There are different ways to see and speak of the Double. It belongs to a world that does not limit itself to our accustomed physical parameters. Some claim that Don Juan was Carlos’s Double. They would not be wrong, even accepting Don Juan was a real distinct person. This is not the focus of my current theme, but it is a very interesting feature of the interrelationship of identity in the astral.
In this thread I want to speak about the significance of the Double for everything we do on the Path. The Double lies at the core of all mystical traditions, art, sport, martial arts - it is the feature of our being which explains the entire edifice of spiritual and cultural development.
In essence, the Double is an inner identity. The sentient body, the astral body, the vehicle of imagination, the soul. Throughout the ages, humanity has tried to find words to describe something intangible about us, and yet of ultimate meaning and importance for us.
There are layers to the Double. Often a person with a Double of rich colour and range, nonetheless collapses due to lack of depth and strength. It is relatively easy to free and expand a person’s Double, but it is extremely difficult to build maturity and resilience into it. This is why we need two threads to our development - one to foster endurance and keel, the other to give wings.
The science of unfurling the Double involves three aspects: breadth, depth and scope. You will be able to distil everything in Soma, and in my book, into these three aspects. It is unwise to leave any out. I am aware that some traditions do leave out one or two of these aspects, but I personally believe that is a mistake for which practitioners eventually pay dearly, or need to develop separately as nature demands. I strongly feel all three should be brought within the purvey of a school’s attention, like weaving a plat.
I will follow the theoretical preferred sequence in explaining these three aspects, as their order is important. However in practice we have to respond to the course our lives take. In actuality, the typical order is in complete reverse of the theoretical preferred sequence. We tend to be thrust unprepared into the expanded scope of the Double’s possibility first, which in itself drops us into a pit from which only depth can rescue us, and then out of curiosity and resultant loose moorings we discover breadth. Much better to follow the correct path if possible.
Breadth
The first thing to understand about the Double is that in an adult, it is usually completely encased, timid and subjugated to the persona’s identity. And this identity is in itself the trained servant of the physical-social-cultural environment. We are not even aware that our identity is a physical-social-cultural clone, nor aware that our Double is tamed and drained. But it is far worse than this, because society is constructed to constantly milk our Double for the purposes of external dominant forces. What these forces are is a fascinating subject, but outside this immediate discussion. Suffice to realise that almost all members of society continually and willingly feed these forces with their Double’s vitality, until by middle age it is only an insipid shadow. However, society does offer a deal - once it has sucked out the Double’s vitality, it has also manipulated the Double into a form which society then protects until death, for the most part. There are always those who accidentally find themselves outside the tent without and survival resources. That is a very sad situation, and one can judge a society on how it deals with these ‘accidents’.
Thus the first step in releasing the Double is to focus on its form. The Double’s form is carefully and relentlessly massaged since the very first breath we take, into a shape that aligns with societies demands. Bu the time we reach adulthood, its form is so deeply etched and shaped, that only extreme measures can break down it’s calcifications. Unfortunately such measures can also kill the whole being, or at least permanently damage it, and rend useless. This is why we first need to prepare the Double with breadth.
The technique is to expand our range of interests and physical locations. This is so obvious and enjoyable that it is surprising how much resistance there is to it. Not everyone is naturally adventurous. Most people, including those on a spiritual path, fully believe themselves to be who they believe themselves to be. They live in a style their parents lived, prefer the food they have preferred since youth, prefer the music they liked in their youth, prefer the clothes they have always worn, prefer the movies they have always liked watching, read (or not as the case may be) the kind of books, newspapers and magazines they have always had around them, adopt the politics of either their parents or their student days, hold attitudes they have almost always held. they believe themselves to be this identity they have always known, and it never occurs to them that this identity is largely forced upon them at a time when they had no choice. The only choice they had was to make a personal selection from a very small allowed range - the range, the whole construct itself was never open to question.
Our task here is to give breadth to our Double. Force it to fit into new shapes, and don’t accept the complaint that it’s not ‘what we like’. What we like is what we are familiar with, so the secret to bestowing breadth, is to force ourselves into something different for long enough to pass a critical threshold. Knowing how to reach and pass this threshold - even to know of its existence - is a major shift in our Double’s form itself. Patient endurance until we acquire a taste.
Liking and disliking has nothing to do with this whatsoever - in developing breadth, liking and disliking are obstacles that have to be tossed aside. This is all about shape-shifting the Double in preparation for the extreme shifts that are to come under ‘scope’. Breadth is laying a sufficiently large foundation to support the unimaginable adventures of the Double. Think for a minute of the man setting out the string-line for the base of the Great Pyramid - imagine looking at the vast area he is stretching his little string-line around, and saying to him, “You’ve got to be joking!”
Depth
This one’s not easy. No matter how you face it, depth can only be acquired by the old school’s methods. Without depth, we are pissing in the wind. Time and time again I see so many stories of people who were introduced into the mysteries, with tales of fabulous experiences, only to end up shipwrecked in despair or meaninglessness. Believe me, no matter how fantastic one’s exposure to scope, it means zilch if depth has not been acquired. The journey is long beyond your possible conception. Only the knowledge of the depth of your will can stand as any security against the vastness of the universe.
We don’t want to know about it. To offer the newbie some glimpse of the kind of people are those who journey successfully into the tempest of eternity, images have been left behind of extreme deities who preside over the darker realms. The message is clear - if you think this is a pleasant or glamorous venture, think again. Only preparedness to cast our net along the very bottom of the ocean, will stand by us on the road that leads into the wilderness.
The technique here is subjecting or accepting the slings and arrows of outrageous misfortune with forbearance and grace. It is simple - when something in your life goes wrong, what do you do? It is healthy to kick the tires and swear, but after that? That is the issue. But more than that, depth can only be acquired by the patient forbearance of many long years of unfair fate. We only seal our keel through the quiet passage of a life spent in discomfort and restraint, without it bowing our will and aspiration. As I said, not easy. To those who are working their way through this course of training, we should always offer only respect and praise.
Once this quality has been acquired in the Double, when faced with the ease of how fellow travellers are offered precious treasures, we can only turn our eyes to the distant mountains, knowing the road is long...
Scope
This is the fun and dangerous stuff. There are two sub-aspects to scope. Firstly there is the ejaculatory factor, and secondly there is the sober journey into postures of the Double that are always un-pre-comprehensible.
The ejaculatory factor: our Double is so glued to our enculturated identity that only a violent blow can release it. Anything can serve to deliver that blow, but it has to serve a constructive outcome, rather than a destructive one. Think of a jet pilot as his plane descends uncontrollably, hitting the Ejaculate Button. Voom! Out he is shot from his cockpit into the open sky in a violent swoosh! That is what we need.
The sober journey into the un-pre-comprehensible: we have no idea of the possibilities of the Double. At every turn of my own Double’s path, I have been left gobsmacked. I can thrust my imagination into the possible future, but the result is always stranger and more profound than I could have conceived.
What is important is that our Double is inseminated, and then that it has the inner potency to grow upon its own path. Insemination is a beautiful thing. This comes down in a lineage, which is worth acknowledging and offering the greatest love towards. A seed of spiritual intent penetrates into us and gives birth to a potentiality we carry within us. That seed becomes our Double. I know we each have our own Double, but to say the seed becomes our Double is not inaccurate. This is a wonder to watch and revere. It can only be fully appreciated once we catch a fleeting glimpse of The Double - who is that being?
Michael Maher 2011
