BONUS — Two Years On: Reflections from a Dissertation Defense

Two years after my defense, I reflect on the changes embraced, the challenges endured, and the chances accepted—each a step in the perpetual journey of unfoldment

Two years ago, on Sunday, 17 September 2023, I defended my doctoral dissertation: The Experience of Pure Consciousness as Described Within Maharishi Vedic Science and Expressed Among Secular Thought and Life Systems. (Read Abstract via ProQuest.)

That moment—equal parts solemn ritual and joyous celebration—was more than an academic milestone. It was the culmination of decades of searching, questioning, listening, and responding to what Maharishi Mahesh Yogi once called “the need of the time.”

When my then Advisor and Dissertation Chair—Dr. Fred Travis—opened the defense with warmth and humor, I felt both grounded and lifted. Surrounded by committee members, colleagues, mentors, and friends, I sensed the presence of those who had walked before me—my grandfather, a Prince Hall Mason, whose memory has been a quiet thread in my life; my mother, who reminded me that Masonry was in my lineage via her Dad—my grandfather; my father, who encouraged me to apply to the grad program when I shared the opportunity with him; my mentors and Brothers who guided me through ritual, Masonic contemplation, and scholarship. In that moment, the defense became less a performance of knowledge and more a rite of passage, a threshold into deeper unfoldment.

The Long Preparation

Looking back now, I see that the dissertation was never just about Freemasonry or mysticism. It was about synthesizing all the strands of my life:

• Freemasonry, which entered my conscious awareness in 1993, became lived experience in 2009, and has remained a touchstone of symbolic and philosophical insight.

• Transcendental Meditation, which I learned in 2008 and have practiced ever since, becoming a Certified TM Teacher, along with my wife in 2013 and have worked with close to two thousand two hundred Seekers, bringing me into daily contact with Pure Consciousness.

• Academic study, which demanded the rigor of method, literature review, and data, thus required me to speak not only as a practitioner but as a confessional scholar.

• Personified Roadsigns, in the form of the several personages along the journey who crossed my path “at the right time” to provide insights, books, and practices that furthered the quest for more knowledge of self.

• Personal lineage, reaching back through family stories of my grandfather’s quiet wisdom, my mother’s recollections, my father’s stoicism, and the larger arc of Prince Hall Masonry within African American life.

The defense day was simply the visible harvest. The planting had begun long before, in midnight studies, quiet meditations, conversations with mentors, and the persistent whisper of intuition: You must bring these worlds together.

Mystical Experience as Data

One of the most remarkable aspects of the dissertation was the simple but insistent fact that Freemasons—men across jurisdictions, nations, and generations—reported mystical experiences.

From the Senior Deacon guiding candidates through ritual, to the Master feeling the weight of all who came before him, to the Brother who described reality touching Reality—these accounts revealed that what I had long suspected was true: Masonic ritual is not only ethical or fraternal. It is a vessel for transcendence.

Some described moments of unity, others of timelessness, still others of weighty silence. Ninety respondents gave detailed accounts. Statistical analysis confirmed significance across noetic quality, positive affect, and depth of meaning. The numbers spoke, but behind the numbers was something more luminous: the human hunger to know the Self, to taste the Infinite, to live from a place of wholeness.

The Model for Perpetual Growth and Progress

As the research unfolded, a clear pattern emerged. Mystical experiences were not random; they could be understood as part of a larger process. Out of this recognition, the Model for Perpetual Growth and Progress (MPGP) took form—six tiers of unfoldment that trace the arc of inner development.

The journey begins with awareness of the tripartite structure of Pure Consciousness—Knower, Process of Knowing, and Known. From there, one enters the path as a Seeker of Knowledge, moving into deeper stages shaped by a Desire of the Heart and refined through study, which ultimately matures into Compassion for Everyone.

This growth continues through Contemplation of the inner life, leading to Self-Realization and an Acceptance of Change. The path then turns outward through Necessary Action, which in turn fosters a Redefined Life Purpose and an Evolving Sense of Self. Finally, the process culminates in Execution, where plans are carried into the world, and in a sustained Commitment to a Higher Purpose or Calling.

