~ The International Journal of

--"-', 1 ranspersonal Studies

Volume 21, 2002
Bamboo Hermitage 11 The Universe Grasper 118
The Editors S. I Shapiro
Dancing with the Trickster: 1 Endangered Asanas 125
Notes for a Transpersonal Autobiography Ralph Augsburger
Stanley Krippner
The History of Sanity in 135
The Essence of Transpersonal Psychology: 19 Contemplative Psychotherapy
Contemporary Views Edward M Podvoll
S. I Shapiro, Grace W Lee, 6- Philippe L. Gross
Altered States of Consciousness and
145
Unattached Mind 33 Psychotherapy: A Cross-Cultural
Shoshin Ichishima Perspective
The Last Time I Saw Fritz 39
Mdrio Simoes
Marc L. Joslyn Synchronicity, Mind, and Matter 153
Spring Essence: The Poetry of H6 Xuan Hu' 0' ng 53
Wlodzislaw Duch
John Balaban Embodied Light 169
Jean-Jacques Dicker: Photography First 59
Chris McDonough
Philippe L. Gross Transpersonal Psychology as a 175
Wu Wei in Chuang Tzu as Life-Systematic 71
Scientific Field
Harris Friedman
Kuang-ming Wu
Language as Aperture 79
LumiGnosis 188
Michael G. Mitchell
Duane Preble
Quiet Mind 81
Dinomor: Evoking Memories of 195
Dino's Dreams and Death
Atsumi Yamamoto
Tonu R. Soidla
The Re-Cognition of Being's 95
WooflWoofl 203
Infrastructure as Self-Completion
Philippe L. Gross
Herbert Guenther
Arrest, Interrogation, Prison Life 109
About Our Contributors 211
VV Nalimov
Bamboo Hermitage
T.
HIS VOLUME, 0. ur last,. c. oncludes. five years of edit.ing The International Journal of
Transpersonal Studies. We have dedicated our tenure as editors to expanding the
international breadth of the Journal and fashioning it into an evocative mixture of
academic, literary, and artistic work. Now, the success of the Journal demands greater
resources. Beginning in the year 2003, with Volume 22, IJTS will be sponsored by the
Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center (San Francisco, California), and coedited
by Harris Friedman and Douglas A. MacDonald. We extend deep appreciation and aloha to
our Associate Editor Tonu R. Soidla, the Editorial Board and staff; and authors for their
invaluable contributions.
Writing is joy-
so saints and scholars all pursue it.
A writer makes new life in
the void,
knocks on silence to make a sound,
binds space and time on a sheet ofsilk
and pours out a river from an inch-sized heart.
-LuChP
Notes
Philippe L. Gross
S. I. Shapiro
Editors
1. In T. Barnstone & E. Ping, Eds., 1966, The art of writing: Teachings of the Chinese masters. Boston: Shambhala, p. 10.
Dancing with the Trickster
Notes for a Transpersonal Autobiography
Stanley Krippner
Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center
San Francisco, California, USA
\ /
\\
This autobiographical essay focuses on "anomalous," and "exceptional"
experiences, those elements often ignored when individuals write the stories of their lives.
Nevertheless, these experiences have life-transformative potentials that may be more salient
than the activities usually serving as the basis for autobiographical accounts.
If you want to face the Great One,
you have to learn to dance in both directions.
-Sufi saying
U
NUSUAL EXPERIENCES are usually omitted
from autobiographies, and yet they are
often among the most important of one's
life (White, 1999). Many people are reticent about
revealing these experiences for fear that they will
be called deluded, sick, debased, or even
fraudulent. Nevertheless, as the result of an
invitation from the editors of this journal, I am
willing to take the risk, hoping to encourage
others to share their own transpersonal and
anomalous experiences. I believe that when
people share these experiences, they are
participating in a process bf cognitive and
emotional liberation; those who write these
autobiographies provide validation for others who
have traversed similar times and spaces. Because
I might expand upbn this essay in the future, I
am subtitling it "Notes for a Transpersonal
Autobiography." At their worst, autobiographies
that deal with these issues could lapse into
solipsism and narcissism. But at their best, these
autobiographies could add to the data necessary
for describing the human being capable of coping
with contemporary crises, integrating shattered
cultures, and helping communities provide
support services. Toward this end, my modest
contribution describes life episodes that I cbnsider
"transpersonal" and/or "anomalous" and/or
"exceptional human experiences."
When I was fourteen years of age, I desperately
wanted an encyclopedia. My aunt was a
salesperson for The World Book Encyclopedia,
and could have sold a set to me at a reduced rate.
However, my parents, who ran an orchard in
southern Wisconsin, explained that we simply
could not afford this luxury because the weather
conditions over the past year had not been
favorable for a bumper crop of apples, our chief
source of income. I went to my room and began
to cry, then realized that I had an uncle who was
fairly well-to-do. I stopped crying and speculated
about how I would make my appeal to Uncle Max.
Suddenly, I bolted upright in my bed. My psyche
swelled and my mind expanded in every direction.
I suddenly knew what I was not supposed to
know: Uncle Max could not be depended upon
because he was dead. At that moment, the
telephone rang. My mother answered the phone
and, between sobs, told us that my cousin had
just called. Uncle Max had been taken ill, was
rushed to the hospital, and died shortly after his
arrival. This was my first anomalous experience.
As a university student, as I read books and
magazines, I learned that a small group of
researchers referred to as "parapsychologists"
had been studying these types of experiences
The Internationaljournal of Transpersonal Studies, 2002, VoL 21, 1-18 1
2002 by Panigada Press
since the late 1800s. I also learned that
anomalous information of this type often
appeared in altered states of consciousness-
emotional states such as my own when I was a
child-but also in dreams, while drugged, or
following hypnotic induction or some other
external manipulation. Such information may
also emerge during one's everyday activities,
often as a hunch or a "gut feeling," or during shifts
of attention, when one notices the beauty of a
sunrise or is captivated by the antics of a
household pet.
Some years after my presumptive premonition,
I attended a summer youth camp in a beautiful
Wisconsin state park. I had the opportunity to
climb a forest ranger's tower, and I was eager to
give it a try. I had suffered from severe acrophobia
all my life and thought the climb might provide a
quick cure. I simply didn't look down, and once
at the top, I found it hard to believe that I hadn't
fainted or panicked along the way. I needed some
solitude after this intense experience; walking
through the woods, I almost stumbled over a
peaceful fawn resting on the grass. Our eyes
locked, and for just an instant I felt that we were
one organism. There was no fear, no
apprehension, and no cause for alarm. We were
simply two parts of the same biome, two aspects
of the natural environment whose paths had
crossed. Decades later, I realized that this had
been my first trans personal experience.
Anomalous and Transpersonal
Experiences
M
ANY SCHOLARS have attempted to define the
term "transpersonal," but I am drawn
to Charles Laughlin's (1994) definition:
"Transpersonal experiences are those experiences
that bring the cognized selfinto question" (p. 7).
I like this statement because it implies that
whether or not an experience is "transpersonal"
depends on the state of the experient's cognitive
maturity and/or self-knowledge; what may be a
transpersonal experience in one culture might not
be considered so in another. Lucid dreaming, for
example, may be a transpersonal experience for
an experient from the United States, but not for
an Australian aborigine who has grown up to
understand that Dream Time is the ultimate
reality (p. 7).
My own definition of "transpersonal studies"
echoes and extends Laughlin's construct. For me,
the term refers to disciplined inquiry into human
experiences in which an individual's sense of
identity extends beyond its ordinary limits to
encompass wider, broader, or deeper aspects of
life (Krippner, 1998, p. ix). Simply put, one's sense
of identity is extended beyond its ordinary limits,
giving one the impression that "reality" has been
encountered more completely. "Transpersonal
psychology" is one of several branches of
trans personal study, and (unlike some of them)
this inquiry is informed by the disciplined inquiry
of scientific theory and method. To its adherents,
trans personal psychology is a paradigm that
attempts to encompass and integrate the entire
range of human activity, from the most sublime
to the most pathological (Edwards, 2000, p. 239).
In this regard, I have been influenced by
William James' call for "radical empiricism" in
psychology. James (1912/1976) wrote, "To be
radical, an empiricism must neither admit into
its constructions any element that is not directly
experienced, nor exclude from them any element
that is directly experienced" (p. 22). For me,
James' radical empiricism offers a useful
framework for transpersonal psychology and the
study of anomalous phenomena, a framework
that is requisite if researchers intend to become
serious players in the game of science. On the
other hand, science is not the only game in town.
There are other epistemologies, "ways of
knowing" relying on the body, on feelings, on
intuition, and on transpersonal and anomalous
experiences, that are capable of taking us to
realms that mainstream science has yet to
acknowledge, much less to appreciate.
Anomalous experiences, from my perspective,
are uncommon and/or inexplicable episodes in
one's life (Cardena, Lynn, & Krippner, 2000, p.
4). According to R. A. White and S. V. Brown (in
press), "the anomalous experience, whether it be
perceptual, cognitive, or behavioral, originates
outside the mainstream of the experiencer's [or
experient's] ordinary conscious awareness or self-
concept." White (1997) has identified nine general
classes of so-called "anomalous," "transpersonal,"
and "exceptional human experiences." They are
called Death Related, Desolation/Nadir,
Dissociative, Encounter, Exceptional Human
Performance/Feats, Healing, Mystical, Peak, and
2 The Internationaljournal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
Psychical Experiences. As students at the
University of Wisconsin in the 1950s, while
hearing a recital by the great Chilean pianist,
Claudio Arrau, a friend of mine and I had what I
would now call "anomalies of personal experience
of the peak experience type." I had never been
"caught up" in music so intensely; my friend
imagined that she was running toward the stage
and prostrating herself at Arrau's feet! Other
people in the audience might not have been so
moved, but for the two of us the musical
performance was uncommon and inexplicable in
terms of our frames of reference at that time. From
my perspective, many transpersonal experiences
can be termed "anomalous" because they bring the
cognized self into question. However, most
anomalous experiences are not transpersonal; they
may bring the experient's worldview into question
(e.g., when someone who doubts the evidence for
precognition has a dream that comes true) but
leave the sense of identity fairly intact.
Exceptional Human Experiences
B
OTH ANOMALOUS and transpersonal experiences
are exceptional because they "stand out
from," or "rise above," ordinary experiences.
When an exceptional experience, which may be
anomalous, transpersonal, neither, or both,
changes the experient's worldview and that
person's subsequent attitudes, behavior, or
actions, it can be described as what White and
Brown (in press) would refer to as an "exceptional
human experience" (EHE), an umbrella term to
cover those exceptional experiences from which
experients have been able to potentiate
themselves, sometimes without consciously
realizing it, and sometimes after long work and
hard effort-not always devoid of risks. Usually
this realization results in a transformed identity,
lifeview, lifeway, and/or worldview of the
experient, at which point the exceptional
experience becomes an EHE. The changes are in
the direction of realizing and actualizing the
experient's full human potential. Our anomalous
personal experiences during the Arrau concert
were the first-of-their-kind for us; they could be
considered exceptional experiences, but would not
qualify as EHEs because they did not have life-
transforming effects. For an exceptional
experience to become an EHE it would have to be
special, meaningful, out-of-the-ordinary, genuine,
and transformative, leaving the experient "more
fully human" (White, 1997, p. 96).
White (1997) is especially interested in those
anomalous experiences that become transpersonal
once their meaning is integrated in ways that
result in a transpersonal reorientation. Suzanne
V. Brown (2000) has formulated White's (and her
own) concepts into a research model of the EHE
process consisting of five stages. White considers
her work to be an aspect of transpersonal
studies, an appropriate designation because her
mentor, Gardner Murphy (1949), was one of the
first psychologists to use the term
"transpersonal." Even beyond Murphy, White's
favorite psychologist was William James, in effect
a pioneer of trans personal psychology, especially
in regard to his concept of what he called the
human self's "more," James' term for the heights
and depths that transcend one's ordinary identity.
For White, beyond even James there was Carl
Jung, who also used the term "transpersonal,"
and utilized a capital "S" for the "self beyond
ego." Jung's description of "individuation"
resembles what White refers to as the EHE
process.
Many psychological theorists have emphasized
the importance of meaning and purpose as
fundamental aspects of human functioning. Their
number includes such friends of mine as Abraham
Maslow (who wrote about "peak experiences" and
"self-actualization," 1968), Carl Rogers (who
discussed the "fully functioning person," 1961),
Viktor Frankl (who emphasized the "will to
meaning," 1992), and Charlotte Buhler and Fred
Massarik (who described the "basic life
tendencies," 1968).
Music to Eat Mushrooms By
I
N 1954, I read an article in Life magazine by
Gordon Wasson and was fascinated by his
accounts of the Mazatec shaman Maria Sabina.
Following the dictates of a dream, which she felt
presaged Wasson's arrival, dona Maria allowed
him to participate in an evening ritual featuring
the region's sacred, mind-altering mushrooms. At
that time, I had no idea that in the years to come,
I would be invited to Harvard in 1971 for the
presentation of Wasson's book Soma (1971), or
that, in 1980, I would participate in an expedition
Dancing with the Trickster 3
to Oaxaca, Mexico, where I would meet dona
Maria, perhaps conducting the last interview of
her challenging but incredible life. The active
ingredient of the sacred mushrooms, which she
called los hongitos ("the little ones"), and one
variety of which mycologists call Psilocybe
mexicana, was synthesized into a drug named
"psilocybin." A supply fell into the hands of the
Harvard psychologist Timothy Leary in the late
1950s, ostensibly as a psychotherapeutic agent
for use in research.
In August, 1961, I attended a symposium at
the American Psychological Association featuring
Frank Barron, William Burroughs, Gerald Heard,
and Timothy Leary. After hearing them discuss
psilocybin and other mind-altering drugs, I
recalled Wasson's adventure and wrote Leary a
letter volunteering to participate in his
experiments. In April, 1962, I arrived at Harvard
University to participate in a psilocybin session.
Leary invited me to a party in honor of the
philosopher Alan Watts, a visiting scholar at
Harvard at that time. I ate something at the party
that caused me to spend the night vomiting and
retching. I was so weak the following morning that
I had to lean on my friend Steve on my way to
Leary's office. I arrived early, collapsed into a chair,
and comported myself as best I could when Leary's
assistants interviewed me. As soon as they left, I
ran to the bathroom, but I w&s determined to follow
through with the evening's session.
Just as soon as the psilocybin started to take
effect, my malaise disappeared. Leary turned
Steve and me over to his assistants and left for a
crucial meeting with state :medical officials. Half
an hour later, I closed my eyes, seeing a
kaleidoscopic vision of colorful shapes and swirls,
including a humongous mushroom. A spiral of
numbers, letters, and words blew away in a
cyclone, stripping me of the verbal and numerical
symbols by which I had constructed my world. I
ate an apple, smelled spices in the kitchen, felt
the fabric of the carpet, and touched the breasts
of my indulgent guide Sarah. The recordings of
Beethoven and Mussorgsky had never sounded
better, and I seemed to be surrounded by chords
and tones. The clock on the mantel seemed to be
a work from a Cellini studio. I visualized delicate
Persian miniatures and arabesques. I was in the
court of Kublai Khan; inside a Buckminster
Fuller geodesic dome; at Versailles with Benjamin
Franklin; and danced flamenco with gypsies in
Spain, one of whom threw roses into the air which
exploded like firecrackers. I was with Thomas
Jefferson at Monticello; I watched Edgar Allen
Poe write poetry in Baltimore. Suddenly, I was
at the White House gazing at a bust of Abraham
Lincoln; someone whispered, "The President has
been shot," and Lincoln's visage was replaced by
that of John Kennedy. I did not realize that this
tragic vision would be actualized less than two
years later.
My eyes were filled with tears, and I
visualized a turbulent sea; Steve, Sarah, and our
other guide were with me on a small raft, trying
to remain afloat. We came upon a gigantic, dark-
skinned figure, standing bare-chested and waist-
deep in the churning waters. His countenance
was graced with a sad smile. He exuded love,
compassion, and concern, but could not offer us
security. We sensed that this was the face of God,
t h ~ body of our Creator, and for an instant, we
were &11 one. I received the impression that if
we, as humans, expressed love, compassion, and
concern in our daily lives, we could partake of
divinity. And as abruptly as the experience
began, it was over.
For a few moments, this experience was
transpersonal. However, most of the experience
falls into the category that Robert Masters and
Jean Houston (1968) refer to as "religious." In
the religious experience, one has the conviction
that one has encountered God, the Goddess,
Fundamental Reality, or the Ground of Being.
The transpersonal experience is referred to by
Masters and Houston as that of "mystical union"
(p. 100). Strictly speaking, those religious
experiences during which one's identity remains
intact are not transpersonal. Those writers who
construct "hierarchies" place mystical and
transpersonal experiences in a higher category
than those that are simply "religious." Even
though there are data linking religious and
spiritual experiences with health and longevity
(Koenig, McCullough, & Larson, 2001, p. 440), I
know of no existing research supporting the
efficacy of one type of experience over the other
in promoting such benefits.
Was my psilocybin experience anomalous in
the same way as my awareness of Uncle Max's
death? Despite my insight concerning the
limitations of words, I wrote an account of my
4 The International Journal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol 21
experience and distributed it to several friends.
When Kennedy was assassinated, some of them
suggested that I was a seer. However, I had
known beforehand of a strange historical pattern,
the fact that presidents elected at twenty-year
intervals die in office, and this may have impacted
(or even produced) my distressing psilocybin
image (Krippner, 1967). Anomalous or not, my
be-mushroollled evening was an EHE because I
never forgot the insight I had gained. From that
time on, I have never taken words as seriously or
listened to music in quite the same way again.
And ever since, I have savored the concept of a
God who is compassionate, but not necessarily
and omniscient.
The Role of Relationships
I
N HIS provocative book, The Beaten Path,
Ptolemy Tompkins (2001) laments that none
ofthe adults, both in and out of his family, whom
he encountered in his "search for truth" were fully
instructive. Fortunately, his own inner resources
proved to be more helpful than an external guru.
Tompkins observes that in former times, no young
member of a tribal society would have to look very
far for answers to the question: "What is the
meaning of life?" The culture's mythological
system would contain the answers, and would be
able to explain every aspect of the youth's
existence in its own terms. But David Feinstein
and I, in our books and articles on "personal
mythology," pointed out that the world's great
cultural mythologies are now so badly damaged
and challenged that individuals need to create
their own worldviews and paradigms for living
(Feinstein & Krippner, 1997).
The 11th of September 2001 attack on the
United States jolted people whose personal
mythology held that "Life is predictable, fair, and
understandable." This worldview is no longer
viable, if it ever was. At times like these, a re-
reading of the Book of Job is instructive. When
Job, the very model of piety, loses his health, his
wealth, and his children, he asks God, "Why me?"
God anE!wers Job "out of the whirlwind," telling
Job that he "darkens counsel by words without
knowledge," and asking him, "Where were YOll
when I laid the foundations ofthe earth? Tell me
if you have understanding!' Finally Job admits,
"I have uttered what I did not understand!' I
review this awe-inspiring text whenever I am
tempted to whine that "life is unfair" or complain
that life should be predictable and
comprehensible.
I seem to have had better luck than Tompkins,
especially in regard to family members and
spiritual teachers. Aside from giving eternal
thanks to my supportive parents and my sister
(and her famHy), I will avoid copying the Academy
Award winner who rattles off appreciation after
appreciation until silenced by the orchestra.
Nonetheless, a sampling of my cherished
relationships Iilust include Swami Sivananda
Radha and Tara Singh.
Initiated in Rishikesh, India, in 1956, Radha
was the first Western woman to become a swami.
Starting with no financial base or institutional
support, she founded a string of "Radha Houses"
in Canada, Mexico, the United States, and
Western Europe. She considered transpersonal
experiences, although extremely rare, to be
expressions of a "love affair with the Divine."
As a young woman, Radha (then known as
Sylvia Hellman) made a mark for herself as a
dancer in Germany, but the death of her husband
sent her on a spiritual quest to India, where she
studied with a number of spiritual masters. Her
knowledge was so vast that her many admirers
wanted to disseminate her books (e.g., Radha,
1994). One of them speculated that if Radha
had a doctorate, this would add luster to her name
and win her a new audience. She asked me to
serve on her doctoral committee at Union
Institute and I gladly agreed, even though I
suspected that the addition of a few letters after
her name would not propel her to the ranks of
authors. Nevertheless, the date for
the initial committee meeting WaS agreed upon,
and I waited in my San Francisco office for her
chauffeur to pick me up. lIe had become terribly
confused, thinking that someone else wQuld bring
me to the meeting. Without my particjpation, the
meeting was cancelled, and along with it the
plans for Radha's doctorate. I felt dreadful,
blaming myself fo], not checking with her grou.p
during the week reganiing arrangements for the
meeting. Radha was very gracious, and absQlved
me ofresponsibility.,...,-a lesson that I hope I have
been able to emulate whenever I am temPted to
"blame" someone for a botched perfor:qlance.
Dancing with the Trickster 5
! I
But I needed to learn the lesson once more.
During the winter of 1992, I received a telephone
call from Radha, seriously ill with arthritis, and
living in Washington. She invited me to see her,
and I made arrangements to do so after a Seattle
conference that was to be held in January. I
should have made a special trip, because Radha
died shortly after our conversation. Her comment
that she and I thought "very much alike" was a
marvelous compliment. Once again, no blame was
placed on me for not making this final
assignation. In the meantime, I treasure the
White Tara painting she gave me, and turn to it
when I need access to my deepest wisdom.
Another remarkable relationship began when
I met Tara Singh at Virginia Beach, home of the
Association for Research and Enlightenment,
where Edgar Cayce's work is carried on. Singh
was born in India and came to the United States
following the Second World War. I always enjoyed
his stories about the time spent with Jawajaral
Nehru, J. Krishnamurti, and Eleanor Roosevelt,
whom I had hosted in 1953 as a student at the
University of Wisconsin. An inspired teacher of
the lessons gleaned from A Course in Miracles,
"Taraji" (as he enjoyed being called) frequently
cited the advice of our mutual friend, Helen
Schucman. Helen, a psychologist, became the
"scribe" for these inspirational volumes and often
counseled, "The course is to be lived, not to be
learned" (Singh, 1986).
I attended some of Taraji's retreats, and
appreciated his attempts to bring participants
"into the silence." Contemporary Western
civilization, with its mania for progress and self-
improvement, allows little time for moments of
quietness and stillness, where people can reflect,
contemplate, or simply experience who they
actually are. For Taraji, the most important gift
in one's life is silence, but "we must come to
silence without desire and wanting" (p. 96). I
could see why these retreats were well attended,
leaving many participants eager to return the
following year.
I attended one of these retreats at Asilomar,
on the California Pacific coast. During the final
day, there was a question and answer session.
Much to my surprise, Taraji invited me to sit on
the dais with him and turned the bulk of the
inquiries over to me. It was out of character for
me to give people spiritual advice, but I valued
Taraji's confidence. For over an hour I responded,
giving examples from my own life whenever I
could. For example, I related how one of the
course's 365 lessons asked its students to thank
those people who had persecuted or maligned
them. in my case, the energy spent generating
antipathy and anger could find better directions,
once I substituted forgiveness for resentment, and
moved on with my life.
The final question was actually a statement
from a "born again" Christian who made an
arousing declaration of what it meant to have
Jesus in his life. The only response that came to
my lips was, "Well then, there you have it!" And
with that, Taraji closed the session and we
adjourned for lunch.
My most memorable interactions with Swami
Radha and Tara Singh were neither anomalous
nor transpersonal. Indeed, these were "anomalies
of personal experience" that were exceptional to
me personally, although they might not have been
to others. Nonetheless, as White (1997) points
out, these experiences have a remarkable and
unforgettable effect on the individual and carry
the EHE process forward over the course of a
lifetime, deepening, heightening, and enlivening
the experient. These interpersonal activities, and
dozens like them, were important markers on my
spiritual path.
Sometimes these memorable encounters were
very brief. Following one of my workshops on the
topic of "personal mythology" at Palas Athena,
in Sao Paulo, Brazil, my hosts scheduled an
afternoon of dialogue with Thrangu Rinpoche, a
visiting Tibetan lama, and his entourage. When
it came my turn to ask questions, I asked the
lama, ''Why is it that so many articulate spiritual
leade:r;s fall prey to financial or sexual excess, or
become alcoholics or drug addicts?" The lama
replied, "It is easier to preach the dharma than
to live. the dharma; a humble monk in a remote
monastery may live a life that is far more spiritual
than a celebrated guru who appears on television
and has written many books." This was a lesson
that has remained close to my heart.
Sweating in Nevada
T
HERE IS a controversy among anthropologists
about whether shamanic traditions that favor
mind-altering plants are "inferior" or "superior"
6 The International Journal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, VOL 21
to those that do not use drugs. I have never found
this distinction useful or accurate. My criterion
is based on the biblical injunction, "By their fruits,
you will know them." The use of mind-altering
plants stretches back over the millennia, and thus
cannot be considered a "degenerate" form of
shamanism from a historical perspective.
I had the opportunity to participate in a
powerful mind-altering ritual in 1974 during my
first visit to the home of Rolling Thunder, an
intertribal medicine man who lived in Carlin,
Nevada. When I boarded the connecting flight
that was to take me to Nevada, I was surprised
to see the actress Corinne Calvet on board. She
knew of my plans and had decided to join me,
hoping that Rolling Thunder would agree to work
on an annoying intestinal ailment of hers that
had baffled half a dozen Hollywood doctors. Once
we arrived, I introduced Corinne to Rolling
Thunder and his wife, Spotted Fawn, who had
seen one of Corinne's films on television the night
before. Rolling Thunder considered this
coincidence a "sign" that he was to work on
Corinne's affliction, and a healing session was
scheduled for the following night.
Deciding that he would need some help in this
endeavor, Rolling Thunder invited me, my friends
(who had driven to Carlin a few days earlier),
and his "spiritual warriors" to enter his wickiup
or sweat lodge. The wickiup had been constructed
of saplings bent and tied together. Animal hides
were draped over them, providing no vent
through which air could escape. A shallow pit lay
in the center of the earth, and was filled with
red-hot rocks. As Rolling Thunder sang, chanted,
and prayed, he slowly poured a dipper of water
over the rocks. Waves of intense heat enveloped
our naked bodies.
We took turns adding water and the heat
increased until I thought that my skin was on
fire. With every breath, I felt as if my lungs were
being scorched. I felt that I was going to pass out,
and had to take care that I did not fall on the
sizzling rocks. Finally, I realized that I could not
fight the heat-my best recourse was to receive
the heat and ride with it. I tried to become one
with the hot air and allowed every breath I took
to enhance this concord. Before long, this feeling
seemed to extend to our group, the rocks, and to
the universe itself. As the sweat poured from my
body, I felt purged of anxiety, misery, and all the
petty concerns that would limit my participation
in the forthcoming healing session.
Our group emerged from the wickiup, washed
ourselves with a nearby hose, put our clothes back
on, and accompanied Rolling Thunder to a
campfire where Corinne was sitting expectantly
in a comfortable chair. To the sound of drums, we
danced around the fire several times while Rolling
Thunder conducted his healing ritual, using an
eagle claw and feathers in the process. Mter the
ceremony, Corinne slept late into the next day.
Once she awakened, she never complained of gall
bladder discomfort again.
Rolling Thunder told me that the eagle was
his totem and that he occasionally transformed
himself into one to fly over the nearby landscape,
looking for medicinal plants. Following a series
of dreams pertinent to the topic, I realized that I
had at least two totems, or "power animals." One
was the deer; I had been introduced to its power
during my summer camp experience in
Wisconsin. Another was the South American
puma. As a child, I enjoyed playing "Animal
Bingo" with my sister and our neighborhood
friends. Instead of numbers, the Bingo cards were
decorated with animal pictures, as was the wheel
central to the game. We took turns spinning the
wheel, and when it stopped we covered the
animal's picture if it appeared on our card. The
picture of the puma fascinated me, as it seemed
to be jumping out from the wheel and the card.
Invariably, it seemed to bring me luck when it
appeared on my card.
