model also identifies transitions into what is termed (…) Download   Export citation   Bookmark  8 citations 
3. 371 The Ancient Art of Looking into the Black Mirror: Scrying and the Phenomenology of Inner Vision and Light.Jan Keppel Hesselink – tThe black mirror has long been associated with prophecy, divination, and encounters with hidden realms. From Aztec ritual obsidian to the scrying (contemplating) mirror of Dr. John Dee, dark reflective surfaces have been treated as portals to the invisible. This paper reinterprets the practice of black-mirror gazing through a phenomenological and neuro-cognitive lens. Rather than opening access to external supernatural entities, the mirror reveals the generative architecture of perception itself. When visual input is reduced and attention stabilizes, the visual system (…) Download   Export citation   Bookmark  4 citations 
4. 390 A Phenomenology of Inner Light: Najm al-Dīn Kubrā and the Metaphysics of Phosphenes.Jan Keppel Hesselink -tIn the history of Islamic mysticism, few thinkers provided as systematic a description of the phenomena of inner light as Najm al-Dīn Kubrā (1145–1221), the founder of the Kubrawiyya Sufi order. This paper argues that Kubrā’s work, particularly his treatise Fawā’iḥ al-jamāl wa-fawātiḥ al-jalāl, constitutes a sophisticated, pre-modern phenomenology of consciousness, one that is highly relevant to contemporary discussions in philosophy of mind and cognitive neuroscience. By meticulously mapping a taxonomy of luminous experiences, from fleeting sparks to the paradox of (…) Download   Export citation   Bookmark  4 citations 
5. 362 Hierarchies of Light: A Taxonomy and Phenomenology of Meditation-Induced Phosphenes.Jan Keppel Hesselink – This paper develops a taxonomic and phenomenological framework for meditation-induced phosphenes, internally generated luminous phenomena that occur with eyes closed during contemplative practice. Synthesizing decades of first-person practice reports with comparative sources from Buddhist, shamanic, and neuropsychological traditions, I propose a three-tier hierarchical taxonomy: (1) Basal Endogenous Visual Patterns (entoptic and early visual forms); (2) Complex Meditation-Induced Phosphenes (structured, geometric and symbol-like visions); and (3) Transpersonal Luminous Manifestations, intense, non-dual luminosities that often accompany insight and ego-dissolution. I distinguish these structured (…) Download   Export citation   Bookmark  4 citations 
6. 459 Gurdjieff and the Hidden Gnostic Lineage: Cosmology, Laws, and the Path to Awakening.Jan Keppel Hesselink – This paper examines the hypothesis that the cosmology and teaching of Georges Ivanovich Gurdjieff (1866–1949) exhibit deep structural affinities with classical Gnostic traditions, while simultaneously reformulating them for a modern psychological age. Although Gurdjieff never claimed a Gnostic lineage, many of his central motifs resonate strongly with systems associated with Valentinus, Basilides, and the Sethian schools: a hierarchically ordered cosmos, a humanity sunk in mechanical sleep, hostile or indifferent lawful forces that benefit from human unconsciousness, and the possibility of liberation (…) Download   Export citation   Bookmark  1 citation 
7. 442 Encountering the Luminous Mother: Two Breakthrough DMT Narratives and the Six-Phase Architecture of Mystical Experience.Jan Keppel Hesselink – This paper examines whether a previously proposed six-phase phenomenological framework for luminous experience, developed primarily from contemplative and meditative contexts, also organizes high-intensity psychedelic states induced by N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT). We analyze two archetypal breakthrough narratives in full detail: one describing relational unitive absorption into a maternal divine presence, and another depicting dissolution into a non-personal ocean of vibrating energy. Despite profound symbolic differences, both narratives exhibit the same structural trajectory: dissolution of ordinary selfhood, emergence of coherent luminous geometry, symbolic or (…) Download   Export citation   Bookmark  1 citation 