Each tier strengthens the next, creating a dynamic cycle of unfoldment. From the perspective of neuroscience, consciously traversing this model reinforces and expands neuronal connections, establishing new default pathways for recognizing possibility by moving from “impossible to I’m possible,” embracing change, and sustaining long-term growth. In this way, the MPGP serves not only as a philosophical framework but as a practical guide for becoming and doing better over a lifetime.

The MPGP offers a way of mapping the inner journey. It reminds us that growth is not linear but perpetual—one is ever a student, though perhaps a more conscious one.

For me, this model was not an abstract diagram. It was my life. From the early questions during the Atlanta chapter of my journey, to the disciplined seeking in Iowa, to the unfolding sense of higher purpose in Cambridge, the MPGP mirrored my path. And it continues to guide me still.

The Seven Layers of Manifestation

Running parallel to the MPGP was another framework—the Seven Layers of Manifestation. This model, developed after the dissertation as a result of an impulse during an afternoon meditation, but deeply connected to it, situates Pure Consciousness at the foundation, from which radiate Universal and Natural Laws, the Phenomenal World, Human Consciousness, the Human-Derived World, Constructs, and Outcomes (Non-Local Influence).

The Seven Layers remind me that all human systems—laws, economies, rituals, etc.—are outer circumferences. And they are, in the immortal words of Dr. Benjamin Elijah Mays, only rightly drawn when the center is set. Without Pure Consciousness as a conscious element of one’s plans, outcomes wobble, constructs distort, and societies fracture.

Looking back, I realize that while the MPGP was a result of the research itself, the Seven Layers were seeded in the defense as well. As a result of many hours of contemplation on both alongside juxtaposing both with aspects of my lived experiences, I have come to view these interlocking frameworks, as offspring of the same primordial insight: consciousness is primary.

Voices of Guidance

What made the defense unforgettable were not only the data and the models but the voices of those present:

• Dr. Larry Rowley praised the conceptual synthesis and urged me to find universal language that could speak across traditions.

• Dr. Cathy Gorini reminded me that I had grown into authority, and that now my task was simply to stand in it.

• Dr. Will Coleman evoked the presence of my grandfather, reminding me that I speak for him as much as for myself. He also commented “There's another Brother Baruti to be born past this. That's the one that we're waiting to hear from who's inclusive of this moment but way beyond. Way, way, way.“

• Dr. Layli Maparyan saw the model as a meaningful contribution to adult development, bridging psychology and spirituality.

• Dean Lawrence Edward Carter, Sr. of Morehouse College invited me—on the spot—to lecture at Morehouse, saying a prayer of 44 years had been answered.

Each voice confirmed something I had long felt: that this work is not mine alone. It belongs to a lineage, a community, a world in need. In short, this work is a response to the need of the time.

Not everyone, of course, met this milestone with joy. As I later reflected in my essay On the Other Side of the Threshold, moments of accomplishment can sometimes stir resistance or envy in others. Crossing such a threshold brings not only celebration but also challenge—a reminder that growth, by its very nature, unsettles as much as it uplifts.

Changes, Challenges, Chances

Two years on, I can see the arc of these past seasons.

• Changes: From student to scholar, from seeker to teacher of seekers, from private research to public sharing. The frameworks that were once hidden in a dissertation are now shaping books, articles, contemplations, and courses.

• Challenges: Balancing the financial and personal demands of family life while stewarding ideas that demand time, space, and clarity. Learning to speak across audiences—Masons, meditators, academics, everyday seekers—each requiring different language but the same heart.

• Chances accepted: Saying “yes” to teaching opportunities, to invitations to speak, to the call of Substack, launching a global initiative to share knowledge as well as a moment of silence with practitioners from various meditative and yogic traditions via What the World Needs Now: International Meditation Hour, to the building of apps and programs, to the risk of being misunderstood while insisting on the truth of consciousness.

