What is ⇒THIS⇐? Take the Oshana Challenge & Assist with Ongoing Auticulture Research Program

As I recently blogged, Dave Oshana has opened his weekly online meet-ups for first-timers (or even third-timers) to benefit from the Enlightenment Transmission free of charge. He calls it SEVA, or the Spiritual Enlightenment Virgin Awakening program. AFAIK, Dave’s tongue is firmly in his cheek here, as it is with most of his advertising, even while the intent behind it is deadly serious. I, and others, have suggested that inviting newbies to picture themselves as blushing virgins offering themselves up to his mystical touch might be a bit, urm, off-putting. This may be especially so for my own reader-listeners, who I suspect—like me—are used to playing it cool and have a strong aversion to taking the submissive position.

What follows is for those who can’t get with the Virgin Assistance Program but who might yet benefit from participation in the mystery of the DO-SET (Dave Oshana Spiritual Enlightenment Transmission). This is what I have gleaned so far from my time spent with Dave Oshana.

Something happened to Dave on June 19, 2000. In his new state of Dis-Orientation, he blurted out the word “Enlightenment” and it stuck. More recently, he has referred to it simply as ⇒THIS⇐ but, to this day, Dave isn’t exactly sure what happened to him.

Dave told me once he even tried to get rid of ⇒THIS⇐ during the early days, just to find out if it really was a permanent change. Apparently it was, and apparently one of the side effects of ⇒THIS⇐ for Dave, traditionally enough, was the desire, or the imperative, to share his experience with others. To this end, he reluctantly assumed the title (and trappings) of “Spiritual Teacher.” Now, after 17 years of “spiritual teaching,” he is attempting to return to the basics, to get back to directly sharing ⇒THIS⇐ as an ongoing experience.

I am interested in participating in ⇒THIS⇐ directly, with or without Dave or anyone else’s help. I am also interested in testing Dave’s claims of ⇒THIS⇐ and my own preconceptions around what it is I think he is offering. What is ⇒THIS⇐? Can it be reproduced in certain conditions, understood psychologically, scientifically or metaphysically, and can it be communicated directly? Is it available to all of us? Is it desirable? Am I right in promoting Dave to other people? Will they be able to see or experience things that are new to them, as described in a recent Liminalist conversation?

Please note that this is not a selfless recruitment drive, but nor am I receiving a blood-transfusion from Dave for bringing sacrificial virgins to his altar. It’s simply that, the more readers and listeners I can motivate to take the Oshana challenge, and who then report back to me their experience, the more data we all have to work from. 

What have you to lose but your “cool”?

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But there’s something else behind my petition.

If spiritual liberation entails the loss of the mind-based illusion of separateness, as both Dave’s descriptions and my own more limited experiences suggest, then “enlightenment” does not belong to any individual but to everything. From such an understanding, Dave’s enlightenment, if such it is, will not be complete until every last man and woman standing has also partaken of ⇒THIS⇐.

The way I see it, Dave is currently soliciting as much as offering assistance. He is recruiting curious minds, intrepid hearts, and kindred souls to help investigate a mystery of mysteries, to uncover the true nature of ⇒THIS⇐ and to extend it experientially, not via teaching, philosophy, or belief, but by direct transmission during one-to-one interaction.

For ⇒THIS⇐ to happen requires both witnesses to and subjects in an ongoing investigation into the Nature of ⇒THIS⇐. Firstly, by personal observation of the subject (Dave) who is claiming to be experiencing ⇒THIS⇐, your input can help to establish what ⇒THIS⇐ looks like from the outside (whether, for example, it fits your own ideas about “Enlightenment” or not). Secondly, more crucially, by volunteering to expose yourself directly to ⇒THIS⇐ you can then report your experiences, if any, and deepen our shared understanding.

Participation in the experiment affects the outcome. From your point of view, Dave’s enlightenment—⇒THIS⇐—is only as real as you have a direct experience of it. Until then, it is no more than a conceptual proposition: a hypothesis. From Dave’s point of view, what use is ⇒THIS⇐ if it can’t be shared with others? No man is an island, least of all an enlightened one. By opening the space of the DO-SET, ⇒THIS⇐ (via Dave) is creating an opening and opportunity. It is a two-way testing ground for a Hypothesis: Is ⇒THIS⇐ real, and if so, what (the hell) IS ⇒THIS⇐?

In a very real sense, ⇒THIS⇐ is incomplete without your involvement. This is true not only from your perspective—which is a no-brainer—but also from the perspective of ⇒THIS⇐.

Take the Oshana challenge. The idea that curiosity killed the cat may only be half the story.

FYI: I have signed up for this coming event. Maybe I will see you there.

Dave’s meet-ups are currently every Sunday at 9 am PST for around 3 hours. If interested you can contact Dave via his site: https://www.daveoshana.com/contact_requests/new