8. 441 Demystifying the Golden Flower: Taoist Vision and the Yoga of Inner Light.Jan Keppel Hesselink – This article offers a fresh interpretation of The Secret of the Golden Flower, the influential Taoist meditation manual translated by Richard Wilhelm (1873–1930) and introduced to Western readers with commentary by Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961). While traditionally shrouded in esoteric language and mystical symbolism, this study demystifies the text by framing it as a practical guide to inner light meditation. Drawing on the emerging field of phosphene phenomenology, we suggest that the “Golden Light” described by Master Lü Dongbin (circa 8th–9th (…) Download   Export citation   Bookmark  3 citations 
9. 375 The Ultrasubjective Hyperspace: A Phenomenology of Inner Light and Endogenous Vision in Meditation.Jan Keppel Hesselink – Meditation often reveals a progressive emergence of inner light phenomena that are poorly understood in cognitive science and frequently dismissed as entoptic noise or hallucinatory artifacts. This study offers a structured phenomenological analysis of endogenous vision in meditation and introduces the concept of the Ultrasubjective Hyperspace (USH), a lawful, internally accessible field of luminous experience that emerges when sensory attenuation and attentional stabilization unlock deeper levels of perception. This paper identifies six developmental phases of luminous perception: (1) reactive flickers, (2) (…) Download   Export citation   Bookmark  2 citations 
10. 322 God as an Event of Consciousness, a Neurophenomenological Definition. Visual Grammar of the Sacred; Phosphenes, Network Dynamics, and Religious Imagery.Jan Keppel Hesselink – Sacred and mystical visions across contemplative, religious and psychedelic traditions follow a remarkably consistent inner progression: from simple points of light and geometric forms to complex kaleidoscopic structures, culminating in radiant, formless luminosity. This paper proposes a unified neurophenomenological model showing that this universal sequence is not culturally constructed but arises from intrinsic visual dynamics of the human nervous system. We present a six-phase taxonomy of phosphenes as the innate visual grammar underlying mystical experience. As endogenous visual patterns intensify (Phases (…) Download   Export citation   Bookmark  1 citation 
11. 46 How to Find Our Inner Demons: Identification, Presence, and the Hidden Machinery of the Self.Jan Keppel Hesselink – Our approach to this topic and all other topics on genuine spirituality is this: no concessions to hype, no therapeutic reassurance, no consoling conclusions. -/- The Gurdjieff and de Salzmann material, when read carefully rather than summarised from secondary sources, actually does point to something structurally exact and immensely important for understanding the structure of our deepest self. De Salzmann’s notebooks are unusual in contemplative literature because she does not describe achievement. She describes the recurring failure of presence and the (…) Download   Export citation   Bookmark  2 citations 
12. 610 Acupuncture and the Denial of Its Own Origins: Meridians, Shamanism, and the Modern Anxiety of Legitimacy.Jan Keppel Hesselink – This paper argues that contemporary acupuncture increasingly misrepresents its own foundations by attempting to validate itself through anatomical and biomedical frameworks foreign to its original epistemology. The central thesis is that acupuncture is not, and never was, a medical intervention in the modern sense, and therefore does not require proof of the physical existence of meridians or acupuncture points. Drawing on early Chinese medical and Daoist sources, particularly the Huangdi Neijing and its Lingshu, the paper demonstrates that acupuncture emerged as (…) Download   Export citation   Bookmark 
13. 103 Did Jung See Phosphenes? A Phenomenological Reading of Inner Light, Fractalized Colour, and Mandalic Vision in The Red Book.Jan Keppel Hesselink – This paper explores whether selected visionary descriptions and paintings in C. G. Jung’s The Red Book (Liber Novus) can be interpreted through the phenomenology of phosphenes, closed-eye visual phenomena, and entoptic form constants. Jung did not medically identify his visions as phosphenes or migraine aura, and this paper does not attempt a retrospective neurological diagnosis. Instead, it proposes a cautious phenomenological comparison between Jung’s luminous inner imagery and the structured taxonomy of endogenous visual experience developed in recent neurophenomenological work ( (…) Hesselink, 2025a, 2025b, 2025c). Particular attention is given to the coloured, fractalized, crystalline, flame-like, radial, and mandalic structures throughout The Red Book. These forms suggest that Jung’s visionary imagination may have been rooted not only in symbolic archetypal material but also in the visual substrate of inner light phenomena. The paper applies a six-phase taxonomy of meditation-induced phosphenes and a three-tier hierarchical model to Jung’s paintings, arguing that they constitute a rare artistic archive of the transition from simple inner luminosity to complex visionary symbolism, and that the mandala may represent the stabilized endpoint of endogenous visual geometry as it achieves symbolic integration. (shrink) Download   Export citation   Bookmark 