In the years to come, I encountered other deer
and puma in magazines, in films, in zoos, and
other places. Their fortuitous appearance seemed
to coincide with auspicious events in my life.
Using mental imagery techniques, I would draw
upon the agility and grace of Deer, or the strength
and the wildness of Puma, when it was necessary.
The memory of my wickiup experience has been
a constant reminder of this Native American
wisdom. When people hear that I have been given
aN ative American name (''Wicasa Waste," Lakota
Sioux for "Good Man"), they sometimes ask me if
I have a power animal; I am always honored to
introduce them to Puma and Deer.
Dancing with the Trickster 7
Jesus in Recife
H
. AVING ATTENDED Lutheran and Presbyterian
Sunday School services as a child, I grew
up imbued with Biblical accounts of Jesus' miracles
as well as the knowledge of his parables. The
Protestant Bible does not includ!;l the books from
theApocrypha, so I had to wait many years before
I discovered one of my favorite sayings attributed
to Jesus. The Acts of John contains the passage,
"And if you would understand what I am, know
this: all that I have said I have uttered playfully,
and I was no means ashamed thereby. I danced."
Perhaps Jesus waf:) (and still is) a trickster!
During my years in New York City, I brought
my tourist friends to the Museum of
Contemporary Art in midtown Manhattan to see
several spectacular paintings by Salvador Dali,
including "The Last Supper." In it, a diaphanous,
blue-eyed Jesus is preparing the sacrament for
his disciples, while dream-like figures float in and
out of the background. I bought several small
reproductions of this painting, and used them as
foci for meditation. One afternoon, after spending
nearly an hour in the stillness, I lost my sense of
identity and felt a merging with Jesus. These
transpersonal moments did not last for long, but
I desired to repeat them. It was curious that I
could not enter into this union by staring directly
at the image of Christ. I needed to put myself
into "Christ Consciousness," feeling compassion
for the suffering, forgiving my antagonists,
vowing to work for peace and justice.
Even then, I needed to take one additional
step: I found that I had to look obliquely rather
than directly at Jesus' image. My interpretation
of this phenomenon was that the unitive
experience was not as important as the "lived
Christ," the daily dance in which one learns to
follow the Great Commandment: ''You shall love
your neighbor as yourself," or "Do unto others as
you would have others do unto you." Those who
follow this commandment will find themselves,
perhaps inadvertently, partaking in a
transpersonal experience because, in my opinion,
love can be defined as the extension of cognitive,
emotional, andlor physical activity beyond oneself
to facilitate the well-being of another person,
persons, or entity.
On four occasions I have the Centro
Espiritu in Recife, Brazil, a guest of Manoel
Rabelo Periera, better known as Pai ("Father")
Ely. A former banker who answered his "call," Pai
Ely is now a priest in both the Candomble and
Umbanda African-Brazilian traditions. The
painting on the Centro's wall portrays Oxala, the
Candomble orixa (or god) of purity, as Jesus, and
it never fails to inspire me. The syncretic Oxalal
Jesus in a temple attended by poor people of color
affirms my conviction that the basic Christian
mission is to identify with the vulnerable, the
alienated, and the marginalized, standing beside
them in challenging situations, just as Jesus is
said to have done two millennia ago.
Each orixa favors a particular day ofthe week,
and for Oxala that day is Friday. Each orixa is
identified with a particular color, and Oxala
prefers white. Several Brazilian spiritual leaders
insist that I am a "child" of Oxala, and so on
Fridays I make a point oflighting a white candle,
and using its flame for my morning meditation.
Of all the meditation techniques I have tried,
I find focusing on a flame, while attending to my
breathing, to be the most satisfying. The Greek
philosopher, Heraclitus, used "fire" as a metaphor
for "flux," a reminder that life is constant change,
that we never step into the same river twice, and
that all "truth" is subject to shifting meanings.
Heraclitus anticipated the literary technique of
deconstruction-his "fire" is the active principle
of deconstruction, which, finally and brilliantly,
de constructs itself (Haxton, 2001, p. xiv).
These are the musings that flicker in and out
of my awareness during meditation. Rather than
focusing on them, I simply try to release each
thought and let it pass. But when I douse my
candle and bring the meditation to a temporary
closure, I realize that these are the messages that
Jesus, Oxala, and Heraclitus constantly inspire
me to incarnate.
Ayahuasca in the Rain Forest
O
NE OF t?e many anomalies I
tered III my study of shamamsm is the
complex brew known as ayahuasca, yage, and by
many other names, depending on the part of the
Amazon in which it is used (Polari, 1984;
Shannon, 2001). Some tribes attribute humanity's
knowledge of the beverage to contact with
subaquatic beings, others to the intervention of
giant serpents, and others to messages from the
8 The InternationalJournal ofTranspersonal Studies, 2002, VoL 21
plants themselves. Jeremy Narby (1998)
comments:
Here are people without electron microscopes
who choose, among 80,000 Amazonian plant
species, the leaves of a bush containing ... a
brain hormone, which they combine with a
vine containing substances that activate an
enzyme of the digestive tract, which would
otherwise block the effect. And they do this to
modify their consciousness. It is as if they
knew about the molecular properties of plants
and the art of combining them. (p. 11)
This beverage has become the sacrament of three
syncretic Brazilian religious groups, the best
known of which is Santo Daime (i.e., "Give Me
Health").
In 1996 I participated in an international
conference on trans personal psychology in
Manaus, Brazil. Although not an official part of
the conference, an ayahuasca session was
scheduled at a local Santo Daime church. Having
partaken of ayahuasca several times earlier, I was
motivated to attend the event because a friend of
mine was eager to have his initial experience with
this "vine of the souls."
Shortly after I drank the daime, I had a series
of intense images. In my imagery, I had wandered
away from the church setting, walking deeply into
the rain forest. An exuberant child ran up to me,
claiming that he had just seen some goddesses;
no, not just one, but three ofthem. I was eager to
check out his story, so I continued my trek, even
though the trail had disappeared. I was not
disappointed: I saw three silver tents in a
clearing, and walked up to the first one.
Much to my surprise, Aphrodite opened the
tent flap and invited me in. Her entire form gave
off light, her light blue gown was incandescent,
and her features and form were incredibly
dazzling. Aphrodite looked directly into my eyes.
I approached her, and our embrace brought
ecstasy to my loins and tears to my eyes. I stroked
her inner legs, working my way up her thighs,
making firm circles with my fingertips. I recall
removing ajewel in her navel, so that I could kiss
her tight belly. Before the Greeks adopted her,
Aphrodite was a Phoenician fertility goddess, but
it seems as if I had caught her between
pregnancies. I later recalled that she had been
born from the sperm of Poseidon, or from the
severed genitals of Uranus, depending on which
tale one finds more appealing. On this night, it
little mattered; to cite one account, "from her
gleaming fair hair to her silvery feet, everything
about her was pure charm and harmony"
(Guirand, 1959, p. 131).
Suddenly, I was standing in front of a different
pavilion. This time it was the Norse goddess Freyja
who beckoned me in. Half my ancestry is
Norwegian, so I felt at home. Freyja was dressed
in tawny tan furs and I remarked that they must
be too hot for the jungle setting. With a giggle, she
doffed them, standing before me in her naked
elegance. I drew her to me, pressing my hands
against her back, massaging her spine from her
neck to her coccyx. She drew me to her couch, and
again I felt a joining of psyche and flesh. I admired
her gleaming gold necklace, and later was
surprised to read that she had slept with four
dwarves to obtain it. For this act, Loki, the Norse
trickster god, called her a whore, but I was more
forgiving, knowing that this was simply the nature
of a love goddess whose ''beauty is unmatched"
(Bjarnadottir & Kremer, 2000, p. 157).
Soon after, I was in a third tent, that ofErzulie
the voudou (or "voodoo") goddess of sexuality,
fertility, and love. Her exquisite blackness
enveloped me as I fondled her breasts, opening
her heart by moving my hands up and down her
breastbone, then gently stroking her vulva.
Dressed magnificently in the violet and fuschia
colors of the tropics, Erzulie's hair was bedecked
with the exotic flowers I had seen on her island
of Haiti when I was there in 1980. From that visit,
I knew that Erzulie gives herself completely to
each relationship, but soon is discarded, becoming
"the tragic mistress" of voudou (Deren, 1970). I
decided that she would not be mistreated this
time; she would always be a treas-ured part of
me, and that I would forever recall our union with
fondness. When I opened my eyes, I found many
of the neophytes around me in great discomfort,
running to a nearby tree to vomit, returning to
their bench, but soon runnjng back to puke again.
For me, my bodily sensations were sensuous and
delicious, . the aftermath of my transpersonal
mergers.
Aphrodite. Freyja. Erzulie. Each goddess had
provided me with insight and knowledge. I knew
that they were, at some level, a part of myself,
but for them to take on independent fonns filled
me with l:l.stonishIllent. They were also Divine
Dancing with the Trickster 9
Mistresses, Kundalini Shaktis, Jungian anima
archetypes, even manifestations of the Holy
Spirit. All ofthem had invited me into their tents.
Lawrence Edwards (2000) points out that this is
a common way for union with the Divine to
express itself-in several traditions sexual
merging represents the highest form of worship.
Upon reflection, I recalled that these love
goddesses also represent fertility and assist during
childbirth, when a baby walks through the door of
a new existence. With a start, I realized that these
latter two functions represented not only my
Norwegian but also my German and Northern
Irish heritage; "Krippner" translates into "crib-
maker," while my Irish forbears were named
"Porter," which translates into "doorkeepers."
Jenny Wade (2000) has conducted a brilliant
series of phenomenological inquiries into the
relationship of sex and spirituality. Her
conclusion is that sexual experiences can lead to
"genuine transcendence and integrated,
embodied spirituality" (p. 103). In addition to the
Taoist, Tantric, and Judaic traditions that are
deliberately designed for this purpose, as many
as one out of twenty people seem to have
spontaneous involuntary, nonordinary experiences
while making love, regardless of their own beliefs
and the mores of their societies. Atheists are
included in this company, as well (p. 104). My
own experiences support Wade's reports (besides
my report ofthe goddesses, you'll simply have to
take my word for it). I agree with her conclusion
that "sex can take people to the same realms as
trance, meditation, [and] drugs" (p. 120). Such
experiences are possible despite the tendency of
many religious groups to dismiss sex-at best-
as a "lower" form of spiritual practice, and-at
worst-as a hazard to spiritual transcendence.
Treading Sacred Sites
I
N 1997, one of my Muslim students at Saybrook
Graduate School invited me to visit him in
Israel. I was able to see the tomb of Moses
Maimonides, after whom the medical center in
Brooklyn was named, where I had worked for a
decade (Ullman & Krippner, with Vaughan,
1989). We also visited the sites in Jerusalem
associated with Jesus' burial and resurrection. I
visited the Holy Sepulchre revered by the Eastern
Orthodox, Coptic, and Roman Catholic churches
and saw the Garden Tomb venerated by the
Protestants. I trod upon sacred soil near other
sites as well: the Dome of the Rock, the Via
Dolorosa, and the Wailing Wall. On other trips, I
left my footprints on Machu Picchu, Delphi,
Glastonbury, Stonehenge, Borobudur, Tiahuaneco,
the banks ofthe Ganges River, Mount Tamalpais,
and such shrines as those dedicated to Fatima,
our Lady of Lourdes, and the Virgin of Guadalupe.
I was awed by the massive Meso-American and
Egyptian pyramids, as well as the smaller
pyramids of Ecuador.
D. H. Lawrence (1923) wrote about "the spirit
of place," noting that every group of people seems
to be "polarized" in some particular locality. This
pursuit of a "spiritual home base" provided the
framework for my 1994 tour of sacred sites in
Cornwall, England, where my host was Paul
Devereux, director of the Dragon Project, an
organization devoted to studying the purported
energetic phenomena of these locations. Carn
Ingli (or "the peak of angels") was one spot on
our itinerary. Its jagged peak in the Preseli ridge
makes it a prominent landmark, one where
countless passersby claim to have experienced
"vibrations," "emanations," and "sensations of
energy." Ancient people draped it with necklaces,
and, in the sixth century, St. Brynach claimed to
speak with angels there. After a journalist
reported that his compass behaved erratically at
Carn Ingli, Devereux and his group detected full
compass deflections on some of the rock surfaces
as well as in midair. Checks with other peaks
along the Pres eli ridge did not produce similar
findings (Devereux, Steele, & Kubrin, 1989).
Although I suspected that the power of
suggestion was at work, Devereux explained that
magnetic rocks that form Carn Ingli contain
enough iron to produce a discernable effect. He
also told me that there was evidence that the
megalith builders made specific use of magnetic
stones in the construction of some oftheir sacred
monuments. A member of his group urged me to
situate myself near to Carn Ingli to "feel the
vibrations." However, neither the power of
suggestion nor the magnetic rocks themselves
were enough to give me an "energetic" experience.
Some years earlier, I visited Chichen Itza, a
Toltec-Mayan site in central Yucatan. I joined a
procession of tourists for a tour of the Castillo
pyramid at that site. The passageway was very
10 The Internationaljournal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, VOL 21
narrow, and the ceiling was quite low. About
halfway to our destination, I was overcome by an
attack of claustrophobia unlike anything I had
experienced previously. I had shortness of breath,
was sweating profusely, and had trouble moving
my body. Not wanting to impede the journey of
the others, I turned around and worked my way
back. Surprisingly, I had no trouble exiting from
the passageway. Nor had I experienced
insurmountable problems in other pyramid
interiors or when spelunking in a small Illinois
cave. One of my Mexican friends reminded me of
the legendary Mayan king, still said to be hiding
underground at Chichen Itza, and suggested that
he may have been playing a joke on me. Those
tricksters. One finds them everywhere!
More memorable was the time I spent in
Lascaux in 1997. Our group was allowed only
thirty-five minutes to tour the cavern and
appreciate its 17,OOO-year-old images; even so, it
would take the cave's atmosphere several hours
to recuperate from our intrusion. It did not take
long for the raw power of the wild horses, antlered
reindeer, and massive bison to envelop me. The
cave's surface brings a three-dimensionality to
the paintings; a naturally-formed hole provides
the eye for one animal and a bulging rock becomes
the shoulder for another. Inevitably, I found
myself slipping into the consciousness of those
painters from the Upper Paleolithic. However, I
received no clear-cut message. Were they
executing a ritual to insure success in the hunt?
Were these incredible beasts the tribe's spirit
guides? Did the images symbolize the power of
the tribe and serve magical purposes? Then, in
my fantasy, I sensed that the experience ofthese
early humans was direct and immediate; the
paintings may have provided a narrative of this
experience. Sometimes grazing deer are simply
grazing deer. I hesitate to use the term "art" to
describe these marvels; "art" implies something
cut off from direct experience, a form that is
sacralized or commercialized. There was nothing
detached about the Lascaux creatures; they
seemed as vibrant at that moment as they must
have been during their creation.
The contemporary architect who most directly
addressed "spirit of place" was the Wisconsin
architect Frank Lloyd Wright, who I had the
fortune to encounter several times during his long
life and tumultuous career. Wright carried on an
ongoing dialogue with the hills and valleys of
Wisconsin, as well as with the mountains and
deserts of Arizona, his winter home. In 1952, I
introduced him to the student body at the
University of Wisconsin, and later visited both
his schools. He talked (and wrote) about helping
people ''break out of the box," which he saw as
the architectural prison of the past, and
advocated using natural, local materials when
implementing his "organic architecture."
It was customary for students on the
organizing committee to have a private discussion
session with guest speakers following their
address in the Wisconsin Union Theater. Wright
had a well-deserved reputation for being
flamboyant and irascible, and his repartee
reinforced his image. But one response triggered
one of the most consciousness-expanding
experiences of my life, clearly superior to
anything associated with so-called "mind-
manifesting" drugs. The Korean War was raging
overseas, and many students feared that they
would be drafted once they graduated from the
university. One student told Wright about his
dilemma; he considered himself a patriotic
American, but he was not in favor of war as a
means of resolving international disputes. He
asked Wright, ''What should I do if! am drafted?"
Without a moment's hesitation, Wright threw
back his mane of white hair, looked the student
directly in the eye, and counseled, "Don't go!"The
student queried, "What do you mean? I would
have to go." Wright continued, ''You are limiting
your options. Tell your draft board you are a
pacifist. Move to another country. You could even
spend time in jail. But don't go to war." The
student group was stunned. Another question was
asked, but I did not hear it. I had been reading
books about existentialism, and with his remark,
Wright taught me that our existential choices often
are wider than we think. Later, I put this insight
to work when I helped objectors to the Vietnam
War brainstorm their options, even coaching some
young men who successfully convinced their draft
boards that they were unsuitable for military
service because oftheir alleged sexual orientation
or their assumed drug habits.
Dancing with the Trickster 11
As the Wheel Turns
I
N EARLY 2001, my wife filed for divorce and our
marriage of thirty-five years came to an end.
For solace, I meditated frequently and, in April,
evoked an image of myself falling into the arms
. of a tall, noble, compassionate Buddha. Later, I
realized this was the 180-foot-high Bamiyan
Buddha. Having stood for 1,600 years, it and
another Buddha were destroyed by Afghanistan's
Taliban regime in a twenty-day assault. For
centuries, these Buddhas had observed the
advent and decay of many cultures. When I
contemplated the scene, using my imagination
to move into the flaming red-black glow of the
missile's destruction, I realized that everything
has its moment. The art of ancient traditions and
the bizarreness of extremist religions, much less
the thirty-five years I spent with my wife, are all
impermanent. Like it or not, flux is our very
nature; knowing this, somewhere the Buddha
was laughing while his image was being
destroyed. As Thich Nhat Hanh (1999) observed,
"Wherever and whenever there is mindfulness,
true presence, compassion, and understanding,
Buddha is there" (p. 153). Paintings, statues, and
the like are simply reminders.
The Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar
claimed that he had discovered his destiny in a
dream, in which God called him to save his
country from the contentious warlords fighting
for cont:rol of Afghanistan. A movement was born,
in Omar's words, as "a simple band of dedicated
youths determined to establish the laws of God
on Earth and prepared to sacrifice everything in
pursuit of that goal." Dreams and visions can
inspire villains and heroes alike, as can
apparently synchronous events. In their
remarkable book, Synchronicity: Science, Myth,
and the trickster,Allan Combs and Mark Holland
(1990) tell how both Winston Churchill and Adolf
Hitler reported remarkable coincidences that
saved their lives. Had it not been for some
unaccountable external event matching an
internal image or goal (Jung's description of
"synchronicity"), history would have been much
different. Placing synchronicities into the
framework of "chaotic attractors," echoing the
Book of Job and its message, Combs and Holland
suggest that the universe is fraught with the
unexpected and the unforeseeable. Hence, "its
purpose cannot in the end be grasped with the
rational mind. It must be lived with one's whole
being" (p. 144).
In addition to my professional work with
dreams, these nightly visitations have provided
me with some of my own synchronous
experiences. Perhaps once a year, I will recall a
dream featuring an actor to whom I have paid
little attention in my waking thoughts.
Nevertheless, during the day I will run across
the actor's name in a newspaper or flip the
television channel to a film in which he or she
starred, or a talk show on which the actor is being
interviewed. These synchronicities are what some
parapsychologists would label "trivial," but others
I have had are more likely to be labeled "terrible."
In 1984, while attending a parapsychological
conference in Mexico City, I dreamed that I had
arrived at the ranch of Mickey Hart, the
celebrated percussionist who had introduced me
to Rolling Thunder. In my dream, Rolling
Thunder and his friends were leaving the ranch
in their station wagon. Rolling Thunder had a
somber expression on his face, as did the other
members of his entourage. I asked, "Where is
Spotted Fawn?" Rolling Thunder turned his head
slightly toward the back of the vehicle, where I
saw a wooden coffin strapped to the floor. I knew
that it contained the earthly remains of his
beloved wife, my dear friend Spotted Fawn.
I awakened, wrote down a few words to remind
me of the dream, and went back to sleep. As I
was waking up that morning, I heard Spotted
Fawn's voice speaking to me: ''You know, I won't
be seeing you anymore." Upon returning to the
United States, I learned that Spotted Fawn had
passed away that very night. I had spent
considerable time with Spotted Fawn in the San
Francisco hospital where she was being treated
for cancer, so her death was not unexpected.
Nevertheless, the synchronous timing of my
dream with her passing made this a poignant
anomalous experience. It was also an EHE, in
that it motivated me to bring closure to my
interactions with friends who are seriously ill,
not knowing if my cu:rrent visit, letter, or phone
conversation will be our last.
Many people want to know my perspective on
"spirits," and I simply express my open-
mindedness. I define "spirits" as alleged entities,
characterized by an identity and personality
12 The International Journal ofTranspersonal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
traits, that can make themselves known (visually,
verbally, kinesthetically, etc.) to human beings
but do not share their time and space constraints.
Their number includes spirits of the dead, nature
spirits, deities, angels, demons, and many others.
When I heard the voice of Spotted Fawn, it might
have been that of her "spirit." Years later, when I
went back to my parents' farm for my father's
funeral, I stayed in the room I had occupied as a
child. I dreamed that my father instructed me to
open a small drawer in a desk that I had used
decades ago. Upon awakening I did this, and
found a photograph of my father and his high
school basketball team. Was this cherished
memento brought to my attention by a "spirit,"
or simply by the elicitation of a forgotten memory?
I have had other provocative contacts with
"spirits" that have a variety of explanations as
well. In the meantime, I often answer questions
on the topic by stating, "I am open-minded about
almost everything, but I am skeptical about it
all." In the meantime, such experiences reinforce
my habit of recording the dreams that I recall in
a notebook, and reviewing them to determine
what I can learn from these nighttime visitations;
"Dreams" and "dreaming" are two different
events. The latter term describes an experience
that occurs several times during the course of a
night's sleep. The former term describes whatever
can be brought back and remembered from that
experience. The dream report is never quite the
same as the experience of dreaming, and human
error can make it quite different. Language and
memory are simply not up to the task of making a
direct translation. The process of dreaming seems
to be essential for a person's health and
equilibrium, even if a dream report is rarely given.
There may be an analogy between reports of
transpersonal experiences and the data indicating
an unusual pattern of brain activity that
accompanies reports oftranspersonal experience.
In their book Why God Won't Go Away, Andrew
Newberg, Eugene d'Aquili, and Vince Rause (2001)
describe a chain of neurological events that are
associated with some Buddhists' reports of "unison
with the universe" and some Christian meditators'
experience of "unity with Jesus."
There is an area near the back of the brain
that constantly calculates a person's spatial
orientation, the sense of where one's body ends
and the external world begins. This region
becomes inactive during transpersonal
experiences, producing a blurring of the self-other
relationship. Newberg and his colleagues
conclude, "Our minds are drawn by the intuition
ofthis deeper reality, this utter sense of oneness,
where suffering vanishes and all desires are at
peace" (p. 172). The process of prayer or
contemplation may trigger the neural reaction,
but, once evoked, the neurological chain may
deepen the transpersonal experience. In any
event, these authors observe that the taste of
apple pie may have brain wave correlates or even
be stimulated by probing brain tissue, but that
does not mean the pie is not tasty or real.
The Buddhist concept of anatta, or "no-self,"
refers to the conditioned responses that need to
be restrained if one is to develop spiritually and
live without self-inflicted suffering. But
Buddhists, in general, do not deny that there is
an enduring individuality, even though it is
constantly changing both in this world and
(according to some writers) in other worlds. The
early Buddhist commentator, Buddhaghosa,
likens the situation to the turning of a wheel.
When the wheel touches the ground, it generates
a conditioned personality state on that occasion,
but the wheel itself is enduring and is not
reducible to the moments of its contact.
Transpersonal experiences represent a return to
the wheel itself, rather than a focus on the
occasions when it treads the ground.
On planet earth, we take our places and carry
our banners in one festive parade or another. If
we are lucky, from time to time, we are caught up
in the exuberance of that parade, forget the banner
we are carrying, and remember that our true home
is the wheel, not its contact with the earth. Other
images that come to mind are the raindrop, which
maintains its separation only until it hits the
earth, and the wave that is discernable for a
moment and then rejoins the ocean.
On the other hand, there is a tendency of some
avid practitioners of prayer and meditation to
avoid or prematurely transcend developmental
tasks, basic human needs, and conflicting
feelings, retreating into what John Welwood
(2001) calls "spiritual bypassing." These people
avoid confronting important issues in their lives
by creating "new spiritual identities" that are
simply the repackaged dysfunctional identities
from which they sought an escape.
Dancing with the Trickster 13
Lessons from the Paleolithic
M
OST HUMAN cultures believe in cosmic realms
whose reality is commonly verified by
means of experiences in alternative states of
consciousness (Laughlin, 1994, p. 8). However,
Morris Berman (2000), in his stunning book
Wandering God, suggests that in Paleolithic
times, human experience of the natural world was
so intense that the environment seemed to
''blaze''; he suggests that "heightened awareness"
may be a more accurate description than "altered
state" (p. 30). Berman continues:
The constant need of human beings in
civilization to create ideologies, religious
beliefs, political hierarchies, and the like,
investing them with meaning ... so as to feel
mirrored, real, validated, part of some
transcendent reality ... does not (for the most
part) appear in societies that value autonomy
and mobility. (p. 168)
Sacred experience did exist in Paleolithic times
but it was "a more horizontal spirituality" (p. 23).
"The aliveness ofthe world is all that needs to be
'worshipped'" (p. 188).
I agree with Berman that shamanism and the
yearning to shift attentional states seem to occur
most frequently among groups that have an
intense community life, and that support
individual identity (p. 79). I recall instances of
Native American tribes who gave autonomy to
their members to interpret their own dreams, and
would even allow a child to report a dream that
seemed to contain a message for the entire
community. Mter all, Jesus once remarked that
"God's kingdom is within."
I appreciate Berman's assertion that "we have
never cut the 'cord' connecting us to animal
alertness because that cord is part of us and
probably part ofthe circuitry ofthe brain" (p. 81).
Berman writes of the days when he ''had the sense
of a Wandering God around me or within me, and
every day was like a golden coin, as though I was
out at the Great Barrier Reef' (p. 244). I have
similar recollections of wandering alone in the
swamp of my parents' Wisconsin farm, finding
surprise after surprise as a frog jumped before
me, as a bird sang in the trees, or as a new wild
flower bloomed where none had blossomed before.
These exceptional human experiences taught me
to revere the natural world, and resembled
Berman's concept of "horizontal spirituality," one
with no hierarchy of either angelic beings or
altered states. I am uncomfortable with the term
"supernatural," as it implies that an experience
or an event is cut off from nature. Many Native
Americans interact with spirits, plants, and
animals in ways that seem "supernatural" to most
Western observers. However, Native Americans
believe that all of these exchanges are natural,
and reject "supernatural" as a word that implies
a distancing from Nature.
For me, the sacred text that most directly
captures this ambience is the Tao Te Ching,
supposedly written by Lao Tzu, a contemporary
of Heraclitus, both of whom lived some half a
millennium B.C.E. The eighty-one verses of the
Tao Te Ching have a permanent place on my desk
where they are accessible for either pleasure or
for guidance. Its first verse can be translated to
read, "There are ways, but the Way is uncharted;
there are names, but not nature in words"
(Blakney, 1955, p. 53). So none of the "ways"
described by human beings is the "Master Way"
by which nature really works. This is the insight
that my 1961 psilocybin experience revealed
when a cyclone appeared that whisked away a
spiral of numbers, letters, and words.
This is the lesson also taught by general
semantics, which I studied at the University of
Wisconsin, when it points out that "the word is
not the thing." This is the circumstance that
occurs during meditation when thoughts and
concepts are dropped as I disappear into the
candle flame before me. This lesson cannot be
taught too often, because our culture consistently
erects boundaries, constructs borders, and divides
the world into neat (and sometimes overly
meticulous) categories that allow us to go about
our business in a more or less orderly way.
Taoism appears to have emerged, in part, from
Chinese shamanism, and the similarities are still
apparent. In much of the world, however,
shamans were replaced by a priestly caste that
presided over institutionalized religions, complete
with dogmas, ceremonies, and prescribed
behaviors. These "old religions" tended to be
parochial, insisting that their tribe or nation
consisted of "chosen people," while the rest of
humanity was in some way inferior. Unlike
shamans, priests rarely entered alternative
states of consciousness; they had no need to, as
14 The InternationalJournal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, VOL 21
they basked in revealed truth that needed no
revision or supplement.
