Ordinary People

In philosophy, phenomenal means anything you can experience, both mentally or physically. 

Ordinary people are interested almost exclusively in the phenomenal – things you experience in your thoughts or with your senses.

They think about these things. They desire or fear these things. And when they become self-declared “seekers,” they seek something that they assume is also phenomenal.

And when they see or read about something out of the ordinary, they get excited because they think they're on to something important. A “spiritual” phenomenon.

And because of this equating abnormal with spiritual, they are very likely to perform practices or take drugs to have ‘out of the ordinary’ phenomenal experiences. Again, they think this is a sign they are really ‘getting somewhere.’

There are countless anomalous phenomena. This web page talks about 'light orbs,' that may be genuine things that clairvoyants can see. https://www.quora.com/What-can-small-orbs-of-light-do-to-you-Is-this-good-or-bad-If-you-have-them-sometimes-at-night-in-your-room-Should-I-be-worried

Such phenomena fascinate ordinary people due to the fact that they are rare, or only seen by seemingly special people. And because their origin is often mysterious, they can make up fantastical causes for them, which you can’t prove or disprove, increasing their faith in anything they make up in their imaginations. But to someone with development, who has begun to actually grasp that the phenomenal is merely an illusion, such anomalous phenomena mean absolutely nothing. In fact, they have no more meaning than ordinary phenomena. They are simply more of the phenomenal Universe, which is an illusion.

Those who chase after such mysteries in the belief that they are going to discover a profound truth always wind up empty handed, like the American Theosophical Society, which formed in New York in 1875 to pursue truth through spirit communication (that was the rage at the time and thought to be spiritual in some way) and ended up making up all their teachings. They wrote long tomes that left people more confused than they already were, and their chasing after secrets and mysteries led them to nothing.

To demonstrate this I quote Swedenborg, who was one of the first to claim to talk to the dead and portray it as spiritual.

 “Spirits narrate things wholly false, and lie. When spirits begin to speak to man, care should be taken not to believe them, for most everything they say is made up by them, and they lie; so if we permitted them to relate what Heaven is, and how things are in Heaven, they would tell so many falsehoods, and with such strong assertion that man would be astonished; wherefore it was not permitted me when spirits were speaking to have any belief in what they stated. They love to feign. Whatever may be the topic spoken of, they think they know it, and if man listens and believes, they insist, and in various ways deceive and seduce.” – Emmanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), Father of Channeling, Miscellaneous Works

Real spirituality lies in the exact opposite direction. Rather than pursuing things outside of oneself, one turns inward and focuses on the source of such interest. That ‘turning’ is the real turning toward the spiritual.

“When mind soars in pursuit of the things conceived in space, it pursues emptiness; but when man dives deep within himself, he experiences the fullness of existence” – Meher Baba Calling, p. 24

One will find the same teaching in the works of Plotinus, writing in 2nd Century Egypt and in the words of William Blake in 19th century England.

And certainly Jesus said this. 

“The kingdom of God cometh not with observation. Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” (Jesus, Luke 17:20-21).

But ordinary people are what Baba called “gross conscious.” This means their focus is on the things they see and touch with their senses, or imagine they could. 

In March of 2000, while riding a bus, I had something like a mystical experience. A thought occurred to me that changed my life. All the hidden so-called mystical “things” were laid bare, and I realized they were really nothing. They were imagined woo-woo conceived to be like the things we see and feel. In the words of Baba, they were things “conceived in space.” To pursue them was to pursue nothing, “emptiness.” The “fullness” that we really seek is within us, just as Jesus and all real mystics have said.