14. 794 Toward an Updated Classification of Phosphene Forms: Integrating Subjective Reports, Form Constants, and Closed-Eye Visual Grading into the Yoga of Inner Light.Jan Keppel Hesselink – Phosphenes, the perception of light without external visual input, represent a rich intersection of neuroscience, subjective experience, and contemplative practice. While Heinrich Klüver’s 1928 classification of four geometric “form constants” (lattices, cobwebs, tunnels, spirals) laid foundational groundwork for understanding these phenomena, it offers a limited scope for the diversity of forms reported across various induction methods. This article proposes an updated and expanded classification system for phosphene forms, integrating extensive subjective reports from transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) studies, detailed introspective (…) Download   Export citation   Bookmark 
15. 21 The Stripped System: Franz Bardon’s Hermetic Training as a Western Road to the Ultra-Subjective Hyperspace.Jan Keppel Hesselink – This paper offers a critical scholar-practitioner reading of the hermetic adept Franz Bardon’s (1909,1958) Der Weg zum wahren Adepten as a ten-step system of inner training whose practical core is separable from its period-specific esoteric vocabulary. Bardon’s work contains two layers. The surface layer is shaped by Theosophy, Naturphilosophie, spiritism, alchemy, Kabbalah, and early twentieth-century occult natural science. The deeper layer is a structured phenomenological curriculum: the progressive development of attention, self-observation, breath, elemental body awareness, imagination, inner perception, symbolic action, (…) Download   Export citation   Bookmark  2 citations 
16. 244 Transmission Above, Wrath at the Center, Subjugation Below: Visual Theology and Esoteric Tantric Instructions in an Eighteenth-Century Yamāntaka Thangka.Jan Keppel Hesselink – This article examines an eighteenth-century Tibetan tantric thangka centered on a wrathful buffalo-headed deity in sexual union, framed by an immense fire aureole, surmounted by three lineage masters, and grounded upon a lower register of subdued animal, human, and offering forms. The “wrathful” part does not mean ordinary anger. It means forceful awakened efficacy, a mode of transformation that burns through obstruction, seizes delusion, subdues fear, and converts mortality into ritual power. That is why the noose, trident, skull bowl, skull (…) Download   Export citation   Bookmark 
17. 270 The Return to Spontaneity: Reclaiming the Intuitive Roots of Yoga and Qigong.Jan Keppel Hesselink – Contemporary yoga and qigong have increasingly evolved into codified, performative systems, often reduced to posture-based physical fitness routines. This paper proposes a return to their original spirit: spontaneous movement practices that arise intuitively, often in meditative or altered states of consciousness, and lead to deep psychophysical integration. Drawing on experiential, historical, and clinical perspectives, we explore the phenomenon of spontaneous yoga and qigong, movement that emerges not from will or choreography but from a quiet body and attuned inner listening. These (…) Download   Export citation   Bookmark 
18. 231 The 4D Enneagram: From Planar Symbol to Volumetric Vortex in the Architecture of Inner Light.Jan Keppel Hesselink – This paper argues that the Enneagram, when encountered within visionary states arising from contemplative practice, dreaming, and somatic discipline, should no longer be treated as a static two-dimensional diagram but as a dynamic vortex-structure that discloses transformation in process. Drawing on Gurdjieff’s Fourth Way teachings, the phenomenology of the Yoga of the Inner Light, and experiential work with phosphene-based luminosity, I propose that the Enneagram becomes intelligible only when it is embodied, kinetic, and temporally extended. In such states, the practitioner (…) Download   Export citation   Bookmark 