The religions that arose between the fifth
century B.C.E. (when Lao Tzu, Zoroaster, and
Siddhartha, who became the Buddha, lived) and
the eighth century C.E. (the time of Mohammed)
offered new perspectives on life and death. They
were universalistic, postulating a God or abstract
spiritual entity that presided over all hIJ.mans,
and not just a particular tribe or nation (Berman,
2000, p. 163). At their best, the "new religions"
embrace all humanity, and respect the b ~ l i e f s of
those whose religious convictions may differ. At
their worst, however, the "new religions" are just
as dogmatic and divisive as many of the "old
religions," spreading discord while speaking of
holy wars and crusades.
Barbara Ehrenreich (1997), in Blood Rites, her
brilliant book on the origins and history of war,
observes, "Whole societies may be swept up into
a kind of 'altered state' marked by emQtional
intensity ... , ecstasy ... , and feelings ... eerily
similar to those normally aroused by religion" (pp.
13-15). Nothing pulls a group together like the
appearance of an enemy; "in the face of danger,
we need to cleave together, becoming a new,
many-headed creature larger than our individual
selves" (p. 82).
Indeed, transpersonal experience can be
associated with war and depravity as well as with
peace and love. A week at a Zen retreat, a
weekend at a Hitler Youth rally, a night of sexual
debauchery, or a day of wanton rape and butchery
are all capable of producing experiences that
would be classified as "transpersonal;' by a
dispassionate observer. Each could extend the
experient's sense of identity beyond its ordinary
limits to encompass wider, broader, or deeper
aspects oflife or the cosmos.
As an avid reader of the books on transpersonal
psychology by Ken Wilber (e.g., Wilber, 2000), I
doubt that my own experiences would attain a
very lofty height on his carefully sculptured
hierarchy of ''higher consciousness." Yet, I credit
him for his attempts to integrate the "three
cultures" of science, morality, and art. His
provocative books combine erudition with wit and
intelligence, and make a case for including Spirit
in one's worldview. Wilber places shamanic states
of consciousness at the "subtle" level of his
consciousness spectrum, characterized by vibrant
mental imagery, both with form (e.g., "guiding
spirits") and without form (e.g., "white light").
Wilber grants that an occasional shaman broke
into the "causal" realm of "pure awareness" and
the "void," but not until the advent of meditative
disciplines was it possible for someone to attain
"absolute" consciousness which experiences its
"true nature."
Along with his inattention to the varied scope
of shamanic states, Wilber gives little
consideration to the function of shamans (as
opposed to those "yogis" and "mystics" who
frequently attain "causal" and/or "absolute"
consciousness). Shamans serve their communities,
and this dimension is not recognized in Wilber's
hierarchy. I am not one to put much stock in
hierarchies, but I would suggest the construction
of a hierarchy of altruism. Because they serve their
communities, shamans would have a higher rating
on this scale than practitioners who spend their
time accessing "higher consciousness" in retreats,
in monasteries, and ashrams rather than in
emergency rooms, battered women's c;enters, soup
kitchens, and hospices. )
This devotion to service is linked with another
aspect of shamanism, namely that of the trickster.
Shamans employ, as allies, various tricksters, and
sometimes play the role of a trickster themselves.
Whether the trickster is aN ative American raven,
a crow, or a coyote, whether it is the Hermes of
Greek mythology or the Exus of Brazilian
Candomble, the trickster jolts people out oftheir
complacency. A personal disaster suddenly has
unseen benefits; a cherished relationship
inexplicably turns sour; a valued project falls
apart. Sometimes another comes out of nowhere
to take its place, but even if not, one's
complacency has been shattered. Transpersonal
and anomalous experiences also contain a trickster
element. They are basically "deconstructive," to
use a term from postmodern studies, in that they
break down customary boundaries,
classifications, and categories. Western culture
is ultra-rational-it prefers sharp distinctions
and clear borders. The parapsychologist George
Hansen (2001) remarks that even our modern
theory of communication is binary, and the term
"bit" is shorthand for "binary digit" (p. 31).
While studying general semantics, I learned
the folly of the "excluded middle," the notion that
there is no middle ground, no betwixt and
Dancing with the Trickster 15
between. Hansen warns us that we do not
eliminate the trickster simply by making sharp
distinctions and clear categories. There is still a
realm that lies betwixt and between the word and
its referent, the signifier and the signified (p. 31).
I believe the trickster is ubiquitous in anomalous
experiences. It prevents parapsychological
experiments from being replicated; it encourages
psychiatrists to prescribe medication for patients
who ask them about their "out-of-body"
experiences; it causes academics to run in the
other direction when a colleague suggests that
the study of "past lives," "near-death" reports, or
"alien abductions" might have some merit.
Anomalous and transpersonal experiences not
only violate categories, they deconstruct and
subvert them. When they lead to exceptional
human experiences (EHEs), the result, according
to White (1997), must be life-affirming rather
than life-denying. For White, an EHE is
embedded in a life-potentiating story that rings
true to the experient as well as to others.
Because EHEs can be described either as "Peak
in Darien" or as "fear and trembling," the term
''vivid'' experience has been proposed to cover both
peak experiences and nadir experiences, both of
which have the potential of becoming EHEs. The
former description is attributed to Vasco Balboa's
awe-inspiring experience upon seeing the Pacific
Ocean from a small peak near the Gulf of Darien;
the latter term describes episodes ofhopelessness,
despair, anguish, and desolation that, nonetheless,
can be instructive (Margo shes & Litt, 1966). My
first sighting ofMt. Everest (in Nepal) and my first
glimpse ofthe 19uassu Falls (between Brazil and
Argentina) were neither anomalous nor
transpersonal. However, they were both peak
experiences, and they were EHEs; during these
outdoor encounters, I remember muttering to
myself, "Nature never makes an esthetic mistake."
When captured Mricans arrived in Brazil, they
brought more than their orixas; the slaves
remembered their dances, their songs,and their
martial arts. They practiced the latter privately,
waiting for the fortuitous time to fight for their
freedom. Upon occasion, their slave-masters
caught them engaging in these strange
movements. The resourceful slaves claimed that
they were rehearsing a dance; as a result,
capoeira, the ubiquitous Brazilian martial art,
was conceived and maintained in trickery. Today,
when it is performed by trained capoeiristas, its
graceful, catlike movements constantly surprise
its spectators, and probably its participants as
well. Like a cat falling from a tree, the capoeirista
lands on his or her feet; like a cat stalking its
prey, a capoeirista is alert for any sound, smell,
or movement that will facilitate an advantageous
move. It should be no surprise that in addition to
sprightly Deer, lithe Puma is my totem, or power
animal. With one totem from North America and
one from South America, I may have the
hemisphere covered!
Late in 2001, I began external radiation
treatment for prostate cancer. In addition to
ingesting nutritional supplements and receiving
"distant healing" from a bevy of devoted friends,
I conducted daily mental imagery sessions,
imagining Puma devouring the dead cancer cells
following radiation and Deer bringing in
reinforcements from my immune system to
restore vitality to the healthy cells. This ordeal
would definitely qualify as a nadir experience,
but one that renewed my own personal mythology !
and its determination to bring what learning,
love, and light I can into this world. A blood test
taken when the radiation treatment ended
indicated the success of the regimen, mainstream
medicine supplemented by complementary
procedures.
In 1946, Sister Teresa was traveling to
Darjeeling, India, on a train. The young nun was
"told by God" that her life's work was to recognize
the divinity ofthe poorest ofthe poor, and to serve
them with love. Later, as Mother Teresa, she won
the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1996, half a century
later, Yigal Amir, an Israeli law student also
"heard God." Claiming to be following God's
orders, he assassinated Yitzchak Rabin, another
Nobel laureate. Did the same "God" speak to
both? From my point of view, the former would
be an exceptional human experience because it
became life-affirming and life-potentiating, while
the later, because it was life-denying, would not.
From my perspective, a compassionate God,
one connected with community and characterized
by caring, was present in Mother Teresa's
experience, but the "God" who called for murder
was a projection of the experient. This is only my
point of view, and others will make different
judgments. I view "evil" as the absence of God,
as ignorance of the Divine, and as intolerable,
16 The International JournalofTranspersonal Studies, 2002, VoL 21
deliberate harm produced by culpable
wrongdoing, but there are others who hold that
evil is simply God's "shadow" or "other face."
I tend to refrain from being judgmental, but
there are life conditions that require decisions.
There are those who have abrogated their
decision-making function to a dogma, a guru, or
a religious leader. Yet, as I have learned by virtue
of my extraordinary experiences, when we have
any options that allow uS choice, we are thrown
back on ourselves to make the final decision. The
selves we are thrown back upon may be social
constructions, they may consist of conditioned
responses, they may be our conduit to Spirit, or
they may be the tip of a huge, unknown psychic
iceberg, but they are all we have at our disposal
when push comes to shove. Thus, like each
weighty idea that I have reflected upon, this one
ends in paradox. Nevertheless, I believe that
people must be thought of as potentially mindful,
responsible moral agents. Evil does exist in our
world, and needs to be confronted if the parade
of life on this planet is to continue. However, we
must take care that we do not take a simplistic,
naive position on this issue.
MyoId friend Alan Watts (1963) wrote that
the concept of "evil" is profoundly problematic in
a universe supposedly governed by a single God
both beneficent and omnipotent. "This then is the
paradox that the greater our ethical idealism, the
darker is the shadow that we cast, and that
ethical monotheism became, in attitude if not in
theory, the world's most startling dualism" (p. 46).
Watts was more comfortable with the yin/yang
of Taoism, the conceptualization that in every yin,
there is a little yang, and in every yang a little
yin. The Tao Te Ching states, "Since the world
points up beauty so much, there is ugliness too.
If goodness is taken as goodness, wickedness
enters as well" (Blakney, 1955, p. 54).
Watts divided people into "prickles" and "goos,"
but admitted that most people were either
"prickly goos" or "gooey prickles." And the God
that made most sense to Watts was a "two-handed
God," a "hide-and-seek God," a "now you see Her,
now you don't" God. "God" may be a word we use
to describe transcendent trickery, the ultimate
deconstructing of boundaries, and paradoxically
the unifying of divisions. This is the God of
fluidity, of change, of transcendence-the very
Tao itself Native Americans are perceptive when
they refer to God as a verb rather than a noun; a
correct translation of "the Great Spirit" would
read "the Great Spiriting."
These are the realizations that come to me
during those extraordinary experiences that can
be called "transpersonal." But these insights also
emerge during nature walks, social encounters,
playing games with children, making music,
visiting art museums and sacred sites, and
engaging in other experiences that are more
exceptional than extraordinary. In the meantime,
I do my best to imitate the Brazilian capoeiristas,
connecting with my "animal alertness," happily
dancing, though sometimes clumsily groping my
way through life. All the while, I wait for a
window of opportunity to make a move on behalf
of intelligence, compassion, creativity, integrity,
and the other values I hold dear.
Sometimes the dance calls out the trickster in
me, and sometimes my dancing partners are
tricksters themselves; sometimes I detect the
trickster, sometimes I don't. Yet when the dance
is over, and when I return to the cosmic wheel
and the eternal sea, whatever part of me remains
from my brief stay on planet earth will be
grateful. It will be content that I once had the
opportunity to carry a banner in a challenging,
perplexing, often disheartening, but sometimes
joyous, parade.
Notes
This essay was supported by the Saybrook Graduate
School and Research Center Chair for the Study of
Consciousness in honor of Dr. Stanley Krippner.
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The Essence of Transpersonal Psychology
Contemporary Views
S. L Shapiro Grace W. Lee Philippe L. Gross
University of Hawai'i
Honolulu, Hawai'i, USA
The authors compiled 80 chronologically ordered passages from the contemporary psychology
literature that address the essence of transpersonal psychology. A thematic analysis of
these passages revealed that the two most frequent categories, occurring 53 (66.2%) and 49
(61.2%) times respectively, were: (a) Going beyond or transcending the individual, ego, self,
the personal, personality, or personal identity; existence of a deeper, true, or authentic Self;
and (b) Spirituality, psychospiritual, psychospiritual development, the spiritual, spirit. Other,
less frequent, themes included: special states of consciousness; interconnectivity/unity; going
beyond other schools of psychology; emphasis on a scientific approach; mysticism; full range
of consciousness; greater potential; inclusion of non-Western psychologies; meditation; and
existence of a wider reality.
A monk asked, "If this is the True Realm of
Reality, where did it come from?"
The master said, "Please say that one more time."
-Chao-chou [J6shil]
(In Green, 1998, p. 47)
D
URING THE course of a larger study of
developmental trends in transpersonal
psychology, we took special note of
English-language passages in the literature, from
1991 through 2001,
1
that characterized the field
of transpersonal psychology. From these we
selected those statements which specifically
reflected how the authors construed the essence
of trans personal psychology. In choosing the
entries we selected only those that clearly
addressed the essence of transpersonal
psychology per se, and not, for example,
transpersonal studies, transpersonal therapy, or
transpersonalism in general.
We also exercised some selectivity in choosing
entries,2 such that in our judgment they did not
exhibit narrow sectarianism and that they
credibly reflected viewpoints about the essence
of transpersonal psychology in terms of our
knowledge ofthe history and development ofthe
discipline. As a result, all but a few ofthe sources
for the entries we selected were recognizable to
us as having been written by colleagues in the
transpersonal psychology movement, as having
appeared in established journals, as having a
scholarly or reference nature, or! as coming from
established educational organizations.
The total number of appropriate entries we
found for the compilation was 80.
3
The citation
sources represent: books (40); journal articles (13);
websites (8); brochures (5); newsletters (5);
dictionaries
4
(4); letters or flyers (4); encyclopedias
(3); school catalogs (1); organizational constitutions
(1); and unpublished convention papers (1).5
Below we present the compilation of
statements
6
in chronological order followed by a
thematic frequency analysis.
1. Transpersonal psychology is a Western
formulation which transcends and includes all
of the Western behavioural sciences. In
encouraging the notion of "going beyond" and
"more than," trans personal psychology
The InternationalJournal of Transpersonal Studies, 2002, VoL 21,19-32 19
2002 by Panigada Press
addresses such concepts as life, breath, soul
and spirit, holism, and perception as
communion. Transpersonal psychology is an
endeavour in which consciousness and Mind
are primary. [po 30]
Diespecker, D. (1991). One mind: An introduction to
trans personal psychology. Bellingen, NSW, Australia:
Earthrise Press.
2. Many transpersonal psychologists believe that
the ego or self is a useful fiction. For these
psychologists, ego formation is an important
stage in development, but in later
developmental stages this illusion of
separateness can be transcended, and more
globally encompassing modes of consciousness
are possible. [po 6]
[Statement of Purpose]. (1991, Fall). Transpersonal
Psychology Interest Group (TPIG) Newsletter, 6.
3. The transpersonal perspective is a view of people
and their relations to the larger world that is
compatible with the new world view that sees
the universe and everything in it, including
human beings, as a series of interconnected,
interacting, and mutually influencing systems;
Transpersonal psychology approaches human
beings in the context of the wider world,
including the invisible world of spirit. It insists
on recognition by individuals of the breadth of
the context in which they live. But
transpersonal psychology does not exclude the
practical world of everyday living, for it is
through our daily lives that we make our
imprint on the wider world; while we, in turn,
are in the process of being transformed by the
practical world every moment of every day. In
the trans personal view, the only way the
spiritual world can manifest is through ordinary
people in the visible world. [pp. 142-143]
Singer, J. (1991). Seeing through the visible world: Jung,
gnosis, and chaos. San Francisco: HarperCollins.
4. The published literature, my own thinking, and
a number of discussion groups lead me to suggest
the following as core characteristics of the field
[transpersonal psychology]: Constructed
Consciousness; Valid Alternate States of
Consciousness; Superiority of Some Alternate
States; De-Automatizing for Consciousness
Change; Consciousness Disciplines in Religions;
Genetic Motive for Consciousness Growth;
Cosmic Unity; Cosmic Flow; Interdisciplinary
Study ofPersonality.7 [po 5]
Tisdale, J. R. (1991; Fall). Characteristics of transpersonal
psychology. Transpersonal Psychology Interest Group
(TPIG) Newsletter, 5.
5. [. .. ] the new field of transpersonal psychology
(a psychology that deals with all the things
orthodox psychology deals with, but also studies
the psychology of spiritual experience). [po 4]
Wilber, T. K. (1991). In K. Wilber, Grace and grit: Spiritual-
ity and healing in the life and death of Trey a Killam Wilber.
Boston: Shambhala.
6. TRANSPERSONAL PSYCHOLOGY An offshoot
of humanistic psychology that encompasses a
wide range of self-transcending phenomena,
including ecstatic and mystical experiences. Its
proponents seek to appropriate insights from
the great religious traditions, especially those
of the East, in order to develop a new paradigm
of scientific understanding. [Glossary, p. G-30]
Wulff, D. M; (1991). Psychology of religion: Classic and con"
temporary views. New York: Wiley.
7. Transpersonal psychology is both an evolving
clinical and scientific tradition within
psychology and also an ancient psychospiritual
lineage. Transpersonal psychology can be
understood to be the study of non-ordinary
states of consciousness not traditionally covered
by the discipline of ego psychology. This includes
states of consciousness such as meditation,
religious ecstasy, trance and "unitive conscious
experiences" often described in the esoteric and
spiritual literature of humankind. This would
also incorporate the study of the
psychophysiological techniques and introspective
disciplines associated with these states of
consciousness. Finally the field includes both
metaphysical and philosophical paradigms
often encountered in the contemporary fields of
theoretical physics, neuroscience and cognitive
psychology. The transpersonally oriented
clinician's perspective is often inclusive of
anomalous experiences and does not reflexively
reduce noetic or spiritual experiences to organic,
psychopathological or even unconscious causes
and dynamics, nor elevate disturbed
psychological states to the sublime. Also the
range or spectrum of consciousness is not
necessarily localized to one mind or set of body-
mind boundary conditions, or for that matter
to one life-time. [pp. 301-302]
Bynum, E. B. (1992). A brief overview of trans personal psy-
chology. Humanistic Psychologist, 20(2/3),301"306.
8. Following in the path ofhUInanistk psychology,
transpersonal psychology grew as a reaction
to the limitations of mainstream (first and
second "force") psychology, specifically in
regard to its failure to address adequately "the
farther reaches of human nature." [. .. ]
20 The International Journal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
Transpersonal psychology responded to these
limitations by developing an expanded view of
human nature and potential, through which
human identity could be perceived as including
and transcending conventional understandings
of ego and personality. [pp. 3-4]
Cordts, J. (1992, August). Consciousness, culture, and method:
Integrating trans personal and phenomenological psycholo-
gies. Paper presented at the Centennial Annual Conven-
tion ofthe American Psychological Association, Washing-
ton, DC.
9. Transpersonal psychology. Name given to the
so-called "fourth force" in psychology.
Transpersonal psychology follows from "first
force"classical psychoanalytic theory; "second
force" behaviorist psychology; and "third force"
humanistic psychology. It deals with such areas
of human conditions as self-transcendence,
peak experience, mystical transformation, and
ultimate values. The term "transpersonal"
itself refers to that which transcends the ego,
and thus implies a sympathy for mystical and
paranormal topics and ideas. [po 301]
DrUry, N. (1992). Dictionary of mysticism and the esoteric tra-
ditions (Rev. ed.). Bridport, England: Prism Press.
10. For me Transpersonal Psychology is a
psychological perspective or framework which
assigns primary importance to experiential
reports of concern or contact with entities,
beliefs or realms greater than oneself using
them as a basis for conducting and
interpreting psychological theories,
intervention and research. When I say theory I
mean development theory, motivational theory,
personality theory. When I say interventions I
mean psychotherapy, counseling, and
education. [po 308]
Krippner, S. (1992). In R May, S. Krippner, & J. L. Doyle, The
role of transpersonal psychology in psychology as a whole:
A discussion. Humanistic Psychologist 20(213),307-317.
11. Transpersonal psychology is concerned with the
study of humanity's highest potential, and
with the recognition, understanding, and
realization of unitive, spiritual, and
transcendent states of consciousness. [po 91]
Lajoie, D. H., & Shapiro, S. 1. (1992). Definitions of
transpersonal psychology: The first twenty-three years.
Journal of Trans personal Psychology 24(1),79-97.
12. The beauty oftranspersonal psychology is that
it accepts the flill spectrum of human
consciousness, working with the body,
emotions, mind, and spirit, according to
Frances Vaughan, a well-known transpersonal
therapist. Practitioners use dreamwork,
guided imagery, and Eastern meditative
practices, as well as traditional therapeutic
techniques. Unlike other branches of Western
psychology, however, the transpersonal
approach accepts spiritual insight as a
legitimate part of the healing process, so it
includes realms of experience, wisdom, and
creativity beyond the personality, such as
mystical experience, ecstasy, and enlightenment,
which were once thought to be the exclusive
domain of religion. [po 92]
Miller, R. S., & The Editors of New Age JournaL (1992). As
above so below: Paths to spiritual renewal in daily life.
Los Angeles: Tarcher.
13. Thus humanistic psychology tended to neglect
another part of human development, our fourth
aspect, the spirit. Not "spirit" in the limited
sense of vitality or authenticity, but as
something real behind the material
manifestations Dflife, something we get fleeting
glimpses ofin "mystical experiences," the vital
energy underlying religions before they all too
often ossify into mechanisms for social control.
Transpersonal psychology, the study of the parts
of our nature that are beyond (trans) our
ordinary, limited, personal self, is the social
manifestation of trying to understand and
develop this fourth aspect. [po ix]
Tart, C. T. (Ed.). (1992). Transpersonal psychologies: Perspec-
tives on the mind from seven great spiritual traditions (3rd
ed.). San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco.
14. Another important conceptual difference
[between traditional and transpersonal
psychology] exists in regard to the dimensions
of the human psyche. While the model of
traditional psychology is limited to post-natal
biography and to the individual unconscious,
the transpersonal image of the human psyche
resembles that in the perennial philosophy. It
suggests that there exist no absolute
boundaries in the universe and that, in the
last analysis, the human psyche of each
individual is commensurate with all of
existence. It thus confirms the famous
statement ofthe Upanishad, tat tuam asi (thou
art That: you are divine, of the same nature
as the creative principle). [po 9]
Grof, S. (1993, Fall). in F. Vaughan, C. Grof, R. McDermott,
C. T. Tart, & R. Walsh, The future of transpetsonal psy-
chology. ATP [Association for Transpersonal Psychology]
Newsletter, 8 ~ 1 1 .
15. I See transpersonal psychology as a science which
studies the person in his/her wholeness, in the
context of a sOcial, ecological and cosmic
relationship. ill this waytranspersonal psychology
is intercultural, as well as related to other scientific
The Essence of Transpersonal Psychology 21
approaches such as medicine, anthropology,
sociology, physics, and other sciences.
Transpersonal psychology also incorporates
elements from other schools of psychology such
as behaviorism, psychoanalysis, Jungian
psychology, humanistic psychology, and others
that study human consciousness, especially in
its capacity to transcend the person and the
ego. Transpersonal psychology can be defined,
therefore, as the scientific study of states of
consciousness. [po 3]
Matos, L. (Winter, 1993). An intercultural perspective on
transpersonal psychology. ATP [Association for
Transpersonal Psychology] Newsletter, 3-7.
16. At the turn ofthe century, he [William James]
outlined the foundations for the discipline of
psychology that would include cognitive
science, trans personal psychology (the
investigation of spiritual and religious
experience) and psychical research. [po 276]
Mishlove, J. (1993). The roots of consciousness (Rev. ed.).
Tulsa, OK: Council Oak Books.
17. Transpersonal psychology is about dualism,
trans meaning beyond, beyond the personal
[ ... ] Transpersonal psychology is the study of
experiences that seem to transcend that
assumption of limited embodiment. [po 124]
Tart, C. T. (1993). Mind embodied: Computer-generated vir-
tual reality. In K. R. Rao (Ed.), Cultivating consciousness:
Enhancing human potential, wellness, and healing (pp.
123-138). Westport, CT: Praeger.
18. Transpersonal experiences may be defined as
experiences in which the sense of identity or
self extends beyond (trans) the individual or
personal to encompass wider aspects of
humankind, life, psyche, and cosmos [. .. ]
Transpersonal psychology is the psychological
study of transpersonal experiences and their
correlates. These correlates include the nature,
varieties, causes, and effects of transpersonal
experiences and development, as well as the
psychologies, philosophies, disciplines, arts,
cultures, lifestyles, reactions, and religions that
are inspired by them, or that seek to induce,
express, apply, or understand them.
8
[pp. 3-4]
Walsh, R., & Vaughan, F. (Eds.). (1993). Introduction. In Paths
beyond ego: The transpersonal vision (pp. 1-10). Los An-
geles: Tarcher.
19. Transpersonal psychology has been in existence
for the last twenty-five years and has become
an increasingly important force in scientific,
cultural, and political life. It began in the late
1960s as a new movement in psychology which
recognized spirituality as an important
dimension in human life and studied the entire
spectrum of human experience, including non-
ordinary states of consciousness. Transpersonal
psychology has provided an important bridge
between Western psychology and the spiritual
history of humanity, particularly shamanism,
the great mystical traditions of the world, and
the spiritual philosophies of the East.
Grof, C., & Grof, S. LetterlFlyer received ca. 1994.
20. Transpersonal psychology attempts to research
those experiences in which the sense of
identity expands beyond (trans) the individual
person, personality, or ego to encompass
aspects of humankind, life, and the universe.
SUGh experiences have been valued in most
cultures at times. Transpersonal psychology
aims to explore the nature, varieties, effects,
and means of inducing such experiences as
well as the philosophies and traditions
inspired by them. It attempts to integrate
contemporary science and philosophy with the
perennial wisdom of East and West [. .. ] Topics
of special interest include consciousness and
altered states, cross-cultural studies, meditation,
contemplation and yoga, lucid dreaming,
mythology, psychedelics, philosophical
foundations, values, ethics, relationships,
exceptional psychological yvell-being and
capacities, transconventional development,
transpersonal emotions such as love and
compassion and motives such as altruism and
service, trans personal pathologies,
psychotherapies and related clinical concerns,
comparative religion, and psychological roots
of contemporary global crises. [pp. 548-549]
Walsh, R., & Vaughan, F. (1994). Transpersonal psychology
II. In R. Corsini (Ed.), Encyclopedia of psychology (2nd
ed., Vol. 3, pp. 548-550). New York: Wiley.
21. The aim oftranspersonal psychology, then, is to
give a psychological presentation of the
perennial philosophy and the Great Chain of
Bemg, fully updated and grounded in modern
research and scientific developments. It fully
acknowledges and incorporates the findings of
modern psychiatry, behaviorism, and
developmental psychology, and then adds, where
necessary, the further insights and experiences
of the existential and spiritual dimensions of the
human being. We might say it starts with
psychiatry and ends with mysticism. [po x]
Wilber, K. (1994). Foreword. In J. E. Nelson,Healing the split:
Integrating spirit into our understanding of the mentally
ill (Rev. ed., pp. viii-xii). Albany, NY: State University of
New York Press.
22 The Internationaljournal ofTranspersonal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
22. Transpersonal has been called the "fourth force"
in psychology (the other three being depth,
behavioral, and humanistic psychology). In
many ways the transpersonal work has put the
soul, spirit, and even consciousness back into
the discipline of psychology. [po 98]
Achterberg, J. (1994). The foundations and future of
transpersonal psychology. ReVision, 16(3), 98.
23. Transpersonal psychology seeks to awaken the
individual's fullest potential and consciousness,
to reach through and beyond the personal to
the essence of being, the mystery of life.
Embracing this mystery brings us together as
we share the sense that there is something
more, a vision of healing, creating, becoming
whole.
Department of Transpersonal Psychology, Graduate School
for Holistic Studies. (n.d.). [Brochure). Received 1995.
Orinda, CA: John F. Kennedy University.
