From my beginnings in these directions:

Colin Wilson was the one who directed me towards some ideas that added some direction to my quest. He pointed out that Franz Bretano, (1838-1917), “. . . proposed what seemed a satisfactory way of distinguishing mental from physical phenomena. A mental phenomena, he said, is directed at an object; mental phenomena ‘include an object intentionally within themselves.’” “The important word here is intentionally.” “. . . in the way that a fruit encloses its stone.” Colin Wilson, Beyond The Outsider, p. 85-86, Pan Books Ltd: London, 1966.

It makes one see where the idea of intentionality came from, within our modern ideas. Of course, Yoga and Buddhism also has something here . . . Concentration, Mindfulness. Don Juan read the books too.

Wilson points out: “But the human mind is unaware that its view of the world is strictly selective; it sees the world from its ‘natural standpoint,’ and assumes that the natural standpoint is the whole truth.” Colin Wilson, Beyond The Outsider, p. 89, Pan Books Ltd: London, 1966.

And, “ The mention of the ‘natural standpoint’ brings us to Husserl, for it was his starting point.” “The question in which Husserl was basically interested was: Why does the consciousness select in a certain manner?” “What Husserl did in his major work, Ideas (1912), was to suggest a certain method for observing the workings of intentionality. The basis of this method was the technique that he called ‘bracketing’. (However, later phenomenologists, including Husserl himself, have tended to drop this bracketing ritual.) Bracketing consists in disconnecting the attention from the object under examination, attempting to outwit the ‘natural standpoint’ by treating it as completely alien.” Colin Wilson, Beyond The Outsider, p. 89-91, Pan Books Ltd: London, 1966.

“Phenomenology, in short, is the study of the way that consciousness perceives objects.” Colin Wilson, Beyond The Outsider, p. 93, Pan Books Ltd: London, 1966.

“When both eyes are looking at things of the world it is with vision directed outward. Now if one closes the eyes and, reversing the glance, directs it inward and looks at the room of the ancestors, that is the backward-flowing method.”

Chongyang, Wang. The Secret of the Golden Flower: A Chinese Book of Life (Kindle Locations 177-179). Murine Press. Kindle Edition.

“Cezanne had grasped the essence of phenomenology years before Husserl formulated the method; he expressed his approach to painting in the words: ‘An eye, a brush.’ Cezanne was a phenomenological painter; that is the reason he appeals as a purist.” Colin Wilson, Beyond The Outsider, p. 92, Pan Books Ltd: London, 1966.

(So, if people were wondering what I was up to . . . these were the start of my core ideas. I always had these in the background. My ways and doings were actually pre-established within the mainstream, 100 years ago!)

On my own then, I realized when one stretched oneself, pushed beyond one’s “mold” here, a further focus, one could see the world in all the glory and freshness of a dream. I called it “Existence.” Years later, I realized, one’s mold is also in interaction with an even greater field of meaning and knowledge: focusing brings in enhanced meanings.

Lately, found other stuff, contributing to my involvements here:

There were ancient times, with ancient ways and writings . . . I’ve been interested lately in the way of form: It’s even in the Bible. Where did that originate? There seems to be a divergence between the original Hebrew and Roman interpretations. There were other things going on.

Genesis 1:2 (ESV) — The earth [eretz] was without form [“waste” on some translations] and void [“empty” on some translations], and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

This sounds like stage one, after the destruction of the previous civilizations, and with the flood. Then the human’s turn, starting with Akhenaten, then being lead across the desert by Thutmose (Moses).

Form and void, with the Spirit of God . . . what does that sound like! This is the functioning aspect . . . here also! Stage two.

“Master Lu-tsu said, since when has the expression “circulation of the light” been revealed? It was revealed by the “True Men of the Beginning of Form””(Kuan Yin-hsi).

Chongyang, Wang. The Secret of the Golden Flower: A Chinese Book of Life (Kindle Locations 165-167). Murine Press. Kindle Edition.

The beginning of form . . . hmmm. There is a “truer man” emerging. Light.

“The real world is an enchanted place, full of magical powers waiting to be used. And, as the alchemists understood, the anima mundi is a creative force: “it is the artist, the craftsperson, the ‘inner Vision’ which shapes and differentiates the prime matter, giving it form.”

Anima Mundi: Awakening the Soul of the World Published in Sufi Journal, Issue 67, Autumn 2005 Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, page 4.

The Life World within the Greater World.

(Found among the papers of the late Francis Wayland Thurston, of Boston)

“Of such great powers or beings there may be conceivably a survival… a survival of a hugely remote period when… consciousness was manifested, perhaps, in shapes and forms long since withdrawn before the tide of advancing humanity… forms of which poetry and legend alone have caught a flying memory and called them gods, monsters, mythical beings of all sorts and kinds.…” — Algernon Blackwood

H. P. Lovecraft: The Complete Collection, The Call of Cthulhu, Kindle Edition. Written: August-September 1926. First Published in Weird Tales, Vol. 11, No. 2 (February 1928), Pages 159-78, 287.