19. 231 Inner Light and the Architecture of Reality: Revisiting Robert Grosseteste’s Metaphysics of Light in the Age of Consciousness Studies.Jan Keppel Hesselink – This paper revisits Robert Grosseteste’s medieval metaphysics of light in conversation with contemporary phenomenology of inner vision, predictive-processing neuroscience, and relational theology. We argue that luminous experiences reported in contemplative practice, near-death states, and psychedelic breakthroughs exhibit a lawful progression that can be described through an expanded eight-phase taxonomy. These phases move from emergent inner luminosity to structured geometry, symbolic encounter, immersive radiance, and ultimately unitive clarity, followed by ethical re-orientation and long-term integration. Rather than treating visionary light as either (…) Download   Export citation   Bookmark 
20. 408 The Yoga of the Inner Body: a phenomenological exploration of subtle somatic signs and their vibratory nature.Jan Keppel Hesselink – tContemplative traditions recognize two inner perceptual pathways: the Yoga of Inner Light and the Yoga of Inner Sound. This paper systematically recovers a third and previously neglected path: the Yoga of the Inner Body, which unfolds through refined interoceptive perception of subtle, endogenous somatic signs. This path progresses from discrete internal sensations (Level 1: Sensation) to coherent longitudinal currents (Level 2: Flow), and culminates in a unified, non-conceptual vibratory field permeating the body (Level 3: Field). Through phenomenological analysis, these experiences (…) Download   Export citation   Bookmark 
21. 225 Inner Light and the Eyes of the Soul: A Phenomenological Interpretation of Teresa of Ávila’s Visions.Jan Keppel Hesselink – This paper examines the visionary experiences of Saint Teresa of Ávila (1515–1582), especially her descriptions of pure inner light and the Transverberation in The Life of Teresa of Jesus. Using a phenomenological approach and a six-phase taxonomy of meditation-induced phosphenes, I argue that Teresa’s imaginative and intellectual visions align closely with structured forms of endogenous light perception. Her reports are compared with those of Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179) and Tibetan yogis such as Milarepa (c. 1052–c. 1135) and Longchenpa (1308–1364), revealing (…) Download   Export citation   Bookmark 
22. 115 The Light That Has a Face: Christ and the Mystery of Inner Illumination An Introduction to Christic Luminosity.Jan Keppel Hesselink – This paper explores the place of Christ within the experience of inner light. It builds on earlier work in which I developed a six-stage model of luminous experience in meditation, beginning with simple flickers and forms of inner light and ending in states of radiant, formless awareness. In the present paper, I ask how this model can help us understand Christian mysticism, especially the repeated association between Christ and light. The central distinction of the paper is between the Light of (…) Download   Export citation   Bookmark 
23. 227 Phenomenological Compression and the Theology of Absolute Light in the work of Symeon the New Theologian: the role of inner censorship.Jan Keppel Hesselink – Symeon the New Theologian (949–1022) is among the most explicit autobiographical witnesses of inner light experience in the Christian tradition. When his first-person accounts are examined against a graded phenomenological taxonomy of inner light, a marked asymmetry emerges: Symeon’s descriptions consistently portray only the culmination of the experience (Phase 6), a stabilized, immersive, and identity-transforming luminous field, while omitting the gradual emergence of earlier phenomena such as flickers, points, or geometric organization. This paper argues that Symeon’s corpus is best understood (…) Download   Export citation   Bookmark 