24. Transpersonal psychology has set for itselfthe
goal of constructing a paradigm that accounts
for the full range of human consciousness. [po
132]
Flier, L. (1995). Demystifying mysticism: Finding a develop-
mental relationship between different ways of knowing.
Journal of Trans personal Psychology, 27,131-152.
25. Adherents of this branch of psychology
[transpersonal psychology] believe that there
is more to being human than is recognized by
the other main approaches in the field.
Transpersonal psychology contrasts with
perspectives that reduce human experiences
to strictly personal terms. [po 283J
George, L. (1995). Alternative realities: The paranormal, the
mystic and the transcendent in human experience. New
York: Facts On File.
Also:9 George, L. (n.d.). Welcome to spiritual emergence.
Retrieved November 14, 2001, from http://www
.spiritualemergence.netipagesitrans.html
26. The defining perspective of transpersonal
psychology is the application of scientific
methods to those areas of human experience
beyond the strictly empirical, such as unitive
consciousness, transcendence of self, spirit and
spiritual practices, meditation, and
compassion based in a cosmic consciousness
[. .. J Transpersonal psychology has come to give
particular attention to Eastern religious
experience and Eastern psychology [. .. J The
trans personal realm involves levels of
spiritual experiences-described primarily in
terms of Eastern religious/psychological
thought-moving toward enlightened oneness
with ultimate reality. [po 66]
Kelly, E. w., Jr. (1995). Spirituality and religion in counsel-
ing and psychotherapy: Diversity in theory and practice.
Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association.
27. A much larger and faster growing field of
investigation, though, is transpersonal
psychology, a twenty-five-year-old branch of
psychology that actively investigates mystical
experiences and the like, experiences that are
trans, beyond our ordinary personal and biological
self. It is primarily interested in understanding
and helping to facilitate such experiences. We
moderns are desperate for genuine spirituality
based on deep experience, not simply ideas, and
there is great hope that transpersonal psychology
can bring a nonsectarian spiritual vitality into
our culture that can help us.
Transpersonal psychology rests on an
understanding that a "successful" spiritual life
needs a solid basis in deep experience. [po 9]
Tart, C. T. (1995). World parliament of superstition? Scien-
tific evidence for a basic reality to the spiritual. ReVision,
18(1), 3-10.
Also: Tart, C. T. (1997). Body, mind, spirit: Exploring the para-
psychology of spiritualism. Charlottesville, VA: Hampton
Roads. [pp. 47-48)
28. So they established transpersonal psychology
as a means of studying psychological health,
peak experiences, and nonordinary states of
consciousness. [. .. ] The movement has
attracted many individuals of varied
backgrounds who are interested in the
development of human potentialities and who
have found existing images of the person to
be too limited [. .. ] [I]ts primary focus on
subjective experiences allows these
experiences to be interpreted in different ways,
though in a spiritual context. [po 21J
Vaughan, F. (1995, Fall). Transpersonal psychology. Gnosis, 2l.
/
29. At times it seems that one of transpersonal
psychology's special contributions is to "make
sense" of realities that a conventional
viewpoint might dismiss or ignore. [po ivJ
Vich, M. (1995). Editor's note. Journal of Trans personal Psy-
chology, 27, iv.
30. Transpersonal psychology has attempted to
examine phenomena which are an intrinsic
part of the quest for wholeness in a situation
in which "Boundaries are illusions" (Wilber,
1985, p. 31). It is, then, an attempt to once
again find a place for ourselves as part of the
universe rather than as its .exploiters and
dominators (Fox, 1990), and to bring back into
consideration experiences and ideas which are
generally regarded as "spiritual" rather than
scientific. [po 42; References are to: Wilber, K.
The Essence of Transpersonal Psychology 23
(1985). No boundary: Eastern and Western
approaches to personal growth. London:
Shambhala; Fox, W. (1990). Towards
transpersonal ecology. London: Shambhala.l
Brazier, D. (1995). Zen therapy. London: Constable.
31. Transpersonal Psychologies. In the 1960s,
transpersonal psychology emerged as a
movement devoted in part to the study of
alternative states of consciousness. Though by
no means representative of the mainstream of
psychological research in the West,
transpersonal psychologists are intrigued by
the possibility that human beings possess
transcendent powers of consciousness. Some
speculate about the mind's untapped potential
for awareness and hold to a view of the universe
as conscious and purposive. They are convinced
that we can be motivated by broader and less
selfish impulses than physiological needs and
egoistic emotions. For these psychologists, our
most important motivations spring from a
selflessness that revolves around the pondering
of ultimate questions-questions about the
meaning, purpose, and value of human life.
Often influenced by the recent influx of Eastern
psychologies and philosophies into the West,
transpersonal psychology seeks to reverse what
it considers the disproportionate attention
given to man's psychological afflictions at the
expense of his great potentialities. This
movement may be understood as an attempt
to reconnect the science of psychology with the
perennial metaphysical teachings of the
spiritual traditions. [po 57]
Needleman, J., & Eisenberg, R. (1995). Consciousness, States
of. In M. Eliade (Ed.), The encyclopedia of religion (Vol. 4,
pp. 57-59). New York: Simon & Schuster Macmillan. (Origi-
nally published 1987)
32. In the 1960s Abraham Maslow's research on
healthy, self-actualizing people included a
concern for spiritual issues ...
By the end of the decade, transpersonal
psychology was differentiated from humanistic
psychology, placing greater emphasis on the
study of spiritual experiences, optimum
psychological health and the full spectrum of
human consiousneSs, including some states
that had previously been mapped only by
Eastern disciplines ... Transpersonal pS'ychology,
as it developed in the seventies ana eighties,
focused more oli the relationship of
psychological health to spiritual development and
the investigation of inner experience. [po 162]
Vaughan, F. (1995). Shadows of the sacred: Seeing through
spiritual illusions. Wheaton; IL: Quest Books,
33. Of note in the mission statement [in the first
issue of the Journal of Transpersonal
Psychology] are three major motifs: (1) a focus
on issues traditionally considered religious or
spiritual, for example, transcendence and
ultimate meanings or values; (2) an emphasis
on empirical, scientific studies; and (3) a
suspension of belief in the content of the
experiences, that is, "optional" interpretations
about whether the phenomena are
supernatural or not. In other words,
trans personal psychology was to be a
reflective, scientific-minded approach to
matters traditionally considered religious or
spiritual. [po 11]
Chinen, A. B. (1996). The emergence of transpersonal psy-
chiatry. In B. W. Scotton, A. B. Chinen, & J. R. Battista
(Eds.), Textbook of trans personal psychiatry and psychol-
ogy (pp. 9-18). New York: Basic Books.
34. In its strict sense, transpersonal psychology
(trans from the Latin for "beyond" or
"through," and personal from the Latin for
"mask") studies those experiences which
allegealy enable the individual to see beyond
the conditioned ego, and to identify some
deeper and more enduring sense of self. By
extension it is also concerned with those beliefs
(such as religious beliefs) that regard
individual existence as an expression of some
wider reality, whether this reality is defined
in terms of an impersonal life force, or
personalized into a deity or deities. [po 3]
Fontana, D., & Slack, 1. (1996, Fall). The need for
transpersonal psychology. ATP [Association for
Transpersonal Psychology) Newsletter, 3-7.
35. Transpersonal psychology is a branch of
psychology that recognizes and accepts
spirituality as an important dimension of the
human psyche and of the universal scheme of
things. It also studies and honors the entire
spectrum of human experience, including
various levels and realms of the psyche that
become manifest in non-ordinary states of
consciousness (NOSe). [po 44]
Grof, S. (1996). Theoretical and empirical foundations of
transpersonal psychology. In S. Boorstein (Ed.),
Transpersonal psychotherapy (2nd ed., pp. 43-64). Albany,
NY: State University of New York Press.
3i. Transpersonal psychology has developed since
this period [late 1960s] as that branch of
psychological theory which takes religious and
mystical experiences seriously as constituting
a domain sui generis, refusing to follow the
reductionistic interpretations widely accepted
in other psychological schools. In doing so, it
claims well-known authorities like William
24 The International journal ofTranspersonal Studies, 2002, VOl. 21
James and Carl Gustav Jung as predecessors.
Transpersonal psychologists have devoted
themselves to both empirical and theoretical
research. The empirical branch has largely
concentrated on the field of so-called Altered
States of Consciousness (ASC's) induced either
by drugs or by various mind-expanding
techniques. Theoretical work has concentrated
on devising all-embracing "cartographies of
consciousness" which distinguish a hierarchy
of levels in the psyche. The premise is that
the traditional psychological schools address
the lower levels of the psyche, but are largely
inadequate for dealing with the higher or
transpersonal levels. The latter are seen as
the proper domain of spiritual traditions,
especially of Oriental origin. Transpersonal
psychology thus aims at a theoretical
synthesis of western psychology and Oriental
spiritual systems and technologies. [po 51]
A central concern of transpersonal
psychology lies therefore in developing "maps"
of the mind which explain the dynamics of
consciousness within a comprehensive
framework, encompassing the complete
spectrum from unitive consciousness to the
limited ego. [po 246]
Hanegraaff, W. J. (1996). New Age religion and Western cul-
ture: Esotericism in the mirror of secular thought. Leiden,
The Netherlands: Brill.
37. Transpersonal psychology is a vital, thirty-year-
old international movemeht that is leading the
way toward reintegrating essehce
of consciousness and selfhood-into modern
healing practices. Its success in challenging the
powerful resistances of entrenched materialism
and religious dogmatism speaks for the hunger
in Western societies to return psychology to its
ancient roots as a logos ofthe psyche, a path to
knowing the soul.
The overriding aim of these transpersonal
techniques is essentially fourfold: (1) To open
the compassionate heart to recognize one's own
authentic self, which leads to empathetic
acceptance of the uniqueness; yet common
spirit, of others; (2) To foster creativity by
gaining access to recurring archetypal myths
that guide humanity to greater wisdom; (3)
To open the intuitive "inner eye" that lifts an
individual beyond the constraints of his
ordinary senses, opening the visionary
capacity latent in us alij (4) To expand
consciousness to the pOInt that ali indiVidlial
directly experiences idehtity with a universal
diVine Presence. [pp. 137438]
Nelson, J. E. (1996). Ti"anspersomU psycholegy and deptes"
sion. In J E. Nelson & A. Nelson tEds.); Sacred sorrows:
Embracing and transforming depression (Pp.137-145). Les
Angeles: Tarcher.
38. transpersonal1 (in literature, etc.) transcend-
ing the personal. 2 Psychology (esp. in psycho-
therapy) of or relating to the exploration of
transcendent states of consciousness beyond
personal identity.
The Oxford English reference dictionary. (1996, 2nd ed.). New
York: Oxford University Press.
39. The word transpersonal simply means
"personal plus." That is, the transpersonal
orientation explicitly and carefully includes all
the facets of personal psychology and
psychiatry, then adds those deeper or higher
aspects of human experience that transcend
the ordinary and the average-experiences
that are, in other words, "transpersonal" or
"more than the personal," personal plus. Thus,
in the attempt to more fully, accurately, and
scientifically reflect the entire range of human
experience, trans personal psychiatry and
psychology take as their starting point the
entire spectrum of consciousness. [po xviii]
Wilber, K (1996). Foreword. In B. W. Scotton, A. B. Chihen,
& J. R. Battista (Eds.), Textbook of trans personal psychia"
try and psychology (pp. xvii-xx). New York: Basic Books.
40. In Maslow's final years, he advanced a new
outlook that he called trans personal psychology-
focusing on spirituality and "the farthest reaches
of human nature." He was a key figure in
launching this nascent discipline, for he felt that
humanistic psychology was inadequately dealing
with spiritual concerns. [po 14]
Hoffman, E. (Ed.). (1996). Future visions: The unpublished
papers of Abraham Maslow. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
41. Transpersonal psychology can be understood
as the melding of the wisdom of the world's
spiritual traditions with the learning of
modern psychology. [po 8]
[ ... ]Transpersonal psychology studies how
the spiritual is expressed in and through the
personal, as well as the transcendence of the self.
Transpersonal psychology in this sense
affords a wider perspective for all the learning
of conventional psychology. It includes and
exceeds traditional psychology. And by holding
all of conventional psychology within it, it
recasts psychology into a new mold and
spiritlial framework. [po 10]
Cortright; E. (1997). Psychotherapy and sjJirit: Theory ana
practice in transpersdrial jJsychOtherapy. Albany, NY: State
Unlverslty of New York Press.
42. Transpersonal psychology Isa scientific
dlst1plilie that investigates human experiences
which tralis<::eIld the ordinary, particularly
spiritual experiences and altered states of
cons6ollsness.
The Bsence oJ Trilrispef:fOYtal Psychology 25
Lukoff, D. (1997). Sample learning guide for transpersonal
psychology and psychotherapy (Course #3510). San Fran-
cisco: Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center.
Retrieved January 3, 2002, from http://www.saybrook.eduJ
textonlylLearnguide.html
43. [. .. ] transpersonal psychology, a new
philosophical-psychological trend engaged in
the study of human nature and the integrity
of human consciousness beyond its personal
manifestations. [po 13]
Granovsky, Yu. (1997). Dedicated to the memory of V. V.
Nalimov. Voices of Russian Transpersonalism, Vol. 4, In-
ternational Journal of Trans personal Studies, 16(2), 9-14.
44. Transpersonal Psychology is a marriage of
psychology and spirituality. It is the human
science that studies, with scientific methods,
the psycho-spiritual development of the
individual and its manifestations.
Australian TranspersonalAssociation. (n.d.). [Flyer]. Received
August, 1998.
45. Whenever possible, transpersonal psychology
seeks to delve deeply into the most profound
aspects of human experience, such as mystical
and unitive experiences, personal transformation,
meditative awareness, experiences of wonder and
ecstasy, and alternative and expansive states of
consciousness. In these experiences, we appear
to go beyond our usual identification with our
limited biological and psychological selves. [po xxi]
An important concept within transpersonal
psychology is interconnectedness. The trans
in transpersonal conveys two aspects of that
connectedness. One meaning of trans is
"beyond"; it implies the existence of, and
connectedness with and relationship to,
something beyond the individual. Another
meaning of trans is "through"; this implies a
connectedness among the various aspects of
oneself, as well as a connectedness of oneself
with others and with all of Nature. [po 39]
Braud, W., & Anderson, R. (1998). Transpersonal research
methods for the social sciences. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
46. The transpersonal perspective includes the
wisdom and methods of the preceding
orientations [the psychoanalytic, behaviorist,
and humanist perspectives], and expands on
them to include the spiritual aspects of human
experience.
Transpersonal psychologists are concerned
with the development of a healthy individuality
and its extension to include aspects of the
Higher Self. This viewpoint acknowledges that
behind the masks, roles and melodramas of
one's conditioned personality lies a deeper state
of being that transcends individual identity.
Transpersonal psychologists believe that any
model of the human psyche must include this
full range of human experience, for it is the
upper range that sets the context for
understanding the whole human being.
As the transpersonal perspective unites the
spiritual with the psychological aspects of
human experience, it addresses an integration
of the whole person-body, mind, emotion and
spirit. In doing so, the field is grounded in
Western psychological theory and draws on the
world's spiritual traditions, mythology,
anthropology and the arts as well as research
on consciousness. [po 3]
Department of Transpersonal Psychology. Graduate School
for Holistic Studies. (n.d.). [Brochure]. Received August,
1998. Orinda, CA: John F. Kennedy University.
47. Transpersonal psychology recognizes as a
working hypothesis the infinite variability and
the infinite potential ofthe human mind, and
the essential challenge that underlies the
mystery of being. [po 7]
Fontana, D. (1998). Modern science and the transpersonal
vision. Transpersonal Psychology Review, 2(2), 5-9.
48. Transpersonal psychology, with its initial -
intellectual roots in the work of William James,
Carl Jung, humanistic psychology (particularly
the work of Abraham Maslow), and early
studies of Asian contemplative traditions, was
self-consciously forged as a separate discipline
in the late 1960s. The initial impetus was to
bring into psychology the study of a variety of
experiences not commonly examined in
mainstream psychology and to develop wider
conceptions of the nature of the mind,
consciousness, human nature, and reality than
were found in behaviorist, psychoanalytic, and
humanistic approaches. [po 3]
Rothberg, D. (1998). Ken Wilber and the future of
transpersonal psychology: An introduction to the conver-
sation. In D. Rothberg & S. Kelly (Eds.), Ken Wilber in
dialogue: Conversations with leading transpersonal think-
ers (pp. 1-27). Wheaton, IL: Quest Books.
49. It was out of the humanistic movement that
the "fourth force" grew, namely transpersonal
psychology, in which psychological science has
formed a central connection with spiritual and
religious studies [. .. ] In this forum, psychology
not only opened itself to a realm of experiences
that had been only marginally considered by
any science but also entered into a dialog with
the full spectrum of world religions. [po 63]
Wertz, F. J. (1998). The role ofthe humanistic movement in
the history of psychology. Journal of Humanistic Psychol-
ogy, 38(1), 42-70.
26 The InternationalJournal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, VOL 21
50. Transpersonal psychology is a fundamental
area of research, scholarship and application
based on people's experiences of temporarily
transcending our usual identification with our
limited biological, historical, cultural and
personal self and, at the deepest and most
profound levels of experience possible,
recognizing/being "some-thing" of vast
intelligence and compassion that encompasses/
is the entire universe. [po 4]
Institute of Trans personal Psychology. General Catalog, 1998-
1999. Menlo Park, CA: Author.
51. Transpersonal psychology, a more recent
development in the field of psychology, views
the individual as a whole: body, mind, and
spirit. It goes beyond the limits of the ego-self
toward the transcendent/spiritual Self. [po 310]
Marcandonatou, O. (1998). The experience of being silent. In
R. Valle (Ed.), Phenomenological inquiry in psychology:
Existential and transpersonal dimensions (pp. 309-320).
New York: Plenum Press.
52. transpersonal psychology, a branch of
psychology that recognizes altered states of
consciousness and transcendent experiences
as a means to understand the human mind
and treat psychological disorders. [1970-75]
[Brackets in original]
Random House Webster's unabridged dictionary. (1998, 2nd
ed.). New York: Random House.
53. Transpersonal psychology: a body of
psychological and spiritual insights into the
spectrum of human consciousness incorporating
the stages in the development of the ego and
the stages of development beyond ego. [pp. 317-
318]
Singh, K. D. (1998). The grace in dying: How we are trans-
formed spiritually as we die. San Francisco:
HarperSanFrancisco.
54. A "fourth force" in Western psychology was
also emerging that was explicitly concerned
with extending the parameters to encompass
the upper reaches of psychospiritual
development. As such, it aspired beyond ego,
or beyond the personal, hence its name:
Transpersonal Psychology. [po 253]
Snelling, J. (1998). The Buddhist handbook: The complete
guide to Buddhist schools, teaching, practice, and history
(Rev. ed.). Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions.
55. The purpose of trans personal psychology was
to create a new psychological approach based
on planetary needs rather than egocentric
ones, honoring the entire spectrum of human
experience, including spirituality and non-
ordinary states of consciousness, and
integrating the various expressions of the
spiritual heritage of humanity, both from the
Eastern and Western traditions.
The Annual Council Meeting of EUROTAS [European
Transpersonal Association] and the Founding Assembly
of the EUROTAS Creative Initiative. (1999). [Flyer].
56. transpersonal1 going beyond what is personal.
2 denoting a form of psychology or
psychotherapy that emphasizes the use of
mystical, psychical, spiritual, religious, etc.
experiences as a way of achieving greater self-
awareness, potential, etc. Early 20c.
Chambers 21st century dictionary. (1999). Edinburgh, Scot-
land: Chambers Harrap.
57. Transpersonal psychology extends psychologi-
cal research to optimal mental health, con-
sciousness and its non-ordinary states, and
unexplored human potentialities, such as
meaning, will, values, creativity, etc. A funda-
mental purpose is to develop a global psychol-
ogy, based on planetary rather than egocen-
tric needs, encompassing the entire spectrum
of human experience, the psychopathological,
the existential and the spiritual one.
European Transpersonal Psychology Association. (1999).
Constitution: October 1999.
Also: European Transpersonal Psychology Association. (n.d.).
Retrieved October 27, 2001, from http://www.descamps. org/
etpa/index.html
58. Transpersonal psychologists define their field
as one that studies experiences in which one's
sense of identity extends beyond the personal
to encompass wider aspects of humankind, life,
and the cosmos [. .. ] [po xii]
Krippner, S. (1999). Foreword. In D. Moss (Ed.), Humanistic
and trans personal psychology: A historical and biographi-
cal sourcebook (pp. xi-xiii). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
59. Transpersonal or Spiritual Psychology
acknowledges the reality, which transcends
beyond body-ego boundaries. Transpersonal
Psychology also transcends extensive focus on
negative values, weaknesses, problems and
pathology, and without ignoring challenges,
draws its strength from positive values, wellness
and creativity. For raising questions about the
true purpose and meaning of one's life on earth
Transpersonal Psychology aims to strengthen
one's ability to be present in the moment. [po 1]
Hiltunen, S. S. (1999). Therapeutic Noh Theater [Brochure].
Washington, DC: Author.
60. Transpersonal Psychology is the extension of
psychological studies into consciousness
The Essence of Trampersonal Psychology 27
studies, spiritual inquiry, body-mind
relationships and transformation. [po 2]
Institute of Transpersonal Psychology. (n.d.). [Brochure]. Re-
ceived March, 1999. Palo Alto, CA.
Also: Institute of Transpersonal Psychology. (n.d.). Retrieved
November 14,2001, from http://www.itp.edu/aboutltp.html
61. The experiences mystics have described since
the beginning of history are the focus of what
is today called Transpersonal Psychology-
psychology beyond the self. [po 34]
Katra, J., & Targ, R. (1999). The heart of the mind: How to expe-
rience God without belief Novato, CA: New World Library.
62. [. .. ] transpersonal psychology is the disciplined
study of behaviors and experiences that appear
to transcend those hypothetical constructs
associated with individual identities and self-
concepts, as well as their developmental
antecedents, and the implications of these
behaviors and experiences for education,
training, and psychotherapy. [po 97]
Krippner, S. (1999). The varieties of dissociative experience.
International Journal of Trans personal Psychology, 18(2),
81-101.
63. [. .. ] transpersonal psychology, is devoted to the
scientific study of what may be called the
"spiritual core" of human beings, and implies a
much broader view of the human
psychoperceptual range than that proposed in
conventional Western psychology.
[ .. .] At the heart of transpersonal psychology
is the proposal that there is a "mind" or "life"
component to consciousness that is qualitatively
different from known physical systems, and that
some transpersonal experiences are not to be
dismissed as merely interesting illusions,
unusual patterns of neural firing, and so on, but
actually tell us something about the potential
for transcending our ordinary physical limits,
as for example in out-of"body experiences. [8]
Hughes, J. (1999). Altered states: Creativity under the
influence. New York: Watson-Guptill.
64. [ ... ] between 1967 and 1969, humanistic
psychology split into at least three parts: The
first was transpersonal psychology, with its
emphasis on spiritual practice, meditation,
and higher states of consciousness. [po 274]
Taylor, E. I. (1999). Shadow culture: Psychology and spiritu-
ality inAmerica. Washington, DC: Counterpoint.
65. Transpersonal psychology is also a psychology
with a vector, with an emphasis on mental
health and optimal well-being. The human
being is assumed to be basically good and
oriented toward growth, including not just the
self, but also the transcendent levels beyond
the personal state. In asserting that there are
peak and transcendent experiences, there is
also the implicit position that these are worth
seeking, just as humanistic psychology holds
that human potential is worth exploring and
achieving. [po 197]
Hastings, A. (1999). Transpersonal psychology: The fourth
force. In D. Moss (Ed.), Humanistic and transpersonal
psychology: A historical and biographical sourcebook (pp.
192-208). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
66. Transpersonal psychology stands at the interface
of psychology and spirituality. It is the field of
psychology that integrates psychological
concepts, theories, and methods with the subject
matter and practices ofthe spiritual disciplines.
Its interests include spiritual experiences,
mystical states of consciousness, mindfulness
and meditative practices, shamanic states,
ritual, the overlap of spiritual experiences with
disturbed states such as psychosis and
depression, and the transpersonal dimensions
of interpersonal relationships, service, and
encounters with the natural world.
The core concept in transpersonal psychology
is non-duality, the recognition that each part (e.g.,
each person) is fundamentally and ultimately a
part of the whole (the cosmos). [p.4]
Davis, J. (2000). We keep asking ourselves, what is
transpersonal psychology? Guidance & Counseling, 15(3),
3-8.
Also: Davis, J. (n.d.). A brief definition of trans personal psychol-
ogy. Retrieved September 1,2000, from Metropolitan State
College of Denver Web site: http://clem.mscd.edu/-davisj/tp/
67. Transpersonal psychology, while not necessarily
denying Freudian theory, sees "trans personal"
or spiritual development as another phase of
human growth beyond the level of ordinary
personal concerns. To adherents of this
movement, transpersonal work is intended not
only to heal personal trauma, but to help
people realize their fullest potential.
[. .. ] Taken at its broadest, transpersonal
psychology encompasses all forms of
psychology that regard the "transpersonal" or
spiritual dimension to be an integral part of
the psyche; it says that developing this
dimension is part, perhaps even the core, of
the purpose of human life. [pp. 299-301]
Smoley, R., & Kinney, J. (1999). Hidden wisdom., A guide to
the Western inner traditions. New York: PenguiniArkana.
68. Transpersonal psychology seriously studies and
respects the entire spectrum of human
experience, including holotropic states, and all
the domains of the psyche-biographical,
perinatal and transpersonal. As a result, it is
more culturally sensitive and offers a way of
understanding the psyche that is universal
28 The International Journal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
and applicable to any human group and any
historical period. It also honors the spiritual
dimensions of existence and acknowledges the
deep human need for transcendental
experiences. In this context, spiritual search
appears to be an understandable and
legitimate human activity. [po 217J
Grof, S. (2000). Psychology of the future: Lessons from mod-
ern consciousness research. Albany, NY: State University
of New York Press.
69. Ordinary psychology has addressed itself to
the ego and the instinctual personality.
Transpersonal psychology, while also interested
in the ego, is especially interested in the Soul,
as a spiritual dimension that is beyond ego and
the flow of mental phenomena [. .. J
Transpersonal psychology expands the
scope of inquiry into human nature to explore
the further reaches of human development and
consciousness. Three decades of research
combining ancient wisdom with contemporary
science have yielded a rich treasury of insights.
Formerly unsuspected states of consciousness
have been discovered, with higher stages of
development and latent abilities that are
potentially available to us all.
Italian Association of Trans personal Psychology. (2000). Assisi
2000, Time of the soul: Consciousness, creativity, commit-
ment [Brochure].
70. Transpersonal psychology [. .. J aims to study
aspects of the psyche or cosmos beyond the
personal, ego, or individual, such as
spirituality and mystical experiences. It might
be considered an example of ontological
idealism (or dualism) if it posits a
transcendental realm; or epistemological
idealism, insofar as it employs the methods of
intuition and contemplation. [po 206J
Valentine, E. R. (2000). Metaphysics. In A. E. Kazdin (Ed.),
Encyclopedia of psychology (Vol. 5, pp. 204-209). New York:
Oxford University Press.
71. "Transpersonal psychology" is a branch of
psychology that is concerned with the study of
those states and processes in which people
experience a deeper or wider sense of who they
are, or a sense of greater connectedness with
others, nature, or the "spiritual" dimension. The
term "transpersonal" means "beyond the
personal" and a common assumption in
transpersonal psychology is that transpersonal
experiences involve a higher mode of
consciousness in which the ordinary mental-
egoic self is transcended.
Daniels, M. (n.d.). What is transpersonal psychology? In In-
troduction to Transpersonal Psychology. Retrieved Octo-
ber, 27, 2001, from http://www.mdani.demon.co.ukltrans/
tranintro.htm
72. "In short, transpersonal psychology stands
for the re-enchantment of psychology in com-
bination with the highest levels of theoreti-
cal and clinical perception and skill. It advo-
cates freedom and full self-realization for all
beings. It sees the meaning and value of all
things and the sacredness ofthe life journey.
