Conscientiology

The term "Conscientiology" is a neologism, a portmanteau derived from the Latin "conscientia" meaning consciousness or awareness, and the Greek "-logia" meaning study or discourse. It was coined by its founder, Waldo Vieira, to denote the systematic investigation of consciousness.

Conscientiology is a dissident movement from Spiritism, of a pseudoscientific nature, founded by Brazilian physician and medium Waldo Vieira. It proposes the integral study of consciousness, advocating for belief in parapsychic phenomena – such as out-of-body experiences – and in the seriality of life through reincarnation. According to this perspective, consciousness (also called ego, soul, or spirit) is said to have an independent existence that transcends biological life. Self-described as an...

In the grand procession of human inquiry into the nature of being, Conscientiology emerges as a curious, perhaps even anachronistic, echo of older quests, albeit clad in the lexicon of the late 20th century. Founded by Waldo Vieira, a Brazilian physician and medium, it posits itself as a scientific endeavor to study consciousness, a concept that has occupied mystics, philosophers, and theologians for millennia. The very term, a hybrid of Latin and Greek, signals an ambition to dissect and categorize the ineffable, to render the ghost in the machine into a specimen for examination.

Vieira's formulation, that consciousness possesses an independent existence transcending biological life, and that it undergoes a "seriality of life" through reincarnation, draws a line back to ancient traditions. One might see in this a distant kinship with the Hermetic axiom, "The All is Mind; the Universe is Mental," suggesting a primacy of consciousness in the cosmic order. Similarly, the emphasis on out-of-body experiences and the soul's journey resonates with Gnostic traditions and certain Sufi explorations of the inner worlds, where the spirit can traverse dimensions unseen by the physical eye. Mircea Eliade, in his seminal works on shamanism and archaic religions, charted the ancient human impulse to understand and manipulate consciousness, often through ecstatic states or astral projection, which Conscientiology, in its own way, attempts to reframe.

However, the "pseudoscientific" label, as Blavatsky notes, is crucial. Unlike the rigorous, albeit often symbolic, methodologies of ancient wisdom traditions or the contemplative practices of mystics like St. John of the Cross or Meister Eckhart, Conscientiology appears to rely on anecdotal evidence and a particular interpretation of parapsychological phenomena. It seeks to objectify the subjective, to impose a scientific veneer on experiences that often resist such reduction. Yet, in its very attempt, it reveals a persistent human yearning to find order and meaning in the vast, often bewildering, expanse of our inner lives. It is a testament to the enduring power of the question, "Who am I, and what is this consciousness that experiences?" even when the proposed answers are met with skepticism.

Conscientiology, therefore, is not merely a doctrine but a symptom of a deeper, ongoing dialogue between the empirical and the transcendent, a modern attempt to map the uncharted territories of the self with instruments that may be ill-suited for the task. It invites us to consider what it means to study consciousness, and whether the tools of science are the only, or even the best, means to approach such profound mysteries.