24. 102 Shamanic Acupuncture in the Past: The Role of Incantations and Singing.Jan Keppel Hesselink – Modern acupuncture is usually presented as a technical medical procedure: channels, points, qi flow, diagnosis, needle manipulation. Yet classical and later Chinese medical sources preserve a stranger and more spiritually charged picture. In these texts, healing is not always performed through needles alone, but through a combination of intention, visualisation, sacred speech, incantation, ritual authority, and the expulsion of pathogenic or demonic influences. This article examines that older ritual layer by drawing on passages from the Huangdi Neijing, especially the Su (…) Download   Export citation   Bookmark 
25. 86 Integrative Medicine: The Emperor’s New Clothes Proven treatments belong in medicine. Unproven ones don’t.Jan Keppel Hesselink – The term integrative medicine claims to describe a third category in clinical practice, somewhere between conventional evidence-based medicine and alternative therapies. This article argues that this category is conceptually confused and often misleading. If an intervention is supported by good evidence, is safe in practice, clinically useful and cost-effective, it should simply become part of regular medicine. If an intervention does not have such evidence, it does not become stronger by being called integrative. The article examines how the language of (…) Download   Export citation   Bookmark 
26. 226 Definitions: Refining ‘God’ from Lawful Configuration to Phenomenal Coherence.Jan Keppel Hesselink – The definition of God has historically oscillated between metaphysical speculation and dogmatic assertion. Today, the revival of ancient contemplative practices alongside advances in neuroscience has enabled a new understanding: the Divine can be encountered directly through the structure and function of human consciousness. This paper refines the neurophenomenological definition of the Divine first introduced in God as an Event of Consciousness, where God was described as “the lawful, awe-evoking configuration of consciousness.” We now propose a more precise and empirically grounded (…) Download   Export citation   Bookmark 
27. 61 Beyond Energy Work, Qi, and Prana: Toward a Neurophenomenological Foundation for Modern Body-Mind Work.Jan Keppel Hesselink – tFor centuries, traditions across Asia have described bodily life-forces, qi, prana, lung, ruah, latihan, as flowing energies animating the human organism. These terms have served as metaphors for lived interior experience. Yet as embodied contemplative practice enters a new scientific era, such ancient metaphors now obscure more than they reveal. This paper argues that body-mind work requires a new, phenomenologically grounded language, one that replaces ancient and outdated subtle-energy models with a neurophenomenology of lived embodiment. Drawing on Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy of (…) Download   Export citation   Bookmark 
28. 61 Sacred Image as Inner Instrument The Yoga of the Inner Light, Tantric Thangkas, and the Phenomenology of Awakened Seeing.Jan Keppel Hesselink – This paper synthesizes the central argument of our forthcoming book ‘Tantric Instructions of Insight’ (2026) within a broader scholarly context, drawing on the contributions of Giuseppe Tucci, David and Janice Jackson, Robert Beer, Yael Bentor, David Germano, and Janet Gyatso. The shared discovery across these diverse approaches is that Tibetan tantric imagery is operative rather than merely representational. A thangka does not illustrate awakening from outside; it functions as a living instrument of presence, visualization, and inner transformation. The paper situates (…) Download   Export citation   Bookmark 
29. 49 Authentic Spirituality in an Age of Simulation: Instructions for a Critical Phenomenology of Contemplative Life.Jan Keppel Hesselink – This article inaugurates a series of essays examining the nature, criteria, and conditions of authentic spiritual experience and practice. The question has become urgent because contemplative language now circulates through wellness industries, coaching platforms, social media performances, therapeutic cultures, and commercial promises of rapid transformation. The series draws on classical mystical literature from the Abrahamic traditions, Vedantic and Tantric sources, and the phenomenological tradition, with the aim of identifying what is genuinely transmissible across traditions and what belongs to the domain (…) Download   Export citation   Bookmark 