Without discounting suffering-psychologi-
cal, social, political, environmental-
transpersonal psychology finds delight, com-
fort, and a sense of Home in the primal and
profound interconnection of all existence." -
John Davis
[. .. J Transpersonal Psychology stands for
the study and cultivation of optimal mental
health, and it calls for the inclusion of
spirituality in psychology as the foundation
for full human development. Psychology
benefits from a recognition and ability to work
with an expanded range of human potentials,
providing a fuller and richer understanding
of therapy and growth. At the same time,
psychological concepts and methods can
benefit transpersonal seekers. Thus,
transpersonal psychology represents the
integration of spirituality and psychology
through theory, research, and practice.
Transpersonal Counseling Psychology. (n.d.). Retrieved Oc-
tober 27, 2001, from Naropa University Web site: http://
www.naropa.edultranspersonal/
73. Transpersonal psychology embraces what
writer/philosopher Aldous Huxley (1945)
called the "perennial philosophy." This
philosophy holds the following premises:
.. The world as we know it is an expression of a
Divine ground of being.
.. Humans can know about the Divine ground
of being from inference and from direct
intuition.
.. All human beings possess a dual nature of
phenomenal ego and eternal Self.
.. Each person can identify with either the
phenomenal ego or the eternal Self and each
person's life on earth is a means to the end
of identifying with the eternal Self.
Transpersonal psychology includes in its
mission a facilitation of human development
toward these transpersonal goals, as embodied
in the perennial philosophy. As such, it
becomes a valuable resource for counselors
who seek to integrate spirituality into their
practice. [po 13J
Faiver, C., Ingersoll, R. E., O'Brien, E., & McNally, C. (2001).
Explorations in counseling and spirituality: Philosophi-
cal, practical, and personal reflections. Belmont, CA:
Brooks/Cole.
The Essence of Trans personal Psychology 29
74. transpersonal 1: extending or going beyond
the personal or individual 2: of, relating to, or
being psychology concerned esp. with esoteric
mental experience (as mysticism and altered
states of consciousness) beyond the usual
limits of ego and personality.
Merriam-Webster's collegiate dictionary. (2001, 10th ed.).
Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster.
75. It [transpersonal psychology] embraces the
combined fields of clinical psychology; spiritual
and pastoral counseling as well as any
philosophies which recognize the close connection
between the body and the spirit. Transpersonal
Psychology works on the basic assumption that
physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual
growth are interrelated. Transpersonal
Psychology focuses attention on the human
capacity for self-transcendence as well as self-
realization and is concerned with the optimum
development of consciousness. [po 1]
National Association for Transpersonal Psychology. (n.d.).
What is Transpersonal Psychology? Retrieved November
14, 2001, from http://www.starlighter.cominatp/
76. L .. ] transpersonal psychology stresses spiri-
tuality, transcendence, and compassionate
social action [ ... ] [po xxiv, n. 1]
Schneider, K. J., Bugental, J. F. T., & Pierson, J. F. (Eds.).
(2001). Introduction. In The handbook of humanistic psy-
chology: Leading edges in theory, research, and practice
(pp. xix-xxv). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
77. Transpersonal theory is concerned with the
study of the transpersonal and spiritual
dimensions of human nature and existence.
Etymologically, the term transpersonal means
beyond or through (trans-) the personal, and
is generally used in the transpersonal
literature to reflect concerns, motivations,
experiences, developmental stages (cognitive,
moral, emotional, interpersonal, etc.), modes
of being, and other phenomena that include
but transcend the sphere of the individual
personality, self, or ego. [po 5]
Ferrer, J. N. (2002). Revisioning transpersonal theory: A par-
ticipatory vision of human spirituality. Albany, NY: State
University of New York Press.
78. Compared with the positivism and reductionism
that had long dominated the field,
transpersonal psychology's inclusion and
validation of the spiritual dimension of human
experience opened the modern psychological
vision to a radically expanded universe of
realities-Eastern and Western, ancient and
contemporary, esoteric and mystical, shamanic
and therapeutic, ordinary and non-ordinary,
human and cosmic. Spirituality was now
recognized as not only an important focus of
psychological theory and research but an
essential foundation of psychological health
and healing. [po viii]
Tarnas, R. (2002). Foreword. In J. N. Ferrer, Revisioning
transpersonal theory: A participatory vision of human spiri-
tuality (p. vii-xvi). Albany, NY: State University of New
York Press.
79. Broadly inclusive, it [transpersonal psychology]
focuses on psychological, physical, and
spiritual experiences that are transpersonal-
reaching through, across, and beyond the self.
It is concerned with the study of the origins
and development of humanity's deepest
potentials and their impact on individuals,
groups, and cultures L .. ]
The field was founded with a commitment
to open inquiry, experiential and empirical
validation, and a holistic approach to human
experience.
Association for Transpersonal Psychology. (n.d.). [Flyerl. Re-
ceived January, 2002. San Francisco, CA.
80. Transpersonal psychology contributes to the
more traditional concerns ofthe discipline an
acknowledgment of the spiritual aspect of
human experience L .. ] One basic tenet of
transpersonal psychology is that there is in
each individual a deeper or true self that is
experienced in transcendent states of
consciousness. Distinct from the personality
and the personal ego, it is the source of inner
wisdom, health, and harmony. [po 452]
Fadiman, J., & Frager, R. (2002). Personality and personal
growth (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Thematic Analysis
T
o BETTER grasp the degree of congruence in
the contents of the compilation, we did a
frequency analysis of how often different themes
in the entries occurred. Table 1 presents the
themes and their associated frequencies for those
themes occurring six or more times in the 80
entries comprising the compilation. (In tabulating
frequencies we did not count the same theme
occurring more than once in a given entry.)
The most frequently occurring theme (n = 53;
66.2%) reflected going beyond or transcending the
personal, ego, or self in some sense-not
surprising, since the term "transpersonal" directly
suggests this meaning (see, e.g., Sutich, 1976).
Although this theme appeared the most frequently,
the precise meaning of terms like "ego" and "self'
have yet to be explicated and agreed upon in
30 The International Journal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
the transpersonal literature (Ferrer, 2002, p.
196, n. 9; Lajoie & Shapiro, 1992a, 1992b).10
The second most prevalent theme (n = 49;
61.2%) encompassed the notion of spirituality.
This theme, too, can be traced to the origin of
transpersonal psychology, one of the aims being
to enable the study of religious/spiritual
experiences independently of institutionalized
religion and theological frameworks (Shapiro,
1994; and see Maslow, 1970). The number of
entries that contained both ofthe most frequent
themes was 27 (33.7%).
Beyond the two prevailing themes, the
frequencies of other themes dropped precipitously,
as Table 1 indicates. These themes, occurring six
or more times, were: special states of consciousness;
interconnectivity/unity; going beyond other schools
of psychology; emphasis on a scientific approach;
mystical experience/mysticism; studying the full
range/spectrum of consciousness/experience;
emphasis on recognizing greater human potential;
inclusion of non-Western psychologies; meditation;
and the existence of a wider reality. Some examples
of infrequently occurring themes (occurring fewer
than six times) were: perennial philosophy; optimal
mental health; transformation; mystery of being;
and reality or consciousness as constructed.
Two earlier studies have some bearing on the
thematic frequency analysis. In an analysis ofthe
"Statement of Purpose" published in the Journal
of Transpersonal Psychology from its inception
in 1969 through the first issue of 1982, Lajoie,
Shapiro, and Roberts (1991) found that while some
terms were deleted in the Statement and others
were added, some terms continued to appear in
one form or another, including peak experiences,
ecstasy, mystical experience, essence, bliss, awe,
wonder, unitive consciousness, oneness, cosmic
awareness, cosmic play, spirit, sacralization of
everyday life, and individual and species-wide
synergy. Of these concepts, mystical experience,
unitive consciousness, oneness, cosmic awareness,
and spirit appear with some frequency in the
present study. However, it should be noted that
among the ongoing terms that appeared in the
Journal of Trans personal Psychology Statement,
ecstasy, bliss, awe, wonder, cosmic play, and
individual and species-wide synergy were rarely,
if ever, the subject of articles published in the
journal (Lajoie, Shapiro, & Roberts, 1991).
In a second study by Lajoie and Shapiro
(1992b), definitions of transpersonal psychology
Table 1
Thematic Frequency Analysis*
Frequency Theme
53 (66.2%) Going beyond or transcending: the
individual, ego, sel the personal, personality,
or personal identity; existence of a deeper,
authentic, or true Self
49 (61.2%)
Spirituality, psychospiritual, psychospiritual
development, the spiritual, spirit
26 (32.5%) Non-ordinary states of consciousness; altered
states of consciousness; other modes of
consciousness; transcendent states; higher
states of consciousness
17 (21.2%) In terconnectiveness; cosmIC unity or
consciousness; cosmic relationship; unity,
unitive, unitive consciousness
17 (21.2%) Goes beyond other schools of psychology
14 (17.5%) Emphasis on transpersonal psychology as a
scientific approach or discipline; using
scientific methods; integrating a scientific
approach with other approaches
14 (17.5%)
Mystical experience; mysticism
14 (17.5%)
Full range or spectrum of consciousness or
human experience
13 (16.2%) Greater / deepest/highest/ fullest/ infinite
potential
10 (12.5%)
Inclusion of non-Western psychologies
7 (8.7%)
Meditation
6 (7.5%)
Existence of a wider reality
*Based on total of 80 entries
spanning the first twenty-three years of the
transpersonal psychology movement were
compiled and subjected to a thematic frequency
analysis, similar to the present study. The most
frequent themes, occurring 15 or more times in
the 37 entries analyzed, were: states of
consciousness; highest or ultimate potential;
beyond ego or personal self; transcendence; and
spiritual. Themes that occurred 5 to 14 times
were: trans personal experience; cross-cultural
The Essence of Transpersonal Psychology 31
(Asian/East/West); inner states; unitive
consciousness; holistic; transformation; and
mystical/mysticism. Although no direct
comparison between these results and the present
study is possible because the criteria for selecting
entries in the two compilations differ,l1 we note
that most of the themes of the earlier 1992 study
are represented in our Table 1.
Our overall conclusion, based on the thematic
analysis of the entries in the compilation, is that
contemporary views of the essence of
trans personal psychology over the past decade
favor the theme of going beyond the personal and
the theme of spirituality, although, less frequently,
the essence of trans personal psychology also
reflects a variety of other characterizations.
Notes
1. Including a few from 2002 that came to our attention
before going to press early in the year.
2. The Internet is where we exercised the most selectivity,
inasmuch as this medium reflected the most idiosyncrasy
in potential entries-not surprisingly, as it is generally
less subject to external review than books and journals
and is more often associated with marketing endeavors.
The compilation is likely to be least exhaustive with
respect to the Internet, where search engines can produce
thousands of web sites with some link, however tenuous,
to the phrase "transpersonal psychology"; moreover, the
contents of web sites can periodically change.
3. We did not include entries that were a direct or nearly
direct quote of a previous entry in our compilation unless
additional substantive material was included, and in
these cases (entries 25, 65, and 80) we included only the
additional material.
4. Although we consulted several dozen English-language
dictionaries of various sizes, we only found four that
referred to trans personal psychology, though some others
contained the term "transpersonal."
5. The total number of citations for the 80 entries is 85
because five entries are listed with two sources.
6. Bracketed material, including bracketed ellipses, are
our additions unless otherwise noted.
7. The nine items in this list are captions, each of which
the author explains in more detail.
8. Cf. following variant entry of same year:
Transpersonal experiences may be defined as
experiences in which the sense of identity or self
extends beyond (trans) the individual or personal
to encompass wider aspects of humankind, life,
psyche, or cosmos [ ... J
Transpersonal psychology is the area of
psychology that focuses on the study of
trans personal experiences and related
phenomena. These phenomena include the
causes, effects and correlates of transpersonal
experiences and development, as well as the
disciplines and practices inspired by them. [po
203]
Walsh, R, & Vaughan, F. (1993). On transpersonal defini-
tions. Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 25,199-207.
9. In cases where we found another (verbatim or near-
verbatim) citation source for a given entry, we included
the additional source for the convenience of readers.
10. For an example of the potential intricacy of more
precisely characterizing a concept like ego in a single
tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, see Guenther (2001).
11. We chose to focus the present compilation on the
essence of transpersonal psychology rather than on
definitions of the field in the hope of capturing more
information about how transpersonal psychology is
conceptualized.
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New York: Viking Press. (Paperback reissue of 1964 edi-
tion; preface added 1970)
Shapiro, S. I. (1994). Religion, spirituality, and transpersonal
psychology. International Journal of Trans personal Stud-
ies, 13(1), 33-41.
Sutich, A. J. (1976). The emergence of the transpersonal ori-
entation: A personal account. Journal of Transpersonal
Psychology, 8, 5-19.
32 The Internationaljournal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
Unattached Mind
Shoshin Ichishima
Taisho University
Tokyo, Japan
1. Mind free from attachment
II. Form is identical to emptiness
III. Discern the voice through the invisible world (i.e., Avalokitefvara)
IV. "Unpremeditatedly" (Skt. anabhoga)
The Internationaljournal of Transpersonal Studies, 2002, VoL 21, 33-37 33
34 The International Journal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
UnatTached Mind 35
36 The InternationalJournal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
Ralph Augsburger
38 The International Journal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, VOL 21
The Last Time I Saw Fritz
Marc L. Joslyn
Bainbridge Island, Washington, USA
Zen is not merely an exotic practice imported from the Orient; it is the constantly fresh
realization of True Nature everywhere and at every time. So, it may be expected that sparks
of Zen will be found in all cultures. Hence, having been engaged with Zen practice since 1964,
the author reminisces here about how he turned to Zen after his study of Gestalt psychology
and his encounter with Gestalt therapy in the person of Fritz Perls. Gestalt therapy as usually
practiced is not Zen, the author concludes. But if it clears the way for a glimmer of the Self
which has no need of therapy, then Gestalt is excellent preparation for Zen.
T
HE LAST time I saw Perls as a
psychotherapist was when he told our
therapy group, in a matter-of-fact way,
that he was going to Israel to paint pictures.
Tidying up the situation, Perls gave those in the
group who wanted to continue a choice between
two Gestalt-trained therapists. A couple of the
women in the group got rather tearful, expressing
an anticipated sense of loss which was probably
what we all felt. Perhaps as periodic resolution of
therapee transference and/or as encouragement
toward mature independence, Perls had told us
in previous sessions to experimentally dialogue
with (our individual personification of) "Dr. Perls"
in an empty chair opposite. Now, in the last
session, he reminded us of such things, and
admonished us that the point of Gestalt therapy
was to become freer and more self-regulating, so
this sniffling was no compliment to him as a
therapist. Still, I think he also appreciated the
evidence that he was going to be missed.
Later he returned from Israel and other places,
took up residence at Esalen in Big Sur, California,
and became famous. I stopped by Big Sur several
times to see him while on my way north or south.
He was no longer Frederick S. Perls, M.D., Ph.D.
He was FRITZ, the laid-back, white-bearded
guru, like a model for Robert Crumb's cartoon,
Mr. Natural. The last time I saw him as Fritz or
Mr. Natural, we played a game of chess,
discovered we both had the same birthday, talked
about the phenomenology of Husserl and
Heidegger, and compared Fritz' views with the
views of Goldstein and others close to the Gestalt
school of Wertheimer and Koehler. We learned
each of us had had similar life-changing "mystic"
experiences, and we talked a little about how
everyday life could be expressed as either Gestalt
or Zen. (A short visit with a Zen Master in Japan
had disappointed him; but since he once reminded
me that all psychotherapists are not equally
insightful, I reminded him that the same was true
of Zen Masters.)
On the wall was a poster announcing an
upcoming workshop at Esalen to be given by a
popular but rather superficial "trainer" or
"facilitator." At one point, Fritz indicated the
poster and asked what I thought. I glanced at it,
looked back at Fritz and shrugged. Maybe I made
The Internationaljournal of Transpersonal Studies, 2002, VoL 21, 39-52 39
2002 by Panigada Press
a face also. Fritz nodded and said "I'm glad you
don't lump me with people like that, just because
I'm here." It was the first time I realized he cared
about my respect for him. He knew I had taken
to Zen after he left for Israel. Perhaps he noticed
that I had matured in the interim. Although he
obviously relished the physical ease and the
adulation he received at Esalen, 1 sensed he was
glad to have a visit from someone completely
outside Esalen, someone who was not a needy
therapee, not a competing therapist, someone
who obviously enjoyed his company but was
otherwise "doing his own thing."
Once in a while I considered writing a short
memoir about those times with Fritz Perls. I
wrote a piece about Zen and Gestalt therapy
(Joslyn, 1975), a longer version of which appeared
in a German journal (Joslyn, 1977), but Fritz was
not the focus. Writing about someone else is also
writing about oneself. 1 was not a member of Fritz'
family. I was not an old friend. 1 was not a
longtime colleague of his. 1 was not even a person
with a classic case of a particular disorder whom
Fritz might mention later by way of illustration.
N or was 1 ajournalist gathering facts and fancies
from others about Fritz for a synopsis of his life.
Whatever the gist of my acquaintance with Fritz,
it moved me in the direction of Zen Buddhism
after he left for Israel to paint pictures. So, here,
for a few pages, I would like to reminisce about
shared events with a remarkable individual
whose words I can only paraphrase. And in so
doing, perhaps I can convey how those events
opened my heart and mind toward Zen.
How It Began
M
y LIFE would have taken a completely
different turn had I not glimpsed a
subversive title lurking among rows of very dull
psychology textbooks. 1 blinked to be sure 1 hadn't
misread it. No, there it was, loud and clear,
Gestalt Therapy (PerIs, Hefferline, & Goodman,
1951). The grad school professor for whom 1
waited was still out of his room so I opened the
book, scanned a few pages eagerly, then noted
the authors and the publisher. "Gestalt" was
suspect enough. Adding "Therapy" to it made for
a really out-of-place title among the textbooks
about learning theory and watered-down
behaviorism which prevailed at most psych
departments in the 1950s and '60s. When the
professor returned I asked about the book and,
predictably, he apologized for its presence as
though it had sneaked into his office by accident.
After buying the book, I found that it more
than lived up to its promising title. Previously,
as an undergraduate, I had read everything I
could find on Gestalt psychology because of its
phenomenological approach, its aesthetic appeal,
and other reasons. (Wertheimer, the founder of
Gestalt psychology, by the way, was an
accomplished pianist, on the verge of becoming a
professional musician before he settled into
psychology as a profession.) Prior to getting
acquainted with Gestalt, I had read whatever I
could find by Freud, Jung,Adler, Rank, and others
associated with the psychoanalytic movement. 1
was delighted to discover then that Gestalt
Therapy was not only an amalgam of Gestalt and
psychoanalysis, it offered entirely new
perspectives as well.
In a burst of enthusiasm, I wrote a letter to
the authors, care of the publisher. Two or three
weeks later an answer arrived from Paul
Goodman. He thanked me for my praise of the
book, and referred me to Fritz Perls who was
offering both individual and group sessions in
West Los Angeles. Sensing the phenomenological
thrust of my letter, Paul Goodman also referred
me to works of Erwin W. Straus (1963, 1966) for
which he obviously had much admiration. (1
should note in passing that 1 have never heard
or seen a reference to Straus' work by any other
Gestalt therapist, yet, with no apparent
awareness of Zen literature, Straus cleared away
most of the conceptual biases in our present
scientistic worldview that can obscure Zen.) I felt
considerable gratitude toward Goodman for
mentioning Straus, and, as the work of Straus
became increasingly familiar to me, it no doubt
influenced how I interpreted what occurred with
Fritz PerIs in psychotherapy.
Meeting Perls
A
PHONE CALL got me an appointment with PerIs.
It was a long drive but I had no trouble
finding his address. Twenty"five years previously
1 had attended high school just a few blocks from
his apartment building. Indeed, arriving there
felt like returning to an important but unfinished
40 The Internationaljournal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
rt of my life. I found the door ofthe apartment,
:'ocked and waited, wondering how Perls
look. When he opened the door, I met a twmkly-
eyed, balding, moust.ached,
gentleman, with .a bow tIe, and a c.lgarette m a
holder with WhICh he gestured m a refined
European manner. He greeted me with a
pronounced German accent, and,. although he
curtly waved me in, I sensed immediate rapport.
(In the antihair era of the 1940s and '50s, beards
and long hair were rather rare in Europe and
America. I had been wearing a beard for eleven
years, and though Perls teased me once about
being rather young for it, I sensed that he quietly
approved of the beard and its association with a
bohemian life style.)
In those pre-Esalen days, Perls was still doing
some individual therapy. Mter several individual
sessions I joined one of his groups to save money,
and then, because I wanted as much experience
as possible, I joined another of his groups.
Looking back now, I feel grateful I was able to
begin with individual sessions because I got a
better sense of Perls as a person, and with that
perspective I could subsequently appreciate how
his style in group therapy was evolving. (Please
note that referring to Fritz Perls as "Perls" during
the period in West Los Angeles, and as "Fritz"
during the period in Big Sur and overall as "Fritz
Perls" is deliberate.)
Individual Sessions
T
HE fiRST thing that struck me about Perls'
style was the SILENCE. This stemmed of
course from the psychoanalytic method in which
Perls was initially trained. It's one thing however
to lie on a sofa and free-associate with a
psychoanalyst sitting quietly behind you taking
notes; it's another thing altogether to face your
therapist in silence. Later, when I became a
therapist myself, I began to appreciate the
disciplined patience needed to maintain an
effective silence in therapy. I've heard it said that
Perls was just an egoistic "showman" who liked
to perform in group therapy sessions. Such
statements, if they are not just hearsay, seem to
be made by people who only attended group
sessions at Esalen or later. Unquestionably Perls
enjoyed the APPARENT MAGIC of evoking
personal change in psychotherapy, but I don't see
that enjoying one's work is a shortcoming. And, I
doubt that anyone who experienced the silent
intensity prior to the incisive intervention ofPerls
in individual sessions would imagine that
"showman" could adequately describe his
effective style.
Having read his book, I knew that Perls
regarded HERE AND NOW AWARENESS a$ the
heart of psychotherapy, and that inability to be
fully present here and now signified unfinished
business from the past. Initially it was difficult
to attend effectively to immediate feelings,
sensations and thoughts, especially since I came
to Perls with previous therapeutic experiences
in which past events per se were given much
emphasis. I remember admiring Perls' insistence
on the present tense of verbs when doing
dreamwork, but I thought it was only a device
like "role-playing" until I experienced a
breakthrough one evening.
After years of Zen practice, I now see that
attending to the present is much deeper than it
appears, even to experienced Gestalt therapists.
Continued awareness of the present can ease the
habitual tyranny of pigeonholing events after the
fact in terms oflinear causality. It can open one
to QUALITY or the unique, IMMEDIATE
EXPERIENCE of each moment, preceding
comparative or quantitative thinking, preceding
abstract distancing. When both past and future
are experienced as now, there is nothing before
and after to hem the present in, hence the present
per se as a constricted time interval vanishes.
Whether he coined it or just quoted someone else,
the "Lose your mind and come to your senses"
slogan which Perls emphasized later on, is an
inevitable development of present awareness.
"Senses" in this case expresses one's immediate
experience before there is any separating from it
with comparisons or good/bad evaluations. "Mind"
in this case expresses the usual after-the-fact
thinking and feeling associated with unfinished
business ofthe past. (This is not Zen, but it points
to Zen.)
In one very painful session, I told Perls I
couldn't "make up my mind" or "decide" What to
do in a particular situatioil. He intruded abruptly
by asking rhetorically "What is this 'mind' you
are going to make up? Is it a bUilch of pieces to
be put together?" I COUldn't answer. Then: "Do
you know what 'decide' means?" Answering
The Last Time I Saw Fritz 41
himself, he gave me the etymology: "Decide comes
from the Latin decidere, to cut off, or cut down.
Now what are you going to cut off?" And then,
anticipating my inability to answer, he went on to
ask "Isn't it really a matter of what you PREFER,
rather than what you have to cut off?" He followed
through with the image of a primitive hunter at a
waterhole, waiting patiently for a particular
animal to emerge from the forest into the clearing.
He chided me for a tendency to respond
prematurely as though shooting at an animal
before I could actually identify it. And with that I
began to appreciate the importance of trusting
preferences in everyday activities, and, in crucial,
doubtful situations, of quietly attending until
something appropriate seems to emerge
spontaneously.
Please note here that "preference" is equally
objective and subjective in origin. It comes from
Latin prae (before) + ferre (carry, bear, put),
therefore means to bear or put before, to tend or
point toward, to imply, to relate to actually or
latently, to embrace or include, to advance or
promote. There is nothing in the origin ofthe word
restricting it to subjective use only. A rainy day,
for instance, can be said to prefer the
accompaniment of dark clouds. An arrow shot in
the air prefers (or is preferred in) taking an arc-
like trajectory before landing. Preference in this
comprehensive sense is an innate aspect of quality.
It is experienced before being separated by
comparisons or temporal series, although it is often
reduced to these, after the fact.
Nathan Ackerman came out from New York
with what was very innovative in those days:
family therapy. He gave a lecture on the subject
at a downtown Los Angeles hotel. Illustrating the
lecture was a film oftherapy sessions with a father,
a mother and two sons. It was a masterful
demonstration of a general systems view, of
psychological problems as interrelational or
TRANSPERSONAL PHENOMENA rather than
as disorders specific to individuals only. Some well
known L.A. area psychiatrists and clinical
psychologists attending the lecture began
criticizing the presentation during the coffee
break, not acknowledging any validity to
Ackerman's approach (see Ackerman, 1958). That
scene of highly touted psychotherapists nit-picking
Ackerman's work, like envious, small-minded
competitors, felt like the last straw on top of
several weeks offrustrating events at grad school.
To be reminded in what seemed like a cheap soap
opera that so-called "humanistic psychotherapy"
was not free of the mechanistic assumptions
(misapplied from physics) which prevailed in
academic psychology, that so-called professional
"objectivity" was not free of the egoism and
commercial greed of show business, put me in a
real funk.
Mter the lecture I drove to Perls' place for an
individual session. There 1 started to pace up and
down in his room, fuming about what I'd witnessed
at the Ackerman lecture, and about events at
graduate school. Perls listened for a short while,
then went to sleep, or appeared to sleep. I stopped,
touched his shoulder. "Dr. Perls?" He popped one
eye open, said "When you stop ranting I will wake
up" and closed his eye again. I stopped. Perls slowly
opened both eyes like a sleepy old frog. But soon I
was off again on the same topic. This time he cut
into my monologue with a sharp gesture and sharp
voice: "Marc! Who are you talking to?" 1 stopped,
and protested. "I'm talking to you, of course." "No!"
he shouted. Then more gently "Do you think that
after years of professional experience I don't know
what egoists, nincompoops, bureaucrats,
charlatans there are in psychiatry and psychology?
Do you think 1 am blind and deaf and feelingless?
Now, who are you really talking to?"
That stopped me again and, for five minutes or
so, I was able to talk to Perls rather than spout at
the ceiling and walls with Perls as a witness. But
gradually the feelings welled up and I was on the
verge of monologuing again when he nipped it in
the bud. He raised his hand and very quietly, very
gently, asked me about a woman I once had loved
very much. ''What would she do if you carried on
like this?" "Mmm, I guess she'd walk out to the
kitchen and make something to eat, maybe a good
soup." "Well," Perls said, "if that didn't stop you,
what then?" "Mmm. I guess she would start pulling
up her blouse. And, as soon as I saw her beautiful
breasts I'd probably forget everything else."
"All right" said Perls. "1 am not a good maker
of soups and I don't have beautiful breasts, so at,
this moment, what do you want from me, Fritz
Perls?" That abrupt summary brought me back to
awareness of the room and the reality of another
human being, a genuinely caring human being,
who was, however, not God. It was as though
previously I had been ranting at an undefined deity
42 The International Journal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
somehow responsible for everything wrong or
unfair in life. Perls then referred to an earlier
session in which I mentioned quitting work toward
what might have been an operatic career because
I couldn't stomach the self-touting egoism of many
opera singers and their mean-spirited criticism of
other singers. He asked me why I expected
psychoanalysts and others who had criticized
Ackerman's family therapy to be different from
opera singers. I replied that people who profess to
teach, guide, or function as counselors and
therapists, should be free of things like mean-
spirited criticism.