Each has been a rung on the ladder, a step on the staircase, a degree in the initiatory journey of my unfoldment.

Unfinished Work

The dissertation defense was not an ending but a beginning. Since then:

• The International Meditation Hour has been conceived as a global experiment in centering.

• The On Transcendence Substack has become a platform for weaving reflection, research, discussion, and invitation.

• The Transcendental Brain App is being developed as a tool for daily integration.

• The frameworks—Seven Layers and MPGP—are continually being prepared for books, talks, and wider sharing.

In many ways, I feel more like a candidate than a master. The work remains unfinished, and perhaps will always be. But that is the meaning of perpetual growth: one remains ever a student, even as one teaches. For it has been said, “The teacher gains more than the student.” This I believe, unequivocally.

A More Perfect Union

Two years later, I return often to Mays’ reminder: The circumference of life cannot be rightly drawn until the center is set.

The defense was a circle drawn. But the center was not my intellect, or even my data. The center was Pure Consciousness, quietly present, radiating through trial, ritual, meditation, and community.

My task now is to continue drawing circles—through teaching, writing, speaking, organizing, mentoring—but always to return to that center. Only then can the circumference be rightly drawn.

Closing Reflection

Foster Bailey once wrote: “The riches of Masonry are gained by those who recognize Masonry as a way of life characterized by growth in knowledge and wisdom about essential life values.”

Two years on, I feel the truth of that statement even more deeply. The riches of my defense were not the title of “Doctor” or the bound copy of a dissertation available for curious and prepared minds. They were the recognition that Masonry, TM, and scholarship are not separate spheres but one continuous field of Consciousness—lived, studied, and shared.

The journey continues. The changes will keep coming. The challenges will not cease. The chances will ask to be taken. And I will continue to say yes, again and again, to the unfolding.

This is all I know. And yes. Even with the sham and drudgery of human constructs that seek to wring out any glimmer of hope of escaping from the proverbial cave, it remains uppermost in my mind that the MPGP and SLM are tools not merely for the time that gave birth to both, but for successive generations. At present, and while both came to and through this flawed yet willing to consciously evolve vessel known as Dr. Abiona Irungu Baruti KMT-Sisouvong, they belong to humanity. So, study them closely and allow both of them take you deeper within so you can go to your next level. The world needs you.

Now, get to work!

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Suggested Practices: Anniversary Reflection

Journal Prompts

1. Your Own Defense: What is one moment in your past two years that felt like a personal “defense”—a test, a threshold, or a proving ground? What did you learn about yourself?

2. Changes, Challenges, Chances: Which of these three has defined your recent season? What are you being invited to say “yes” to now?

3. Ever a Student: In what area of your life do you feel like a beginner again? How can you honour that perpetual growth?

Reflection Exercise

• Return to the Center: Set aside twenty minutes this week. Sit quietly, eyes closed, and remember a time you felt most aligned with your purpose. Let that memory draw you back to center. From there, ask: What circumference am I being asked to draw next?

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About the Author

Dr. Baruti KMT-Sisouvong is a consciousness scholar, executive coach, and Certified Teacher of Transcendental Meditation® based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His work—spanning the Model for Perpetual Growth and Progress and the Seven Layers of Manifestation framework—explores how Pure Consciousness, neuroscience, and social systems transformation intersect in the evolution of both the individual and society. Alongside his wife, Mina, he co-directs the Cambridge and Metropolitan Boston TM Program, where they have taught thousands the art and science of meditation.

Extending this mission globally, he is the founder of International Meditation Hour (IMH), a quarterly worldwide gathering dedicated to experiencing the unifying power of silence in a time of division, precarity, and technological upheaval. An author of several forthcoming works on the future of consciousness in an age shaped by technology, he writes and teaches from the conviction that the most important race is not between nations or machines, but between the conditioned mind and the awakening soul. They are the proud parents of four children. To learn more about him, visit: https://www.barutikmtsisouvong.com/.