30. 12 A Visual Taxonomy of Western Sigils: Origin, Morphology, and Function.Jan Keppel Hesselink – This paper presents an annotated visual survey of nineteen sigils, seals, characters, and related magical graphic operators drawn from the Western esoteric tradition, spanning five centuries of continuous practice from the Renaissance compilations of Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (1486–1535) to the popular grimoire tradition of the 18th and 19th centuries and its modern extensions. The survey serves as empirical complement to the companion paper ‘Toward a Taxonomy of Sigils’ (Keppel Hesselink, 2026), applying that paper’s six-axis analytical framework, covering origin (…) Download   Export citation   Bookmark 
31. 36 When the Body Becomes an Oracle Pseudo-Spirituality, Anatomical Authority, and the Evacuation of the Subject.Jan Keppel Hesselink – This essay examines contemporary rhetoric around womb wisdom, body truth, and masculine life force practices as instances of what may be called the somatic oracle: the conversion of bodily sensation into unquestionable anatomical authority. It argues that such language does not merely express embodiment, but may displace first-person agency by allowing organs or bodily systems to speak in the subject’s place. The central distinction is between signal and verdict: the body may offer subtle, urgent, and clinically important signals, but those (…) Download   Export citation   Bookmark 
32. 33 Authentic Spirituality and the Colonisation of Inner Space: Closed Symbolic Systems, Dark Magick, and Yoga as Liberation.Jan Keppel Hesselink – Series Note This paper belongs to the Authentic Spirituality series, a sequence of essays developed from the author’s wider work on contemplative phenomenology, inner light, yoga, medical critique, and embodied practice. Across these domains, the central question remains the same: what remains real when hype, projection, ideology, and spiritual theatre are stripped away? Abstract This paper contributes to the series Authentic Spirituality by examining how closed symbolic systems colonise inner space. Through a comparative reading of Jean Lorédan’s account of the (…) Download   Export citation   Bookmark 
33. 24 The Phenomenal Event of God: A Neurophenomenological Bridge to the Ethics of Coherence.Jan Keppel Hesselink – This article proposes reframing “God” not as a metaphysical object or explanatory hypothesis, but as an event that insists within human consciousness and becomes experientially accessible under specific contemplative conditions. Drawing on neurophenomenology, contemplative testimony, and the apophatic tradition, which understands God as beyond conceptual grasp, we describe the emergence of coherent luminous states when cognitive-evaluative networks quiet down. These states do not produce the divine; rather, they function as an experiential interface through which the divine becomes recognizable within human (…) Download   Export citation   Bookmark 
34. 22 Toward a Taxonomy of Sigils: Sigils as Charged Graphic Operators and Keys to the Ultra-Subjective Hyperspace.Jan Keppel Hesselink – Sigils are among the most familiar objects in magical literature, yet they are among the least clearly defined. They appear as spirit seals in Western grimoires, as intention-marks in modern chaos magic, as elemental signs in Franz Bardon’s hermetic system, as vévé in Haitian Vodou, and as deity-related diagrams in tantric and contemplative traditions. Despite this ubiquity, no systematic cross-traditional framework for analysing them has previously been proposed. This paper offers the first such framework. The central argument is that existing (…) Download   Export citation   Bookmark 
35. 13 From Placebo to Magic: Autosuggestion, Ritual, Will, and the Ultra-Subjective Hyperspace A Scholar-Practitioner Reading of the Occultist Franz Bardon’s System.Jan Keppel Hesselink – tFranz Bardon (1909 – 1958) was one of the most technically rigorous figures in twentieth-century Western esotericism. His ten-step curriculum of inner training, presented in Der Weg zum wahren Adepten, moves from basic attention training through elemental body work to the explicit goal of union with the divine ground of being. This article focuses on Step 2, where Bardon introduces autosuggestion as the first explicitly operative principle of the system: the deliberate impregnation of the subconscious with a chosen intention. The (…) Download   Export citation   Bookmark 