''Where did you get this Pollyanna notion? Look
at it: Human nature is human nature!" Perls
replied with what sounded like "cold-hard-facts-
of-life" cynicism. I mulled this over for several
minutes in silence, reviewing the "oughtness" or
"shouldness" of my expectations, the grief and
anger that arose when the actions of important
people belied expectations arising from their
words, their titles, or their positions. It was not
that I had to abandon a sense of the goodness of
human nature, but rather that I had to accept the
petty, selfish, mean, and even evil aspects of
human nature which accompany the goodness. I
had to accept the ridiculousness and stupidity of
taking any side of a conceptual polarity as the sole
value or truth. Light/dark, up/down, good/bad, you
name it, there must be an underlying unity to each
polarity or else the apparently conflicting entities
would be in two, totally separate worlds. Then,
out of nowhere, it seemed, a laugh arose. I began
to laugh at myself and at human nature in general
which does not appreciate its own, basic two-
sidedness but tries to gain a certainty and
predictability by fixing on one side of a polarity
and devaluating, hiding or denying the other side.
I realized later that the laughter could just as
well have gone to tears. Either way, Perls would
have affirmed the genuineness of my response,
because he too had had a deep sense ofthe sadness
of human existence. From World War Ion, Perls
underwent a series offaith-in-goodness-shattering
experiences. His sorrow, however, did not become
chronic self-pity. He could be impatient with time-
wasting indulgence in self-pity by his patients,
almost brutally impatient at times. He did not
become bitter and almost cynically fatalistic, like
Sigmund Freud. Noone who is stuck in chronic
cynicism can wholeheartedly espouse Gestalt
therapy. Life is not a Boy Scout arrangement with
an exact balance of merits and demerits for one's
good and bad behavior. There is anger and then
there is grief in giving up a Boy Scout sort of
worldview but this does not mean concluding that
life is meaningless, purposeless and chaotic. A
basic tenet of Gestalt therapy is that natura sanat
non medicus, NATURE CURES, not the doctor,
but this could not be so unless mind and body are
more or less SELF-REGULATING (see Paul
Goodman, 1977).
One of the most useful features of Gestalt
therapy is its metaphor for any need or interest
(hunger, thirst, sexual desire, and so on) as a
figural arc proceeding from arousal to fulfillment,
like the arcing phrase line of a melody. There are
stages in the natural unfolding of this arc on its
way from appearance to disappearance. And each
stage can become "problematic," a point clung to
in an attempt to prevent the unfolding of the next
stage. Letting go of the last stage in the arc is
particularly problematic and very likely represents
the human tendency to deny death in all its actual
or symbolic forms. (The work by Ernest Becker
[1973] on the denial of death, provides an
important link between Freud's rather forced
notion of "death instinct" and the insights of Per Is
and Goodman about problems ofletting an aspect
of ego "die," when the arc of need or interest is
completed.)
A simple illustration which emerged in
dreamwork with Perls is the reaction I had after
a very nice birthday party when I was six or seven
years old. It was a late summer afternoon. The
presents had been opened, the cake eaten, and
everyone had gone home, and I felt very sad. I was
clinging to the visual and auditory images of the
gifts unwrapped, the cake uneaten, and my friends
still present. Had I "died" to those things I could
instead have enjoyed the feeling of a full stomach,
and perhaps dozed off for a little siesta, then, on
awakening, been "reborn" with a new interest.
A more detailed illustration of this feature of
Gestalt therapy is a dream I had about losing a
large piece of my hand with three fingers because
of a fishing accident. In the dream I would put
the piece of my hand in the kitchen freezer every
night, take it out in the morning, and somehow
attach it to my hand before leaving the house,
pretending in the dream that my hand was still
whole. Perls skillfully kept me from distancing
The Last Time I Saw Fritz 43
myself from the actual experience of the dream,
and I had to agonizingly realize the loss of
something important in my life. The next night I
dreamed that instead of putting the (now grey
and gangrenous) piece of hand in the freezer, I
gave up and dumped it in the garbage bin. Two
or three weeks went by. Then one night I dreamt
that as I looked at my crescent-shaped, thumb
and little finger hand, I discovered three, tiny
green shoots sprouting up where the lost fingers
used to be. I had taken on faith the ancient
principle of natura sanat adopted by Gestalt
therapy as the principle of self-regulation. In the
changes of my life following this dream, I realized
that natura sanat is not just a nice theory.
Group Sessions
T
HE MOST notable feature of group sessions was
the initial SILENCE which had an effect that
seemed more acute even than when it occurred in
individual sessions. Typically, each person in the
group wanted to get the attention ofPerls and the
group for this or that "problem." But the price of
such attention was radical honesty. So we waited
in silence, caught between wanting attention on
the one hand, and anxiety on the other hand about
possibly incurring group criticism for lack of
honesty. Tension mounted considerably with the
silence. For those who habitually relieved tension
by fidgeting, the silence was especially
discomforting because they had to restrain
movements like leg-jiggling or fingernail-biting in
an effort to appear collected and calm. The heavy
and almost loud silence was broken only when
someone overcame the anxiety (of being scorned
for phoniness) and gave in to the urge for sharing.
As soon as someone else spoke up, each of us
probably felt both envy (e.g., "It's not fair that she
is getting all this sympathy; my problem is much
more pressing!") and relief (e.g., "Thank goodness
the group is not getting on my case for beating
around the bush like he's doing now"). Perls
cultivated silence as the GROUND around which
and in which all personal events and group
reactions were FIGURES or gestalts. Usually he
stared at the walls or the ceiling while quietly
smoking a cigarette. He seemed to be totally
unconcerned about what we were doing, or not
doing, almost as if he were in another world.
Subsequently, however, it became evident that not
directly, not frontally, but peripherally, so to speak,
he was :monitoring our actions and reactions before
anyone spoke up.
I can appreciate now that we were getting
PHENOMENOLOGICAL TRAINING. The silence
fostered an uncluttering of secondary concerns, so
that a primary concern came more into focus.
HONESTY involved staying with one's immediate
feelings, perceptions and thoughts as much as
possible without interpreting, justifying or
explaining away one's immediate experience in
terms of past events or future expectations. An
example of such honesty might be the matter of
professional status in the group. Several ofuB were
already licensed professional therapists, or
working toward that end. There was an initial
tendency then to let the group know that one was
a "shrink" and not just a "patient." Perls
encouraged the group to short-circuit all attempts
toward establishing a professional "pecking order."
He had criticized me during an individual
session for quoting a passage from Gestalt Therapy
(Perls, Hefferline, & Goodman, 1951). At first I
thought maybe he was just antitheory; then I
recalled hearing some scuttlebutt about him being
envious and critical of Paul Goodman's
contribution to the theoretical parts of Gestalt
Therapy. Finally I realized his attitude was simply
part of the basic here-and-now orientation of
Gestalt therapy. On occasions outside a
therapeutic session, Perls might welcome a
theoretical discussion, such as the one we once had
about Martin Heidegger's Being and Time (1962).
In a therapeutic session, however, we were all
JUST HUMAN BEINGS SHARING wherever we
were at, trusting that in the Gestalt process
something of value to each of us would emerge.
Trying to step outside the group by way of claiming
to be a therapist rather than a therapee was a
denial of the process,juBt as distancing from one's
immediate feelings by abstractly quoting from a
book was a denial.
Feeling as though one were in a ''hot seat" when
evoking the group's attention, became formalized
later with the label HOT SEAT for a particular
chair in the group. Again, from hearsay only, or
from late-coming acquaintance with group
sessions, some people have spoken ofthe hot seat
and other chair assignments as though they were
mechanical ploys unique to Perls' groups, and not
really necessary to Gestalt therapy. Once while
44 The Internationaljournal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
conducting a workshop myself, I saw firsthand how
any method could become routine and then be
played out meaninglessly. A young man in the
group was quite adept at mindlessly going back
and forth between TWO CHAIRS, expressing this
aspect of himself or his situation, then expressing
that aspect. To break up the automation, I told
him to take a third chair and describe the other
two chairs getting alternately occupied by
in-the-box character. From the humor in this view
of his behavior, the young man was able to break
through to something more genuine. The point is
that therapeutic methods like the hot seat and two-
chair dialogues, while useful, are not absolutely
necessary to good therapy. Like other therapeutic
methods, they evolved quite naturally within Perls'
groups; they were not arbitrarily invented by Perls,
nor were they used mechanically by Perls. I am
certain that were he to notice any method
becoming just a rote part of the therapeutic
process, Perls would have modified it to evoke a
spontaneous response.
Another memorable feature of group sessions
was the question with which Perls challenged
professionals or would-be professionals: "Why do
you want to be a psychotherapist?" He had already
put me through that gauntlet in individual
sessions: "THERAPIST! WHY?" The usual, cliche
answer is "I want to help other people."
"Boolsheet!" he might reply. Of course one wants
to help other people but making a career of it is
another matter. When a career is involved, there
are other reasons of which Perls wanted us to
become aware. Most importantly, it seemed, he
wanted to bring to light the peripheral assumption
that we can solve our own problems by solving
problems for other people. Do-gooders are all too
likely to hold this assumption, thereby postponing
dealing with their own problems which will then
commingle with the problems of their patients or
clients.
I had a dream about a toy dump truck rusting
away in a sand pile. I mentioned the dream in
pl:1.ssing on to another topic, but Perls insisted I
back up and work on the dream by regarding it in
a manner. At a certain critical point
in my narrative he told me to BECOME THE
OBJECT in my dream. I resisted. Then, trusting
Perls' direction, I gave over to imagining myself
being the little red truck. Immediately there was
a sense that I (as the truck) had been rusting away
on that sand pile for aeons, abandoned by a child
in some long-gone, mythological past. From the
sadness of being the toy truck in a dream, I recalled
getting such a truck for Christmas when I was a
child. I recalled asking my father to help me
extricate the little truck from a Santa Claus
stocking hanging from the fireplace mantel. Right
away it became my favorite toy. I could play with
it for hours in the backyard sandbox of my great-
grandmother's house in Santa Monica, California.
I can still appreciate its fire-engine red color, its
metallic heaviness and angularity, its coolness if
it had been in the shade for a while, or hotness if
it had been in the sun. I recalled filling the truck
with sand, then driving it (brum, brum) over to ...
Suddenly this all-engrossing activity was
broken by the sound of a woman weeping. I
recalled how I stopped playing in the
sand ... listened ... realized it was my mother. She
was in the screened area at the back of the house.
Naturally I hurried there to see what the matter
was. Noticing me, she started to wipe away her
tears, seeming to regret that I overheard her.
"What's the matter, mommy?" She gave me a hug
but denied anything was wrong. I didn't believe
her. I had sensed for several weeks that something
was amiss. I wanted to do something for my
mother, wanted to feel I could make a difference,
wanted to ensure in a vague childlike way that
my mother (on whom I and my younger siblings
depended) wouldn't break down. My father, who
should have been taking this responsibility, wasn't
home. (We were in the midst ofthe big depression
,and, in spite of his law degree, father was away
trying to sell something or other door-to-door.)
Later I learned that my parents were on the
brink of separating. I was only four years old but
I feared the breakup might be my fault and I felt
somehow responsible for my mother's well-being.
While I was telling the group about these
memories, an insightful woman in the group
brought me back to the little red truck. (We were
all learning a group process, helping as well as
being helped.) I began choking up, seeing that
although my mother later remarried happily,
when I left the truck in the sand pile, I left it
forever. It was equivalent to emotionally
abandoning part of childhood and beginning to
take the premature role of a "parental child."
Perls prompted me to follow through with the old,
unfinished business, and in doing so I realized
The Last Time I Saw Fritz 45
my desire to become a psychotherapist was
strongly influenced by this childhood event.
Several times after that, Peds prodded me into
becoming aware of other unfinished business
involved in my goal of becoming a psychotherapist.
On another occasion in the group, I worked on
a dream about walking through a cemetery. Peds
kept herding me, like a sheepdog caring for a
wayward lamb. He asked me to report in detail
what I was experiencing. I described the direction
in which I was walking, the shapes of headstones,
the names and dates on them, and so forth. While
this was occurring, I experienced pain in my eyes
that increased as I progressed down a particular
row of graves. Then I was silent for a while. Peds
asked me in what direction I was walking, and,
when I told him, insisted that I return to the
previous row. I resisted because the pain in my
eyes suddenly came back. "Look!" Peds insisted.
"Tell us what you see" (in the dream of course).
The pain increased. "Don't avoid it. Look! Tell us
what you see," he insisted. Overcoming
considerable resistance, almost whispering, I
reported that I saw the name of my little brother
on the headstone, and a death date indicating he
was four or five years old at the time ofthis dream
death. And I saw with a jolt that I had wished for
the death of my brother on some occasion.
"Okay, Mr. Nice Guy," said Peds sarcastically.
I didn't hear him at first. My attention was
absorbed in the fact that when I stated without
hedging what I saw and accepted responsibility
for the implied violence in what I saw, the pain in
my eyes ceased. Then I heard Peds saying "Now
you begin to recognize your not-so-nice side, Marc."
That was probably the hardest moment in my
therapy with Peds. I had to let go of an idealized
feature in my self-image, but it started a freeing
process that went on for several years afterward.
Therapeutic Insights
A
s I write this I am surprised to discover I
remember much more than I thought
possible. Now, instead of thinking I can easily
cover the important features of my interaction
with Peds in a few pages, I have become aware
of more and more details of interest that must be
left out to bring this essay to a close. And the
choice of what and what not to include is
becoming more and more arbitrary.
A fellow in one of Peds' groups complained
about the anxiety that was sabotaging his
creative work. Peds told him to quit talking about
anxiety and to actually manifest the anxiety
instead. In effect, Peds used "negative psychology"
or PRESCRIBING THE SYMPTOMS, that is,
assigning the very thing which the therapee wants
to avoid. Some critics might claim that Perls
borrowed this kind of therapeutic intervention
from Viktor Frankl (1978), but it follows quite
naturally from the dynamic principles of Gestalt
therapy, as can be seen, for example, in the related
prescription above of experimentally "becoming"
any person or thing encountered in one's dreams.
Prescribing symptoms subsequently became a
fine art in the work oftherapists associated with
Milton Erickson, Gregory Bateson, and Don
Jackson (see, e.g., Jay Haley, 1973, or Paul
Watzlawick and his associates, 1974). Perls,
however, was a master of prescribing the
symptoms in his own way.
After carefully watching what had been
described as "anxiety," Perls told the fellow to
CHANGE THE WORDING; in place of "I am
anxious or scared" to say experimentally "I am
excited." The fellow protested, but what a
difference in his behavior after he changed the
label of his experience! He began to see that in
imagining he was losing control he had been
sabotaging the enthusiasm which accompanies
the arising of new, creative ideas. On another
occasion, a fellow spoke about suffering guilt.
Guilt was prescribed and after watching what
was supposedly guilty behavior, Perls asked him
to experimentally change the wording and say "I
am angry." Again, the change in behavior labeling
had a noticeably clarifying effect.
Whenever anyone in the group really gave
their best to the situation, nakedly exposing deep
feelings, Perls could be quite protective. On
occasion I've heard people say he was cruel but I
would strongly object to that characterization. In
the first place, Gestalt was emerging as an on-
the-spot, short-term therapy which bypassed the
years of free-associating on a couch and working
out the dynamics of transference demanded by
psychoanalytic therapy. If definite changes of
attitude and behavior are to occur in a shorter
period, a lot oftime wasted on "amenities" has to
be pruned out. Also, as mentioned previously,
from his life-and-death experiences Perls had
46 The International Journal ofTranspersonal Studies, 2002, VOL 21
little patience with the superficialities, self-
justifications, and time-wasting games that
people can play in psychotherapy.
Once, only once did I challenge his style. I
thought he was abetting a kind of group gang-up
on a young woman who was expressing some
sentiments related to her Roman Catholic
background. I called Perls a "frustrated rabbi"
(meaning he was denying religious values
because of an unacknowledged desire to be
recognized as a religious leader). He took the
comment quite well. And later he waived the
apology I offered when I saw what he had seen:
The woman was trying to con the group into
accepting her masochistic attitude as an
unchangeable part of her religious upbringing.
Perls had an unusual grasp of metaphors
which express attitudes in physical terms. A man
complained about weather conditions, room and
body temperatures, as though they had nothing
to do with his emotional state. Perls asked him
about an upcoming job change (the change was
feared) and then about his girlfriend (her pressing
for marriage was repeatedly put off). Perls
commented: "You've got a good case of cold feet,
don't you!" A woman complained she was the
object of unwanted sexual attention day and
night, yet she dressed, did her makeup, walked,
and talked as though she were inviting such
attention. Perls asked her to stand up, then he
walked over and gestured very gently as though
he were going to push her. She fell back into her
chair, arms and legs akimbo. Perls commented
"You're a real pushover, aren't you!" Gestalt
Therapy Verbatim (Perls, 1969b) contains a
variety of such therapeutic exchanges.
Closing Comments
I
F PERLS and Goodman were alive now, I wonder
what they would say about the present state of
psychotherapy in general and Gestalt therapy in
particular. They respected comprehensive theory
and effective techniques, but they were also leery
of what might be called the "bureaucratizing" of
their insights. To put it another way, they
regarded themselves as artists and while there
may be science in an art, art cannot be reduced
to science, still less to scientism (where the
metaphysics of science are assumed to be
absolute). While Perls did not write novels like
Goodman, he painted pictures (some of which
hung in his West Los Angeles apartment and
were, to my eye, quite good). And during our first
individual session he said ifhe had had any talent
as a musician, he would not have gone into
psychiatry. With that remark he was probably
testing my resolve to continue in psychology
despite the irrelevance then of most academic
psychology to real life, but I had no doubt it was
an echo of what he faced as a young man seeking
an appropriate career.
What is the APPROPRIATE behavior in a
particular time and place? That may be the final
criterion of "mental health." And it may well be
the final criterion in many other human
evaluations. "Appropriate" is another name for
the "just-so-ness," "suchness" or "fittingness," of
relationships in and around an event.
Appropriate(ness) expresses the unique,
unrepeatable QUALITY of any event. Once
appropriateness is manifested it can be regarded
as PREFERENCE in the double-sided sense of
that word mentioned previously. But appropriate
to what, for what, and who is to say?
Appropriateness depends on human evaluation,
but human evaluation changes from time to time
and place to place. How can we be certain about
things if they're not reducible to timeless and
fixed entities? How can we control nature and
predict natural events if our means are not
purged of the vagaries of hum an evaluation? That
is more or less the attitude elaborated in the
worldview we inherited from the so-called Age of
Reason in Europe.
Descartes and others of that time assumed the
only things people can agree on are numbers or
quantitative relations, and formulations put in
terms of numbers. Therefore, to be scientific,
everything we see must be reduced to notions like
size or speed of movement to which numbers can
be attached. Otherwise, our experience must be
dismissed as subjective and anthropocentric. In
effect, any phenomenon must be reduced for the
most part to visual representation (a denial of
the relevance of all "lower" sensory, emotional and
kinetic input to perception), must be repeatable
(a denial ofthe uniqueness of every moment and
a denial of the true nature of change), must have
a specific boundary (not overlap in any way with
other phenomena), must have a specific location
(a denial of the dynamic, interactive quality of
The Last Time I Saw Pritz 47
all events), and must lend itself to being
subdivided in such a way that its parts can be
measured, or it is not "real."
What word can be used to effectively transcend
the kind of reductionism we have inherited from
the eighteenth century? There is no word, it seems,
which will not subject us to possible derision for
refusing to accept a worldview where "life" and
"mind" are illusory phenomena reducible to
abstractions derived from measurements of dead
matter, that all ofus (as life and mind) are isolated
from our own bodies, from other human beings,
and from nature, our implacable enemy. Hence
"artist" is probably as good (or bad) as any other
word to describe Perls and Goodman in their
approach to life, to problems in human nature, and
to Gestalt therapy.
Along with the musically gifted Max
Wertheimer, founder of Gestalt psychology, to
whom Perls dedicated his first book (1947/1966),
Kurt Goldstein (1939, 1940/1963) with his
organismic psychology also had a strong influence
on Perls. And it is interesting to note that
Goldstein regarded his work as continuing the
tradition of Goethe, the great German poet and
playwright whose extensive research in botany
and several other fields of science (though sadly
neglected hy scientists in his time) is now
emerging as a model of how scientific research
can be done in a context which no longer tries to
bypass or replace the human side of experience.
Bortoft (1996), and several other physicists
contributing to a volume by Seamon and Zajonc
(1998) have elaborated on various perspectives
of Goethe's original work and its potential for the
future. (For an historical view of the various
forms of holism derived from antiatomistic
sentiment in German culture, some of which
fostered the views of Goldstein and others of Per Is'
generation, see Harrington, 1996.)
Among contemporary physicists and other
scientists who have taken a stance outside the
"strait and narrow" orthodoxy of scientism
(although they are not in the Goethian tradition),
I might mention Bohm (1982), Bohm and Peat
(1987), Bohm and Hiley (1993), Jones (1982,
1992), Nalimov (1981,1982), and Toulmin (1990).
N ow, leading back from art to trust in
appropriateness, here is a. comment I made
(Joslyn, 1975, p. 234) in a previous essay about
Gestalt therapy. "Whenever a dispute ... arises
between people and someone says finally, 'Well,
who's to say?' the commonplace mystery of
appropriateness is being evoked. Yes indeed, who
is to say? And who is to systematize this profound
sense of fittingness? But now and again someone
like Perls tries." In the present essay I've
mentioned silence, here-and-now awareness,
quality (unique, irreducible experience),
immediate (unmediated) experience, preference
(as both objective and subjective), interrelational
(transpersonal) phenomena, natura sanat (self-
regulation), phenomenological training, radical
honesty, and so forth. These were features in my
personal encounter with Perls which point toward
Zen. To offer a more general supplement,
something should also be said about how Perls
and his coauthors organized their concepts of
appropriateness in the book Gestalt Therapy.
Let's look at a summary of the book plan.
In a neurotic splitting, one part is kept in
unawareness, or it is coldly recognized but
alienated from concern, or both parts are
carefully isolated from each other and made
to seem irrelevant to each other, avoiding
conflict and maintaining the status quo. But
if in an urgent present situation, whether in
the physician's office or in society, one
concentrates awareness on the unaware part
or on the "irrelevant" connections, then
anxiety develops, the result of inhibiting the
creative unification. The method of treatment
is to come into closer and closer contact with
the present crisis, until one identifies, risking
the leap into the unknown with the coming
creative integration of the split.
This book concentrates on and seeks to
interpret a series of such basic neurotic
dichotomies of theory leading up to a theory
of the self and its creative action. We proceed
from problems of primary perception and
reality through considerations of human
development and speech to problems of
society, morals, and personality. Successively
we draw attention to the following neurotic
dichotomies, some of which are universally
prevalent, some of which have been dissolved
in the history of psychotherapy but are still
otherwise assumed, and some of which (of
course) are prejudices of psychotherapy itself.
(PerIs, HefferIine, & Goodman, 1951, p. 240,
emphases added)
Someone once told me that Goodman was more
of a theorist than Perls, and that Goodman wrote
most ofthis section ofthe book. Be that as it may,
I assume all three authors shared more or less in
48. The International Journal ofTranspersonal Studies, 2002, VOL 21
the views expressed, whoever did the actual
writing. (Perls' previous book [1947/1966] is
evidence enough ofms ability to theorize in a very
original manner.) What follows is a list of the
main dichotomies discussed in the book plan.
"Body" and "Mind ": this split is still popularly
current, although among the best physicians
the psychosomatic unity is taken for granted.
We shall show that it is the exercise of a
habitual and finally unaware deliberateness
in the face of chronic emergency, especially
the threat to organic functioning, that has
made this crippling division inevitable and
almost endemic, resulting in the joylessness
and gracelessness of our culture ...
"Self" and "External World": this division
is an article of faith uniformly throughout
modern western science. It goes along with
the previous split, but perhaps with more
emphasis on threats of a political and inter-
personal nature. Unfortunately those who in
the history of recent philosophy have shown
the absurdity of this division have mostly
themselves been infected with either a kind
of mentalism or materialism ...
"Emotional" (subjective) and "Real"
(objective): this split is again a general
scientific article of faith, unitarily involved
with the preceding. It is a result of the
avoidance of contact and involvement and the
deliberate isolation ofthe sensoric and motoric
functions from each other. (The recent history
of statistical sociology is a study in these
avoidances raised to a fine art.) We shall try
to show that the real is intrinsically an
involvement or "engagement." (Perls,
Hefferline, & Goodman, 1951, pp. 240-242)
Other dichotomies follow like Infantile 1
Mature, Biologicall Cultural, Poetry 1 Prose,
Spontaneous 1 Deliberate, Personal 1 Social, Love 1
Aggression, Unconscious 1 Conscious. But the first
three almost synonymous dichotomies given
above, are the most important. It took much
courage for these authors to shake the prevailing
cliches of academic psychology and psychotherapy
in 1950. When the split of self versus external
world is no longer accepted, when it becomes
obvious that "reality" is not a given set of objective
circumstances imposed on us from the outside but
rather the outcome of a subject-object interaction,
and when it becomes evident that many social
and ecological ills are linked with the previous
split, one is inevitably drawn to social criticism,
whether or not this is openly stated. One might
say that Goodman, as a born U.S. citizen, took
freedom of speech for granted and was therefore
more vociferous as a social critic (see, e.g.,
Goodman, 1960, 1964) than Perls, who, as a
survivor of World War I and then Naziism, might
have been more cautious. But Perls was not
lacking in courage and could be quite outspoken
about whatever he experienced as shallow or
phony. I think the difference is rather that Perls
had less faith than Goodman in social processes
on a larger scale, even in a democratic country.
The "I do my thing and you do your thing"
slogan associated with Perls in his late period
appears antisocial to some. I think it arose from
a kind of "anarchistic" feeling, not uncommon in
those who survived the worst of Fascism or
Communism and either of the two world wars.
Beyond close and well-tested relationships with
a few others, such people had a healthy
skepticism about the genuineness of large-scale
human caring, honesty, and fairness. They might
give all their belongings or even their lives for
close friends in dire need. But toward shallow
relationships with artificial closeness that even
had a scent of Big Government propaganda or
Big Business advertising, they felt unremitting
suspicion. To them, "your thing" and "my thing"
may overlap or even be the same, but this
potential relationship must unfold of its own
accord without external forcing; meanwhile it is
better not to assume it.
When the split of self versus external world is
no longer accepted as reality per se, it is not only
the cliches of social reality that become exposed
for what they are, the atomistic and mechanistic
biases of "scientism" in general become evident
as well. When we are IN AND OF THIS WORLD,
no longer regarding ourselves as isolated minds
reducible to brains, reducible to genes, reducible
to subatomic particles, we may realize that nature
is not just dead matter, not coldly indifferent or
even hostile to us. We are free, for example, to
view the "Big Bang" theory about the origin of
the universe not as "gospel truth" but rather as
an interpretative model (of some observed facts)
which will eventually give way to another model
(in the way of all past models). We are free to
create a working philosophy about all aspects of
existence as they relate to our everyday lives,
from atoms to galaxies, and from amoebas to
human beings. We do not have to suspend sensing
and thinking or living in terms of what we sense
The Last Time I Saw Fritz 49
and think until some final word about "reality"
is formulated by professional cosmologists. THE
final model of existence will never be attained,
but meanwhile life demands that it be
meaningfully lived, here and now, all the time.
In theorizing about neurotic dichotomies, Perls
and his coauthors avoided the extremes of
"mentalism or materialism" which they warned
against in the quotation above. And they went
on to offer many insightful observations about
human experience which could foster abiding
interest in a meditative practice like Zen. Still,
various aspects of Gestalt Therapy and other
writings indicate that Perls and his coauthors
were unable to completely break through the
dualisms we have all inherited.
