The Enlightened Scientist

[schola]

Franklin Merrell-Wolff Fellowship - Sage and Philosopher of Consciousness Without An Object

Franklin Merrell-Wolff might have been the first enlightened person to describe his state in concrete terms using scientific and philosophical language.

He described five realizations or recognitions that led to his supposed enlightenment.

Here's the first one:

First Premonitory Recognition: "I am Atman"

Wolff's first premonitory recognition took place in 1922, approximately 14 years prior to his transcendental breakthroughs. Wolff describes this first recognition as a noetic insight into the truth of "I am Atman". The term "Atman" is a Sanskrit term that Wolff uses to refer to the transcendental subject to consciousness (see the discussion above of the second fundamental of the philosophy). Just prior to this insight, Wolff had been engaged in the practice of discrimination of subject (Atman) and object (world). This practice of discrimination is fundamental to the teachings of Shankara, the founder of the Advaita Vedanta school of nondual philosophy. The purpose of this practice is to effect a disidentification and detachment from the objects of consciousness, and a realization of identity with pure subjectivity. Although Wolff previously had been intellectually convinced of the truth of the proposition "I am Atman", this time he suddenly realized its truth at a deeper level than the intellect. Although this was only a veiled Realization, it nevertheless brought a sense of Light and Joy, and had persistent positive effects, such as a certain change in the base of thought, bringing clarity where there had previously been obscurity.


The rest can be found here: Phiilosophy of Franklin Merrell-Wolff

If you're familiar with Advaita, Non-Dualism, Maharshi, etc then you might like this guy.

The language Wolff uses is similar to the language used by other sages, but he was an American and had degrees in mathematics, philosophy and psychology, so it seems like it might be more accessible to the "right-brained" folks. There's not a whole lot out there on the internets about this guy, but I enjoyed what little there is on the website.

He wrote a few books but I haven't read them yet.

Is anyone familiar with Franklin Merrell-Wolff or have opinions about the site?