36. 13 Sigils, Names, and Elemental Grammar: A First Structural Reading of Franz Bardon’s 32 Elemental Being Sigils From Die Praxis der magischen Evokation (1956).Jan Keppel Hesselink – This article offers what appears to be the first systematic structural reading of the 32 elemental being sigils from Franz Bardon’s (1909 – 1958) second major work, Die Praxis der magischen Evokation (1956). Bardon’s second book assigns a unique name, sigil, and description to 660 named beings distributed across elemental kingdoms and planetary spheres. The present article focuses on the 32 elemental beings that open the sigil section, examining them as a graphic system rather than as devotional or magical objects. (…) Download   Export citation   Bookmark 
37. 12 Criteria for Authentic Contemplative Experience. A Three-Level Framework for Distinguishing Inner Development from Its Simulations.Jan Keppel Hesselink – The contemporary spiritual landscape is characterised by a proliferation of practices that occupy the cultural space of genuine contemplative development while reliably producing only its most accessible effects: relaxation, emotional warmth, and a sense of meaningful participation. This paper does not dismiss such practices, whose therapeutic and social benefits are real, but argues that they are structurally distinct from authentic contemplative development, and that conflating the two levels produces genuine harm for sincere seekers. The paper’s central contribution is a three-level (…) Download   Export citation   Bookmark 
38. 12 Peer Review and the Limits of Mystical Phenomenology: Gatekeepers of the Sacred. A Case Study in Epistemic Gatekeeping.Jan Keppel Hesselink – The present article uses two anonymous referee reports on a neurophenomenological theology manuscript as a case study in the methodological tensions between conventional peer review and first-person mystical phenomenology. The aim is not to contest a particular editorial decision, but to examine how review practices may implicitly privilege third-person, analytic, or agnostic-definitional frameworks when confronted with scholar-practitioner testimony. Close reading of the reports reveals that both referees, independently and in good faith, demanded that the paper adopt epistemic postures incompatible with (…) Download   Export citation   Bookmark 
39. What Steiner Got Right and What He Left Unresolved: Toward a Comparative Esoteric Psychology of Steiner and Bardon.Jan Keppel Hesselink – Rudolf Steiner’s Wie erlangt man Erkenntnisse der höheren Welten? (How One Attains Knowledge of Higher Worlds, 1904/1909) contains genuine psychological insights that deserve serious attention outside the anthroposophical tradition in which they are embedded. This paper examines the text through the lens of esoteric psychology, a field distinct from transpersonal psychology, Jungian depth psychology, and the phenomenology of religion, defined here as the rigorous first-person study of esoteric training systems as operational psychologies of inner transformation. Six areas where Steiner’s account (…) Download   Export citation   Bookmark 
40. 215 Seeing the Sacred: A Phenomenological Interpretation of the Mandala Brahmana Upanishad through the Lens of Inner Light and Phosphenes.Jan M. Keppel Hesselink – This paper explores the phenomenology of inner light as described in the Mandala Brahmana Upanishad, interpreting these accounts through a contemporary taxonomy of meditation-induced phosphenes. The Upanishad details three forms of meditation (Lakshyas) and a progressive series of luminous visions, ranging from subtle flickers to boundless formless radiance. By aligning these stages with the six-phase taxonomy of phosphene progression and Klüver’s form constants, I argue that the text provides not only symbolic imagery but also an early phenomenological map of visionary (…) Download   Export citation   Bookmark 
41. 296 Inner Light and the Eyes of the Soul: A Phenomenological Interpretation of Teresa of Ávila’s Visions.Jan Marius Keppel Hesselink – This paper examines the visionary experiences of Saint Teresa of Ávila (1515–1582), especially her descriptions of pure inner light and the Transverberation in The Life of Teresa of Jesus. Using a phenomenological approach and a six-phase taxonomy of meditation-induced phosphenes, I argue that Teresa’s imaginative and intellectual visions align closely with structured forms of endogenous light perception. Her reports are compared with those of Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179) and Tibetan yogis such as Milarepa (c. 1052–c. 1135) and Longchenpa (1308–1364), revealing (…)