Take for instance the "sequence of fixations"
(Perls, Hefferline, & Goodman, 1951, pp. 460-461):
confluence, introjection, projection, retroflection,
egotism. Theoretically brilliant and therapeutically
very useful though these concepts are, they still
exhibit Freudian dualism. "Projection" denotes a
throwing outside of that which belongs inside,
and vice versa with "introjection." If (as Perls
maintains elsewhere) there is no such thing as
an organism separate from its environment, how
can something be "thrown" from inside to outside,
or vice versa? With no further explanation, inside
and outside per se refer to the same old split of
(self as) mind versus body, or (self as) body
versus the environment. Fixation could more
appropriately be termed "misallocation" WITHIN
a subject-object continuity, thus projection is
misallocation toward object, and introjection is
misallocation toward subject.
From Zen experience one discovers that "ego"
(or what is usually thought of as an intentional
"I am") is not at all synonymous with the unity
or continuity of subject-object. This unity is not a
synthesis of subject and object; it precedes the
distinction of subject and object. It could be called
Self (with a capItal S); it could also be called
Nature, or God, but ultimately it is unnameable.
It is the indivisible ground of all our experience,
and yet it is "empty" or indefineable. Unless it is
realized that ego is not Self, the term "confluence"
is confusing; it should denote a lack of distinction
between ego and non-ego, not a lack of absolute
dualism within Self. "Egotism" (the opposite of
confluence) denotes a fixation to a present "I"
holding out against a change to a future "1"; if
the true nature of Self is understood, however,
egotism is more economically regarded as
ignorance of Self, or denial of Self, and therefore
lack of trust about letting a present ego fixation
vanish for new, emerging experience.
Much more, of course, could be written in
appreciation of Gestalt therapy as a process of
unlearning or uncluttering in preparation for Zen,
even when it is later realized that Gestalt therapy
is not synonymous with Zen. What I've written
can hardly suffice, but must do. I would like to
conclude, oddly enough, with a quote from
historian Jacques Barzun which expresses for me
the general sense of daring to live in terms of
Gestalt psychology and Gestalt therapy, and the
specific sense of knowing Fritz Perls:
I think I have shown how far modern man is
from worshiping himself. He has given up
even self-respect. If he is to climb out of his
abyss, I repeat he must again philosophize.
For to be a philosopher in the sense I mean
is identical with being a man, and to be a
man anthropos must be willing to be
anthropomorphic. He can put what limitations
he pleases on this indulgence, but he needs
no technical authorization to feel fully
himself ... His imagination ranges everywhere
and its conflicting intuitions impel him to
discover and remake the universe, never
finally, never satisfactorily, but always with
exaltation of tragedy, and, when no
Puritanism prevents, with the gaiety of
comedy. In imagination man can infer from
the present universe what it was millions of
years before his advent; and he can also see
that it did not exist in the full sense without
him; without him it is colorless, soundless,
absolutely unorganized by categories of
thoughts and words: as the poet said: "Earth
was not Earth before her sons appeared" ... It
is this indispensability of man for every
purpose which makes his present self-
cornering in our scientific culture at once
pathetic and perverse. (Barzun, 1964, pp. 305-
306)
"Philosophy" here is not an ivory tower
substitute for real life. It is regaining the freedom
to examine your world view, such as it may be,
and to concede no aspect of it to the hearsay of
parents, teachers, religious or political leaders,
scientists, great books, or other authorities apart
from your immediate experience. It is breaking
50 The International Journal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol 21
through the idolatry of reified words,
rediscovering what Barfield (1976, 1985) called
"original participation" and learning to take full
responsibility for the allocation of meaning and
the redefining of events in your life. Becoming a
philosopher in this sense is not yet Zen either,
but it seems to be a necessary prerequisite to Zen.
One must take the scary, lonesome and
apparently presumptuous risk of challenging the
gods: "What? Me know better than the Gods? Yes,
yes, yes! I can see they are half-blind. Not as blind
as the materialists and the spiritualists [body or
mind extremists], but they too have prejudices
galore. Perhaps one day I will find the truth. Yes,
pompous thought, the truth!" (Perls, 1969a, p. 3)
In so far as Gestalt therapy is rooted in
everyday life, Zen realization is always a latent
possibility. In so far as Gestalt therapy is a
method or means unto itself, Zen is a million
miles away. To put this in a Zen way, "When you
meet a Gestalt therapist, or Gestalt therapee,
eradicate himlher." (Once when I tried to corner
my Zen Master with a Zen question, he looked
up over his spectacles and said "Not now; now
there is only old Japanese gentleman reading
newspaper.") Unless a Gestalt therapee intends
to become a therapist himlherself, the theories
and methods of Gestalt can be reassimilated to
everyday life. A Gestalt therapist ought to be free
ofthe theories and methods of Gestalt even while
practicing Gestalt. Carl Gustav Jung reportedly
said in his old age "I am not a Jungian." Similarly,
when confronted with some of the present-day
disputes about what is or is not officially Gestalt,
Fritz Perls, were he still alive might well say, "I
am not a Gestaltist."
Zen might be described as the fulfillment of
realizing the Self that from the very beginning
has no need for therapy. Followers of great
founders tend to ape, to take literally, and to fixate
the initial insights of the founders. To
appropriately honor Fritz Perls and the other
founders of Gestalt therapy, we need to be free to
rediscover everything they discovered afresh.
That would be the Zen way. My encounter with
Fritz Perls came at a crucial time. Without it I
might not have found the courage to hold out in
what for a long time seemed like turning the
world and myself inside out. So, I want to close
with this acknowledgment:
Maybe you fulfilled your quest before you died.
But if you failed it matters not; though
Forty years have passed you are still here.
So manifest your Buddha Nature now with me.
See!
Thank you
Fritz,
and
GASSRO!
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The Last Time I Saw Fritz 51
Joslyn, M. (1977). Zen und Gestalttherapie [Zen and Gestalt
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for publication with reprint of Ego, hunger and aggression,
now available at http://www.gestalt.org/contents.htmJ
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52 The International Journal ofTranspersonal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
Painting by David Parker
Spring Essence
The Poetry ofH6 Xuan HU'o'ng
John Balaban
North Carolina State University-Raleigh
Raleigh, North Catolina, USA
H
6 Xuan HU'o'ng-her given name means "Spring Essence"-was
born around 1780 at the end of the second Le Dynasty, a period of
calamity and social disintegration. Her fame in Vietnam as a poet
and cultural figure continues to this day. A concubine, although a high-
ranking one, she followed Chinese classical styles in her poetry, but preferred
to write in Nom, the language of ordinary Vietnamese. And while her prosody
followed traditional forms, her poems were anything but conventional:
Whether about mountain landscapes, or longings after love, or apparently
about such common things as a fan, weaving, some fruit, or even a river
snail, almost all her poems were double entendres with hidden sexual
meaning. In a Confucian tradition that banished the nude from art, writing
about sex was unheard of. And, if this were not enough to incur disfavor in
a time when impropriety was punished by the sword, she wrote poems which
ridiculed the authority of the decaying Buddhist Church, the feudal state,
and Confucian society. Yet, because of her stunning poetic cleverness, she
and her poems survived. Young scholar-poets came to match wits with her.
Her poems were copied by hand for almost one hundred years before they
finally saw a woodblock printing in 1909.
The book I have edited and translated, Spring Essence: The Poetry of H6
Xuan HU'o'ng (Copper Canyon Press, 2000), is the first printing of her
collected poetry in any Western language. Indeed, it is the first time that
her poems have been actually printed in the Nom she wrote in, rather than
passed on by hand or copied in limited woodblock editions.
Note: The poems appearing here are from John Balaban, editor and translator, Spring Essence: The Poetry of HIi'Xuan
HU'o'ng. Copyright 2000 by John Balaban. Reprinted with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P. O. Box271,
Port Townsend, WA 98368-0271, USA.
The InternationalJournal of Transpersonal Studies, 2002, Vol 21, 5 3 ~ 5 8 53
Autumn Landscape
Drop by drop rain slaps the banana leaves.
Praise whoever sketched this desolate scene:
the lush, dark canopies of the gnarled trees,
the long river, sliding smooth and white.
I lift my wine flask, drunk with rivers and hills.
My backpack, breathing moonlight, sags with poems.
Look, and love everyone.
Whoever sees this landscape is stunned.
54 The InternationalJournal ofTranspersonal Studies, 2002, Vol 21
The Retired Doctor
He couldn't care less about carriages or staves.
Sitting cross-legged on his veranda,
pouring out heavenly wine for old friends,
he offers toasts with this immortal cure.
He recites "Lu'o'ong-Phil" for people near and far.
Zithers "Tall Mountain" for dwellers of peaks and clouds.
Finding great peace again and again
he claps out rhythms, shouts out joy.
Spring Essence 55
The Lustful Monk
A life in religion weighs heavier than stone.
Everything can rest on just one little thing.
My boat of compassion would have sailed to Paradise
if only bad winds hadn't turned me around.
56 The International Journal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
Country Scene
The waterfall plunges in mist.
Who can describe this desolate scene:
the long white river sliding through
the emerald shadows of the ancient canopy
... a shepherd's horn echoing in the valley,
fishnets stretched to dry on sandy flats.
A bell is tolling, fading, fading
just like love. Only poetry lasts.
Spring Essence 57
Spring-Watching Pavilion
A gentle spring evening arrives
airily, unclouded by worldly dust.
Three times the bell tolls echoes like a wave.
We see heaven upside-down in sad puddles.
Love's vast sea cannot be emptied.
And springs of grace flow easily everywhere.
Where is nirvana?
Nirvana is here, nine times out of ten.
58 The InternationalJournal ofTranspersonal Studies, 2002, VOL 21
Jean-Jacques Dicker
Photography First
Philippe L. Gross
Editor, The International Journal of Trans personal Studies
Honolulu, Hawai'i, USNFribourg, Switzerland
Jean-Jacques and Yuko
T
HE INSTANT I met JJ I knew that this man
had crossed many more boundaries
than I have. We both had been selected to
exhibit our photographs at the Honolulu
Academy of Arts for the Annual Artists ofHawai'i
event and were attending the opening reception.
As we were moving through the crowd our eyes
met, and his first words to me were: "Oh cool!
You must be that Swiss guy who wrote the Tao
of Photography book." Surprised to be recognized,
I acquiesced shyly, and he said that he had read
the book and had been wanting to meet me for a
long time. JJ then assembled the six young and
beautiful Japanese women in his entourage, and
pointing at my images, introduced me as "the
genius who had taken the photographs," and
added more credentials than I knew I had. Then
Photo courtesy of the waitress
he threw his hands up in the air, stared at me,
and referring to the festivities said laughingly:
"They just love that shit!" Wearing sandals and
loose clothing, JJ behaved with such unusual
elegance that his appearance did not matter. His
energetic presence, enhanced by his wild curly
hair and bass-baritone voice, saturated the air
with life. After this initial dadaist introduction,
we got to settle down a bit and enjoyed hearing
each other's life story-the beginning of a vibrant
friendship.
Jean-Jacques Dicker was born in 1944 in
Geneva to a Swiss father and French mother.
Because of his parents' divorce, his childhood
years were spent between Paris and Geneva. At
the age of seven, he left with his mother and step-
father for Honolulu. Passionate about surfing,
The Internationaljournal ofTranspersonal Studies, 2002, VoL 21, 59-70 59
2002 by Panigada Press
he eventually wanted to test other waters, and
at seventeen he went to Biarritz, France, where
he met the "gypsies of the road" who biked or
hitchhiked across Europe and North Mrica. It
was then that he realized how exciting and
fulfilling a backpacker's life could be. From 1962
to 1967 he attended both the University of
Geneva and the University ofHawai'i. He parked
cars to earn money for his hitchhiking trips
across the USA, Mexico, and Central and South
America. JJ managed to complete his B.A. degree
in French in 1967 and then worked as a waiter
in Waikiki to finance a two-and-a-half-year trip
to Europe and North Africa. A year earlier he
had met Polona, whom he married three years
later in Slovenia (formerly Yugoslavia).
It was in 1968 that he purchased his first
24x36mm camera. With it, he headed off to
Central America. Unfortunately, after three
months of traveling in Mexico, jaundice
interrupted his plan to move further south, and
he flew to Switzerland to be treated by his father,
a physician. After a quick convalescence, he
bought a VW Camper in Germany and spent the
next two years traveling around Europe,
concluding with a return trip back to Honolulu
to earn money for his next voyage.
JJ's passion for photography was kindled in
the darkroom by the excitement of seeing a large
and clear picture being born of a small negative.
The enthusiastic reception of his work added to
his motivation to pursue the medium further.
From 1970 to 1973 he attended photography
classes at the University ofHawai'i, and in 1972
he secured his first publications in two local
newspapers-The Sun Press and Sun bums-and
presented his first one-man exhibition. This was
the first step toward a long series of international
exhibitions and awards.
In 1974 J J received a federal grant for applied
arts from Bern (Switzerland), and spent the next
two years traveling in Europe, followed by two
years of travel through Africa. In 1978 he
returned to Honolulu-and to Polona, who had
divorced him for being absent. Back in the
islands, he decided to print the images from his
four-year trip. Two years later, he received
another federal grant from Switzerland and
spent three months in Southeast Asia. Upon
returning to Honolulu, he was summoned to
Switzerland to settle a paternity suit involving
a prostitute he had lived with four years earlier.
Fortunately, he was concurrently offered a grant
from the Banque hypothecaire of the canton of
Geneva, which permitted him to pay for a two-
week round trip to Switzerland. A year later a
telegram from his father in Geneva arrived
declaring, ''You are not the papa. Love papa."
In 1984 he was back for a last six-month trip
to Mrica with a Nikon and a Plaubel Makina 6x7.
Since then, he has been concentrating on India,
Nepal, Japan, Laos, Burma, Malaysia, Singapore,
and Thailand. ''Why do you travel so much?-It's
everywhere the same!" an old philosophy
professor once remarked to him. "Are you
kidding?" JJ interjected, "You never know what
you'll discover around the next corner: unusual
people, new smells, an expanded palette of
colors-life is so rich! How can you not marvel
at its diversity!"
Currently, JJ lives with his sweetheart Yuko
Kamiyama in Hawai'i Kai, a thirty-minute drive
from Honolulu. His house is an imposing collage
of dadaist/surrealist/existential art and humor-
with erotic overtones. A tour of the house gives
the open-minded visitor a jolt of creativity and
offers a glimpse of his satirical mind and
rebellious personality. It also reveals a very
funny character who loves_ to entertain. Such a
tour was even featured on 'Olelo, a local television
channel. His house is filled with an intriguing
melange of objects and props collected from his
trips, including indigenous artifacts and
humorous bibelots. The walls are covered with
artwork and hundreds of political, philosophical,
and art statements, including a sociological
pinboard featuring the various ways marketers
have misspelled his name as well as some
notorious political figures pornographically
juxtaposed in a satirical collage. Provocative
quotations appear throughout the house: "How
much reality can you stand?" "If you are traveling
with other people, you're a tourist; If you're alone,
you're a traveler." A quote by Erica Jong perhaps
best captures JJ's political agenda: "If we ban
whatever offends any group in our diverse society
we will soon have no art, no culture, no humor,
no satire."
In a culture dominated by marketing "canned"
goods and ideas, not losing one's creativity and
60 The International Journal ofTranspersonal Studies, 2002, VoL 21
artistic sensibilities requires strength of charac-
ter and resolve. JJ has succeeded in maintaining
a fresh eye and a down-to-earth existential stance.
Typically, transcending conventional social stan-
dards, JJ chose to go barefoot in a Nairobian
brothel over more traditional and commodious
destinations.
JJ's talent could have easily brought him ma-
terial wealth had he elected a career in fashion
photography; instead he has chosen to do docu-
mentary and fine art work. To sustain his artistic
vision and freedom,
JJ has been working
for several years as
a waiter in an Ital-
ian Restaurant in
Waikiki, serving up
spaghetti to pay his
bills rather than be
held hostage to the
commercial demands
of clients.
JJ's most con-
spicuous characteris-
tic is his genuineness
and passionate em-
brace of life-a pal-
JJ does what he does for the sheer pleasure of
doing it. When asked about his motivation for the
thousands of prints he has done, JJ simply an-
swered: "I don't want to make money; I don't want
to be famous. I want to make photographs."
The path of the a e s t h e ~ e , while perhaps decep-
tively appealing, requires discipline. One photo-
graphic ritual that JJ practices on his travels is
to photograph his room before settling in.
I have to do it. Even though I am tired, and
would love to throw my backpack on the floor
and rest. The
beauty of the
room forces me to
photograph it. It
may never be the
same again. And
the dance begins,
light meter read-
ing, rearrange-
ment of the mos-
quito net, chang-
ing lenses, open-
ing or closing of
windows and so
forth until I feel
the right image,
until all the pos-
sibilities of the
ex-
pable, infectious exu- Three Friends, Three Cigarettes, Nairobi, Kenya, 1977
berance that raises
room are
Jean-Jacques Dicker hausted.
questions about more conventional ways of being.
JJ's unorthodox embrace of life is one answer to the
question: ''What kind of life is worth living?" The
transpersonal field is overweighted with the as-
sumption that renunciation of the senses and the
body is the way to transpersonal understanding and
liberation. The alternative path of ''bathing in the
senses" is most often viewed as a self-indulgent trap
preventing self-growth. When interacting with JJ,
however, one cannot but question such as sump-
tions-hisjoie de vivre, spontaneous humor, and un-
encumbered enjoyment of life suggest that the path
to fulfillment can be found anywhere. The key seems
to not be attached to pleasures-and in that respect
JJ embodies the famous advice of Chuang-tzu:
Mysteriously, wonderfully, I bid farewell to
what goes, I greet what comes; for what comes
cannot be denied, and what goes cannot be
detained.!
lIn B. Watson, Trans., 1968. The complete works of Chuang
Tzu. New York: Columbia University Press, p. 213.
A photographic collection of rooms he has occupied
around the world can be viewed in his book
Chambres-Empty Rooms, published by Michele
Auer's Photo archives (or on line at: http://
www.lenswork.com/emptyrooms.htm).
At present, JJ is selecting and printing a
backlog of twenty years of negatives from his
many world trips and he is eagerly awaiting the
release of his 290-page book which chronicles a
three-year experience in Africa. The book is
published by Ides et Calendes.
When asked about his future plans, JJ always
answers: "Photography first." The following
images illustrate JJ's transcendent photographic
eye for beauty, humor, and eroticism.
Jean-Jacques Dicker 61
Madras Cap, Udaipur, India, 1999 Jean-Jacques Dicker
62 The International Journal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
Cow in Kashmir, Srinagar, India, 1985 Jean-Jacques Dicker
Jean-Jacques Dicker 63
Sarah with Net, Honolulu, 1982 Jean-Jacques Dicker
64 The InternationalJournal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
Heads with Parasols, Kagoshima, Japan, 1987 Jean-Jacques Dicker
Jean-Jacques Dicker 65
Birdman,Tokyo,1987 Jean-Jacques Dicker
66 The International Journal ofTranspersonal Studies, 2002, Vol 21
Bernard at Barbershop in Agra, India, 1985 Jean-Jacques Dicker
Jean-Jacques Dicker 67
Yuko with Octopus, Honolulu, 2000 Jean-Jacques Dicker
68 The International Journal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, VOL 21
Yuko with Shell, Honolulu, 1998 Jean-Jacques Dicker
Jean-Jacques Dicker 69
Man in Mosque, Srinagar, India, 1985 Jean-Jacques Dicker
70 The Internationaljournal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
Wu Wei in Chuang Tzu as Life-Systematic
Kuang-ming Wu
University of Missouri-Columbia
Columbia, Missouri, USA
Wu wei (non-doing) in Chuang Tzu is expressed in story-bits reflecting life-slices. They are life-
systematic, not random, not having a system. One; Chuang Tzu is a dragonfly over the pond of
life, dotting the water of daily ongoing without dotting it. Two; the dotting is dot-sayings that
yarn life's concrete bits into story-coherence. Three; Chuang Tzu dots and struts around to let
others say, and life-coherence appears. Four; life-coherence is a life-family of concrete bits, a
thread of many life-fibres twisted together. Five; Chu Hsi and Chuang Tzu have dot-sayings
that draw readers into making systems oftheir own to attribute them to Chu and Chuang Tzu.
"System" is then a verb, to let-make systems, weaving out a system beyond system. Six; this
system-beyond is expressed in spontaneous flexuous story-nets to cipher comprehensive/
systematic life. Seven; being flexibly systematic expresses the inexpressible One Poem of life.
All this while, Chuang Tzu has been winking at us, letting us spin out all the above. That is
tacit wu wei-of living "happily ever after."
T
HE ANCIENT Taoist sage Chuang Tzu (399-
295 B.C.) single-handedly, albeit
unwittingly, produced that vast, rich and
subtle tradition of Chinese literature-poetry,
prose poems, fiction, essays, history-as-literature,
analects, epistles, epitaphs (the list goes on),
l
and
sired unawares "Zen" (along with Buddhism and
Shintoism), the deep multicultural undercurrent.
A little phrase above, "albeit unwittingly," is
significant. It is synonymous with "wu wei (non-
doing)" to bespeak how Chuang Tzu lived it, a
central notion of his. Nothing refreshes and
fascinates us into chuckling happiness as does
his wu wei, which he gives in story-bits to awaken
us into being life-systematic unawares. Chuang
Tzu thus winks casually-befitting wu wei-to
let us realize how absolutely indispensable wu
wei is for us not only to survive, but to thrive.
Wu wei is life-systematic to "walk Tao out"
(Chuang Tzu, 2/33). We must now observe how
life-systematic wu wei is in seven points below
that "walk" out wu wei.
1. Chuang Tzu is a dragonfly silently hovering
over the pond of life, dotting it without dotting
it. He dots the pond lightly with story-bits, and
ripples of our fascination arise to charm us into
reflecting on what all this amounts to. The ripples
silently spread, while the dragonfly lightly flies
away, nowhere to be seen. It is in the aftermath
that we realize the whole situation as being life-
systematic, in the overlapping intertwining
spread of the ripples.
Now, the above poetic description of Chuang
Tzu fits him, for poets are more poignantly precise
than mathematicians who are inspired by poets
if not a sort of poets themselves. This essay
follows Chuang Tzu's responsible poesy, neither
spinning out deadly analysis nor wallowing in
poetic license. Chuang Tzu is the poet par
excellence in China, having single-handedly
carved out the tradition of Chinese aesthetic
sensibility. To describe him requires a poet's
sensitivity.
2
He is a boor who demands statistical
precision against poetic poignancy.
The Internationa/journal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, VoL 21,71-77 71
2002 by Panigada Press
In order to forestall a misunderstanding that
all this is a poet's imprecise exuberance used to
shun responsible coherent explanation, however,
let us consider what "being life-systematic" can
mean in Chuang Tzu.
2. To construct a tight analytical system out
of life is one thing; living systematically, being
systematic within life, is quite another. A system
constructed out of life is meant to apply to life,
and must be so applied. Such "application" can
only amount to an imposition-however much
modification we make here and there to the
system in the name of "abstract objectivity" and
"precision." Imposition on our life ends up
damaging us who live our life. The only system
that damages no life is one that manifests in the
living itself, as it were, which yet is contingent,
to wit, haphazard and spotty to our literal mind.
Things concrete are dotted/spotty but not random!
arbitrary. At least Chuang Tzu's storytelling so
indicates, for stories yarn life's concrete bits into
story-coherence, and the yarn is a "system" that
always flexes/changes to fit life's contour in order
to do life the least violence.
3
No wonder Chuang Tzu has no analytical
"system" but is systematic in life's concrete
organic coherence. Such life-systematicity is
dotted as concrete bits oflife are. This observation
explains how Chinese writers write. Take, for
instance, Chu Rsi (1130-1200), reputed to be a
system-builder, a Chinese Aristotle.
4
From his
scattered sayings people pick and pull bits into
"a system" for him.
5
Yet Chu left us only scattered
analects. What system is it ifhe wrote none down?
Row are we to know it? Moreover, does he who is
our teacher need our help? Wouldn't "systems"
others built for him hurt his "system," if any?
Queries such as these make us realize that
Chinese dot-sayings
6
remain dots, not arbitrary,
not an explicit logical system, and yet they are
systematic. Being "systematic" here can only be
understood as being reflective oflife's coherence,
as life talking via Chu to express/exhibit itself as
coherent/systematic.
3. Talks can say something; they can also let
others say it. Collingwood (1939) said that
statements are "answers" to unstated "questions"
(pp. 29-43). Questions let someone else say things.
The Chinese writers dot their sayings-in
aphorisms, analects, stories-as open questions
that do not say but let readers freely say/answer.
Openly, ambiguously,
7
Chinese sayings dot/strut
around to let others say systematically, not as
dotted/open questions, and life coherence appears
between dot-saying-questioning and systematic-
saying -answering.
4. What does such life-coherence look like?
Wittgenstein (1958) saw two of its shapes/senses,
mutually coherent, of being "systematic" as being
"coherent"-"family resemblance" and "spinning
a thread" (p. 32e). Since both are parts of human
life, one natural, another artful, both can be taken
to cipher life's "systematic" coherence.
4.1. The first variety of organic coherence is
for a system to become a "family" of what it
describes/represents; it shows what it describes
as a family. The "system" has the physiognomy
of what it presents. An example is Chinese sagely
dot sayings above as tacit "questions" that form a
family coherence with the readers' commentaries
as answers. Another example is J. Tanizaki's
adumbration of shadows as where we are at
home, in his In Praise of Shadows (1977)8 that
takes on a shadowy style, rambling as shadow to
follow shadow as it flickers/follows the thing of
which it is a shadow. Japanese "in'ei" may be
"shade of shade," "penumbra,,,g to wit, umbra of
umbra. Tanizaki may be trailing Chuang Tzu's
ironic penumbra/umbra dialogue-in-queries
below:
10
Penumbra asked Umbra, "Then, you strolled;
now, you stop; then, you sat; now, you stand.
Why such no-independence?" Umbra said,
"Have I what-I-wait-on to be so? Has what-I-
wait-on what-it-waits-on, again, to be so? Do
I wait on snake's scales, cicada's wings? How
would I know why so, how would I know why
not so?"
Shadow is here reprimanded by its shadow,
the penumbra, as lacking in independence.
Likewise, Tanizaki's In Praise of Shadows
"penumbrates" shadows in their very physiognomy
that it depicts, itself disappearing
ll
in the shadows
that disappear in the thing of which they are
shadows. Tanizaki's praise of shadows has a
family resemblance to shadows themselves, being
organically "systematic" with shadows; shadow-
physiognomic.
4.2. The second variety of organic coherence
is likened to the spinning of a thread, where "we
twist fibre on fibre, ... overlapping ... many fibres"
(Wittgenstein, 1958). It is notions that are spun
72 The International Journal ofTranspersonal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
into threads of family resemblance, and "thread"
and "family" cipher being systematic.
12
Since
notions are separate as they concresce into a
"concrete system," such a coherent system is a
composite. Such a concrete system is a contingent
composite ofloose concresced fibre-bits ofthread
or separate individuals in a family. This is why/
how Tanizaki "rambles" (see Appendix). By
nature such a rambling cannot be of one piece,
totalistic and totalitarian.
5. Such is the concrete system Chu Hsi has
woven, but how could he weave, or write, a system
by not writing it? The answer is wu wei, in four
points.
5.1. One; we could say that Chu has a no-
system system, an invisible meta-system, which
inspires others to build their own systems and to
rightly attribute them to Chu.
5.2. Two; we could say that Chu has no
system, but is nevertheless systematic. All his
dot-sayings suggest a system, which draws
readers into making systems of their own and
attributing them to Chu. To the question:
Whence then is Chu's individual peculiarity, the
answer must be that Chu lived Chu-coherently,
Chu-systematically. "System" is no longer a
noun but becomes "systematic"; an adjective,
an adverb, in fact; then "systematize," a verb,
for life is, and Chu's dot-sayings reflect such
livinglbeing systematically. In Chu's manner,
to let-make a system, then another, is the way
life goes on, in others' individualities. I once
took Chuang Tzu's words as metaphors of no-
metaphor, meta-metaphors that let-metaphor
(Wu, 1990, p. 501, Index, "metaphor(s),
metaphorical"). Chu unwittingly followed
Chuang Tzu. In fact, all Chinese writers are
systematic; they are such meta-metaphor-ers,
such meta-system-izers.
5.3. Three; scholars such as Wang Yang-ming,
Tai Chen, and Ito Jinsai criticized Chu as being
too abstract and metaphysical. They accused Chu
of mistakenly attributing Chu's own "system" to
Confucius', who had no system, no metaphysics.
13
The truth ofthe matter is that Confucius inspired
Chu's system-making, or rather, Chu's meta-
system-making. Confucius was meta-systematic;
his was a meta-meta-system as was Chuang
Tzu's. No wonder both Confucius and Chuang Tzu
could achieve the name of "Chinese Paragons"
with their scattered volumes.
5.4. Four; in other words, the Chinese writers
asymptotically approach a "system" forever
beyond reach. Writers are imbued with a system-
beyond-them, as the poet has one poem-beyond-
words of which all hislher poems speak, and as
the musician has one music-beyond-sound of
which all hislher compositions sing.14
6. Now, this system-beyond, poem-beyond, and
music-beyond ciphers being comprehensively
systematic as life itself.15 This originates in the
rhythm-route of feelings, of the heart/mind
perceiving, and of our own understanding
understanding itself. It is a fresh look back at
whatever the sensibilities of life's heart/mind have
been undergoing. Such a "system" amounts to a
story, as mentioned above, that life freely spins
to understand itself, and so it is as spontaneous,
flexuous and open-ended as life itself, a life-net
that flexes with life to capture itself. This is in
contrast to the traps, the boxes of categories
trying vainly to capture the winds of actuality.
Harper (1977) said:
One of the oldest and most deeply ingrained
of Japanese attitudes to literary style holds
that too obvious a structure is contrivance,
that too orderly an exposition falsifies the
ruminations of the heart, that the truest
representation of the searching mind is just
to "follow the brush." (Afterword, p. 45)
This attitude is Chinese as well as Japanese,
and does not necessarily oppose "concision and
articulation,"16 as Harper (1977) would have us
believe, for the following of the brush of life can
concisely/precisely paint/articulate life's
undergoing of understanding "life"-itself and its
beyond-without trappings of technicalities. To
undergo self-understanding self-grasps to
naturally grow beyond itself, to become
comprehensive.
Our heart/mind goes from self-realization to
comprehensiveness this way. We realize that we
find logical coherence by discerning a familiarity
between one thing and anotherY This
metaphorical discernment enables one fibre-
notion to cohere, entwine, with another, for us to
take these notions to form a family to belong
together. Such family-discernment goes on as life
goes on, and thus life-understanding tends to
comprehensiveness.
Being comprehensively systematic naturally
arises out of being organically systematic, which
Wu Wei in Chuang Tzu as Life-Systematic 73
implies growing in understanding beyond its
cocoon of knowledge now. Neville (1977) said:
I, on the other hand, praise the power of
systematic thinking to come at things from
many angles, relativizing anyone perspective,
and taking responsibility for not identifYing
any representation wholly with what it
represents. Abstract and systematically
criticized representations allow us to engage
realities with a genuine sense of humility. (p.
xvi)
I agree, and add, importantly, that such
"relativizing" need not go via systematic
abstraction for such abstraction. Lacking the
protective participation, oversight, and guidance
of concrete growing, life risks narcissistic
fascination with its own beauty of categoreal
scheme.
Again Neville (2001) says:18
[A] composite and comprehensive approach is
to extend understanding in new directions,
creating new bridges between cultures and
expanding each culture ... a system in the
ancient sense of looking at its topics from
every angle imaginable .. .in the sense of being
as comprehensive as possible, looking at
things from as many theoretical and cultural
perspectives as possible. As our common
teacher, Paul Weiss, said, system in this sense
is the only protection against dogmatism. (pp.
xi-xii)
That is "systematic" as "comprehensive." It
grows out of being organically, concretely, and life-
nimbly "systematic."
7. These meditations on being systematic have
two important spin-offs. 7.1.: They elucidate what
wu wei is. 7.2.: They let us-and aid us to-live
happily ever after.
7.1. Things now fall into place. Being flexibly,
coherently, and comprehensively systematic is the
One Poem Heidegger claimed no poet could write,
being so comprehensive. Chinese people dare,
however, to ex-press such a One Poem as dots
hinting a beyond-system. Collingwood (1939) said
that statements are answers to unexpressed
questions. Chinese sayings are these tacit
questions. They are dots to express unexpressed
questions to "draw out" answers, each in its own
coherent systematic manner. Tao is the wu that
wu wei's, the ''brightlblack hole" that draws in to
enable life; birthing, birthing, without ceasing,
In a variety of systems, one after another.
Explications of "wu wei" above are themselves
some of the systems among others that wu wei
evoked. The Chinese heart/mind is so life-concrete
as to pull such a meta-supra-systematic stunt on
Heidegger, ex-pressing the inexpressible One
Poem, and on Collingwood, dotting questions that
are not spoken. ''Wu wei" is their way of executing
such dots on such "One Poems" and "questions."
To see how being systematic in life is wu wei,
we must turn to concrete China. This is the
Chinese art of thinking and expressing; it is an
ever-disarmingly simple art of leaving things
unsaid to leave readers alone, let them go home,
and think for themselves; for telling exhaustively
is impossible and counterproductive. My story
starts your steps in our boots over rocky ground,
and Tao, the concrete universal, or rather,
transversal, we thus co-walk out (Chuang Tzu 21
33). Storytelling, journals, and analects are the
Tao of co-systematic living, concrete co-thinking,
being systematic in life in China, Zen, and
Tanizaki, spreading all over.
7.2. Now, have we noticed? Chuang Tzu has
been so far winking at us with his stories, one
after another. He did nothing, said nothing-to
let me do the explaining. I did nothing, either, to
let you understand it. That is being systematic
in life-tacitly, in a wu wei fashion. "0 what a
beautiful morning! 0 what a beautiful day!
Everything's going my way!" sings an
Oklahoman, a nobody! He is fit! That's wu wei.
All the above amounts to this. I agree with
Buddhism and medical science that I die daily.
N ow, if I die daily, every day that I live is a
miracle, and this miracle cuts deeper, embracing
suffering.
19
Some days deeply dissatisfY me, but
precisely this suffering corner of my life can
occasion my partaking of the Beyond, as
Bonhoeffer
20
and Buddha did. Here-this life-
occasion-is a miracle, as the example below
shows.
I saw a young man, tall, gawky and hairless,
standing by the roadside with me waiting for the
bus. He was not smiling, not crying, looking not
up, not down, staring and not staring, pensive,
profound, deep in thought, standing nowhere. I
talked to him and he talked back, quietly, slowly.
I thought he must know how and when he would
die, being wiser than we who are unaware of our
coming death-and then I felt something strange.
74 The Internationaljournal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, VOL 21
We are all terminal patients as he is, as Buddha
reminds us, for we will all die sooner or later, so
what else is new? Well, perhaps this is why
Chuang Tzu said (2/52) that the baby just born
and died has lived longer than the longest-lived
of men. Why then don't we live happily ever after
as babies who died and men who lived? After all,
long or short, life is better and deeper than can
be enjoyed and/or suffered. Injoy and in suffering,
I am grateful for this possibility, this privilege of
breathing joy without joy, for ultimate joy is no
joy (Chuang Tzu, 18/11). "Everyday is a good day,"
Zen says. This is life's miracle.
What miracle? Well, Chuang Tzu
21
begins his
book with the Northern Dark, where there is a
Big Fish called "K'un," which can mean "fish roe."
The name may say that the "Big" implicates (can
mean) a bit, the small, and a bit (roe) contains
the big (can grow). Small is beautiful because it
is big, and big is beautiful because it is small.
Then K'un changes into a Big Bird, "P' eng," which
can mean a bunch of friends. It "rages" up out of
the water far into the blue sky. It takes three
months to prepare for foods to fly to the Southern
Dark region. Such Big Above far beyond the below
small! Unexpectedly, however, small birdies down
below here chitchat to laugh at P'eng, "What does
he think he is doing?" Again, the big implicates
bits, and bits contain the big. The big and bits go
beyond each other and hold each other.22 The
beyond is inside. That's life loafing, that's miracle,
just fooling around.
Now we realize that being systematic in this
manner is beyond making/doing a system, a wu
wei. This is being systematic in life manifested
everywhere in the indescribability of doing-
without-doing (wu wei) in Zen (indirection), Tao
(Great Tao declares not), awakening (butterfly
dreaming), psychology (counselor-client inter-
mothering-healing), writing (self-shaping and
sharing), and the ineffable list goes on.
Being systematic makes "sense." Being life-
systematic makes sense, real, comprehensive,
approachable, and unreachable-as wu wei. Wu
wei is a beyond-system, a tacit system, a system
of no system. It is a strange anti-"black hole," the
Bright Black Hole, mysterious and dark (hsilan,
ming). The shady roomy dark gives birth to white
light (Chuang Tzu, 4/33), to let others do without
"doing it yourself." Non-doers are let-doers, more
than conquerors, for letting many others do is
surely more powerful than doing alone. Let-do
darkly sucks life to enable it, to shine forth to
prosper together.
Need more be said?
The wild, the desert, calls,
"Return!" and "Gor and
Opens us to the wild-circle-in us and out.
Wilde beasts wordlessly roam, with
Birds, big and small, hooting, chirping,
Beating time, beating no time.
Music of the wild opens the wild.
We all return. We all go out.
All are up and about
In swamps that sustain,
In rivers they meander. And
Soon enough, far in the South,
The dusk hugs Misty Mountains, and
Birds fly in pairs home to their nests.
So much is here, for nothing is here,
Aloud in stillness, beyond words.
Non-sense just stays,
Being systematic beyond sense.
We simply return, one and all, and the wild
opens.
In Wu Wei.
23
Appendix
W
E fiND theme-bits in Tanizaki's In Praise of
Shadows (1977) (though the author himself
does not say this) thus-horne-building, fixtures
(pp. 1-2), shoji (2,20,21), lighting, heating (2-3),
toilet (3-6), paper (6-8, 9-10, 21-22), science (7),
jade (10, 15, 30), shadow (10-11), sheen of old,
glow of grime (11), hospital, restaurant (12),
lacquerware, ceramics (14), soup (15), foods, rice
(16), building (17) as a variation of shadows (18)
to exist for shadows (19), inkwash painting (18,
20), shoji (thinnest), alcove (darkest) (20), silence,
music (9, 15, 20), light becomes shadow (20) and
serves shadows to calm us (22), gold glitters in
dim room (22), Noh (23-28), skin (23-24, 31-34),
puppets (28), women (28-30), Japan vs. the West
(30-31), teahouse (34), modern wasteful Japan
(35-37), old man complaining in his dotage (39).
Amazingly, shadows thus appear in his
rambling/trailing of them, not of "his brush" (45).
Why can he not describe shadows? For description
throws light, and shadow disappears. Shadow is
best adumbrated indirectly in a "shadowy" (40)
Wu Wei in Chuang Tzu as Lift-Systematic 75
manner. Tanizaki embodies and executes wu wei.
Likewise, the present essay proceeds in a
Tanizaki-esque manner, in wu wei. The beauty
of it is that it was not preplanned this way, for
such a way cannot be planned. It evolves all by
itself, life-systematically. Wu wei is life-
systematic, loafing as life itself.
Notes
1. Personally speaking, without him, I would not have
been able to survive as a poor plodding writer.
2. Martin Buber is a rare genius who did pull off this
stunt of presenting Lao Tzu's and Chuang Tzu's profound
obscurity with his own profound obscurity (Buber, 1957,
pp. 31-58), despite our dispute about whether Buber's
mystical profundity matches theirs. The description is
unmistakably Buber's with a Taoist touch. That's all we
can say, and that speaks well for Buber who followed, as
well as for Chuang Tzu who enabled.
3. For stories' historical magnificence and abiding power,
see Erdoes and Ortiz (1984, pp. xi-xv); Este (1999, pp.
ix-xxx), and Wu (1990, p. 506, Index on "story," "stories").
4. Another Chinese Aristotle is of course Hsiin Tzu.
5. For recent examples, see Ching (2000) and Kim (2000).
6. On Chinese sayings as dotted see Wu (2001, p. 664,
Index, "dot-pragmatics").
7. "Ambiguity" means to walk-around. Western dotters,
such as Emerson, seem not to ask but to say.
8. Incidentally, Tanizaki's attachment to shadows that
shelter/reveal things and a shadowy comforting toilet
may originate in motherly shelters.
9. "Penumbra," as partial umbra, came from the fact that
penumbra is at the edge of umbra to define umbra. I take
penumbra to mean, then, the umbra of umbra as umbra
is shadow of a thing that defines the thing. As umbra is
shadow to a thing, so penumbra is shadow to a shadow.
10. This dialogue (2/92-94, my translation) precedes the
"butterfly dream" that ends Chapter Two. Chuang Tzu
has penumbra, umbra of umbra, nudge umbra to see
umbra wavering. What subtlety of adumbration! (cf. Wu,
1990, p. 505, Index on "shadow").
11. Wu (2001, pp. 615-640) suggests that the true
pedagogue disappears in the subjects taught.
12. Wittgenstein took those two senses to be mutually
coherent/twisted/threaded, and people follow him in
taking both as one coherent whole, but we can also see
them as two separate notions inter-cohered.
13. On WangYang-ming, see Chan (1963); on Tai Chen, see
Chin and Freeman (1990); on Ito Jinsai, see Huang (2000).
14. Whitehead (1978) said, ''Words and phrases must be
stretched towards a generality foreign to their ordinary
usage; and however such elements of language be
stabilized as technicalities, they remain metaphors
mutely appealing for an imaginative leap" (p. 4). Artur
Schnabel (1991) said that the music "is better than it
can be played" (p. 10). Heidegger (1971) said that every
thinker is a poet who has only one poem, itself
uncomposed, out of which and of which all other poems
speak (p. 160). The Chuang Tzu, the Analects, and the
Tao Te Ching are Chuang Tzu's, Confucius', and Lao Tzu's
uncomposed poems to evoke many composed ones.
15. After all, family resemblance and thread spinning
are two phenomena of our daily common life.
16. See "precision" in Wu (2001, p. 669, Index on
"precision") .
17. On the inner intricacies of metaphor-process, see Wu
(2001).
18. I apologize for quoting from Neville to illustrate how
an honest dialogue can inter-elicit insights-and
dialogue is personal and life-systematic as question-and-
answer is. This is how, in China, writings come out as
"analects."
19. Chuang Tzu has much to say on suffering, as in his
Chapter Three. See Wu (1990, pp. 281-359).
20. Similar ideas appear loosely in Bethge (2000, pp. 15-
16).
21. See also Wu (1990, pp. 69-76; 86-90; 492, Index, "bird";
496, Index, "fish").
22. The entire Chapter One of Chuang Tzu goes on like
this to show how the Big and the bit inter-contain, inter-
thread. The beyond is outside, and so in life the outside
threads inside and the inside, out.
23. I freely combined bits of Chuang Tzu, T'ao Ch'ien,
and Edward Abbey (1968), three Nature poets ofwu wei.
References
Abbey, E. (1968). Desert solitaire:A season in the wilderness.
New York: Ballantine Books.
Bethge, E. (Ed.). (2000). Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Letters and pa-
pers from prison. London: Folio Society.
Buber, M. (1957). Pointing the way: Collected essays. Atlan-
tic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press International.
Chan, W.-T. (Ed. & Trans.). (1963). A source book in Chinese
philosophy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Chin, A., & Freeman, M. (1990). Tai Chen on Mencius: Ex-
plorations in words and meaning. New Haven, CT: Yale
University Press.
Ching, J. (2000). The religious thought of Chu Hsi. London:
Oxford University Press.
Collingwood, R. G. (1939). An autobiography. London: Ox-
ford University Press.
76 The InternationalJournal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
Erdoes, R., & Ortiz, A. (Eds.). (1984). American Indian myths
and legends. New York: Pantheon Books.
Este, C. P. (Ed.). (1999). Tales of the Brothers Grimm. New
York: Quality Paperback Club.
Harper, T. J. (1977). Afterword. In J. Tanizaki, In praise of
shadows. Stony Creek, CT: Leete's Island Books.
Heidegger, M. (1971). On the way to language (P. D. Hertz,
Trans.). New York: Harper & Row.
Huang, C. C. (2000). Ito Jinsai on Confucius' Analects: A type
of Confucian hermeneutics in Asia. Unpublished manu-
script.
Kim, Y. S. (2000). The natural philosophy of Chu Hsi (1130-
1200). Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society.
Neville, R. (1997). Foreword. In K-M. Wu, Chinese body think-
ing: A cultural hermeneutic. Leiden: Brill.
Neville, R. (2001). Foreword. In K-M. Wu, On metaphoring:
A cultural hermeneutic. Leiden: Brill.
Schnabel,A. (1991). [Liner notes]. Artur Schnabel, Beethoven:
The complete piano sonatas [CD]. Hays, Middlesex, En-
gland: EMI Records, CDHH 63765.
Tanizaki, J. (1977). In praise of shadows (T. J. Harper & E.
G. Seidensticker, Trans.). Stony Creek, CT: Leete's Island
Books.
Watson, B. (1968). The complete works of Chuang Tzu. New
York: Columbia University Press.
Whitehead, A. N. (1978). Process and reality. New York: Free
Press.
Wittgenstein, L. (1958). Philosophical investigations (3rd ed.).
New York: Macmillan.
Wu, K-M. (1990). The butterfly as companion: Meditations
on the first three chapters of the Chuang Tzu. Albany, NY:
State University of New York Press.
Wu, K-M. (2001). On metaphoring: A cultural hermeneutic.
Leiden: Brill.
~
' .
. ~ . - - :,"
- -.I -
Wu Wei in Chuang Tzu as Life-Systematic 77
Hmm . .. tell me more about these oceanic feelings.
78 The International Journal ofTranspersonal Studies, 2002, VOL 21
Language as Aperture
Duane Preble
University of Hawai'i
Honolulu, Hawai'i, USA
Languages-verbal and nonverbal-are rich in multiple perspectives
and shape our apprehension of the world. The richness of languages
can serve to expand our consciousness and bring us to the threshold of
the transpersonal.
The only true voyage of discovery would not be to visit strange lands, but to
possess other eyes, to behold the universe through the eyes of another, of a
hundred others-to behold a hundred universes that each of them beholds,
that each of them is.
-Marcel Proust
V
ERBAL AND nonverbal languages shape human thought and consciousness.
Could we have developed the kind of intelligences we have if our
ancestors had not invented image-making, music, body language, and
dance, as well as spoken and written language? And, if photography,
cinematography, sound recording, radio, television, and the computer had not
been developed? Languages can freeze human knowledge and potential or they
can provide the means to break free of past constraints; they can limit our
realities or expand them.
Between direct perception and our responses to it lie the mediating processes
of language. When languages first began to develop they were as much an
integral part of nature as birdcalls and whale songs. As we evolved, the
development of the often abstract signs and symbols increasingly used
conditioned our conscious awareness. From prehistoric times, humans have
felt a need to reexperience and rethink, to tell and retell our stories and express
our feelings in order to make meaningful and memorable that which could
otherwise appear meaningless and chaotic. In this context, languages as
thinking tools become the defining means for making sense of raw experience.
The way we use language becomes the framework for our actions and decision-
making, our personal, interpersonal, and transpersonal understanding-our
whole living attitude toward the world and our relationship to it.
The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21, 79-80 79
2002 by Panigada Press
Skillfully used in combination, words can connote ideas in multiple
dimensions beyond words; but we can also think and communicate in sensory
modes that include visual and kinesthetic realms. If we grow up hearing and
learning to speak only one verbal language, it is a surprise to learn another
language and come to realize that each language offers a unique view, a selected
segment of reality. This is a major reason for learning more than one language.
One language carries one view of the world; a second language exponentially
expands that view. Active use of both verbal and nonverbal arts can open
innumerable windows. What we can say and the way we can say something in
one language often cannot be said in another language. This is true when
comparing verbal languages and it is true when comparing communication
modes-languages in the broad sense-as in the visual and performing arts.
The dancer Isadora Duncan said, "If I could say it, I wouldn't have to dance it."
And the painter Georgia O'Keefe stated, "I found I could say things with shapes
and colors that I had no words for."
Words more than images break reality into small pieces. Each thing named
is so much more than its name. Many visual artists have realized that you
must forget the name of what is observed if you really want to see it-that is, if
you want to see it without prejudice.
Not only different languages but also differences in how languages are used
make huge changes in meaning. PoetrY allows for content that uses the sounds
and meanings of words but goes beyond them. The shades of meaning conveyed
by the spoken sounds of words can vary enormously according to the
interpretation of the speaker and the context of the words. Each musician
interprets a given piece of music differently. Even the ways in which languages
are written change what they mean and who can read them.
The transpersonal-so all-encompassing, so vast-preeminently lends itself
to multiplicity of expression. During this period of massive change fueled by
expanding layers of information overload and world-shrinking communication
technologies, we would do well to both learn from and transcend personal and
cultural habits of thought. The multiple realities reflected in different
languages-verbal and nonverbal-also alert us to deeper, more universal layers
of reality. Although languages are not reality but about reality, their richness
can serve as a doorway to the transpersonal.
80 The International JournalofTranspersonal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
Quiet Mind
Atsumi Yamamoto
Honolulu, Hawai'i, USA
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Quiet Mind 83
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Quiet Mind 85
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Quiet Mind 87
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Q;tiet Mind 89
"fa.VI
~ . ~ i .....
~
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Quiet Mind 93
94 The International Journal ofTranspersonal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
The Re-Cognition of Being's Infrastructure
as Self-Completion
Herbert Guenther
University of Saskatchewan
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
Wholeness as indivisible and the human being's connectedness with it are the abiding themes
of the Buddhist experience-rooted and process-oriented thinking that goes by the name of
rDzogs-chen. From its basically holistic point of view, the human being is a sub-whole,
similar to a variation on a musical theme. From another point of view, however, based on
the confusion of a compacted (and hence de-compactable) totality with wholeness, the human
being is seen as being a reality that is internally divided and feels uncertain about who/
what he really is. Together, the intolerable feelings of being divided and uncertain cause a
yearning for wholeness and transcendence. Both wholeness and transcendence are realized
in the face-to-face encounter with the experiencer's real being and its recognition.
Know thyself.
-Anonymous
Inscribed on the temple of Apollo at Delphi
How little do we know that which we are!
How less what we may be!
-Lord Byron, Don Juan
All our knowledge is ourselves to know.
-Alexander Pope,
An Essay on Man: Epistle 4
La vraie science et la vrai etude de l'homme, c'est
l'homme.
-Pierre Charron, Sagesse
Translated by Alexander Pope, An Essay on
Man (2,1), as The proper study of mankind is man,
and by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,
Wahlverwandtschaften (2,4), as Das eigentliche
Studium der Menschheit ist der Mensch
I
T IS interesting to note that the word l'homme
used by the French theologian Pierre Charron
(1541-1603), the principal expositor of the
French essayist and skeptical philosopher Michel
de Montaigne's (1533-1592) ideas, has been
translated as mankind by Alexander Pope and
Menschheit by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, both
translations giving the original French l'homme
an abstract twist. Unfortunately the English
word mankind has acquired a sexist connotation
opposed by some feminists. By contrast, the
German word Menschheit does not have any
sexist connotation, but the use of the word
Mensch (from which the abstract noun
Menschheit is derived) would, for a number of
reasons, go against the grain of English language
purists. I shall, however, use the words man and
men, where necessary, in their generic sense to
include both men and women. Concerning the
pronouns he and she and their related his and
her, I shall use he / his generically, and she / her
specifically.
Every statement has been made by someone
who is always something more than what we
assume him to be. There is about him, as about
every word we speak, an aura ofthe unexpressed
that, apart from causing much confusion, links
him with a dimension that is larger than the one,
the anthropic, to which he is habituated. This
larger one we shall call the cosmic dimension.
Together with and inseparable from the "smaller"
anthropic dimension, is the "larger" dimension
which I shall call the cosmic dimension. Summed
up in the single abstract noun anthropocosmism
that, like all -isms, is an ugly word, it yet
expresses a profound idea. This abstract noun's
two root words are: (1) the Greek word anthropos,
meaning "Man" in the sense of the German word
The InternationalJournal of Transpersonal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21, 95-108 95
2002 by Panigada Press
Mensch, and as such quite distinct from the Greek
word aner meaning man as a gendered being; and
(2) the Greek word kosmos, (Anglicized as cosmos
and turned into an adjective as cosmic), meaning
order. What is particularly interesting about this
anthropocosmic worldview is that it is grounded
in itself, and that out ofthis ground, about which
nothing can be said without contradiction, there
emerges an overall reality. From the perspective
of its inherent dynamic, this reality is the whole's
(Being's) closure onto itself that in its closure
remains open to wholeness.
It is in the definition of reality that the twin
notions of order and structure gain added
significance. Usually we tend to conceive of these
twin notions as involving some permanence and
rigidity, all the time being oblivious to the fact that
they are formalized results of processes that
initiated and sustained them within the context
in which they occurred. On closer inspection,
however, both order and structure turn out to be
basically dynamic. But regardless of whether we,
by habituation, use the seemingly static notions
of order and structure or, by preference, their more
dynamic versions of ordering and structuring, we
are faced with the deeper question of how this
ordering and structuring, as an interweaving of
forces, has come about. If, for argument's sake,
we conceive of our universe as overtly ordered and
presenting a distinct structure, we may speak of
its covert dynamic as being of the nature of a
suborder, presenting itself as the infrastructure
of the overt order and structure. Ordering and
structuring presupposes an intellig"fmce, creating
a new worldview and illuminating it in the strict
sense of these words. It cannot, therefore, be
reduced to and equated with a quantitatively
measurable facet of some solitary ego with its
limited intellectual horizon (IQ).l
To the rDzogs-chen thinkers belongs the credit
of being the first to notice an important difference
between two kinds of intelligence. One is
pervasive of Being-qua-being (and, implicitly, our
own being by virtue of our being-qua-body as an
integral aspect of Being-qua-being); the other is
an intelligence that is a tight rationality locked
up in an ego and measurable in terms of its
intensity as a low-level, medium-level, and high-
level "quality;" The key terms in Tibetan for this
difference are rig-Cpa) and ma-rig-(pa),
respectively. As concepts by intuition, a "seeing
from within" in the immediacy of experience,
these are thoroughly dynamic and, on closer
inspection, reveal the inadequacy oftheir current
so-called translations.
Let us start with the term ma-rig-(pa), whose
extended meaning is given as 'khrul-pa "errancy,"
or "going astray (into mistaken identification)."
From this it follows that ma-rig-(pa) can by no
means be equated with our notion of ignorance
as a denial of knowledge. Rather, what this term
intends is to draw our attention to the fact that
what is so designated is not quite (ma) what it
should or might be, namely, rig-cpa). Turning to
the rDzogs-chen definitions ofma-rig-(pa), we find
that it is not something solitary, but is one feature
working in complicity with two other features. It
gives its "name" to this complexity that we tend to
conceive of as a simplex and, ultimately, as the
source of our enworldedness. Thus we are told:
2
In the animate beings
Emotionality (nyon-mongs) and unexcitability
(ma-rig) prevail:
Their founding stratum is the aggregate of pat-
terns,
Their locale is between the lungs and the heart.
(The above) has three features:
Unexcitability (ma-rig-pa), mentality (sems),
and the egological self (yid).
Unexcitability is never alone,
(Its attendant feature) mentality gathers all
the sedimentations of past experiences as
causes for future experiences,
Which obscure and veil [the living system's]
originaryawareness [or Urwissen], and
(Its attendant feature) the egological self in-
troduces a split between itself (as subject)
and its cognitive domain (as object),
Whereby it obscures and veils the very light-
ing-up of [the living system's} supraconscious
ecstatic intensity.
Lumping these three features together
One speaks of them as unexcitability, and
This is the "stuff' of which samsara is made.
In it the five poisons and the six (referents of
one's) anger
As the sum total of the emotions and sedi-
mentations of past experiences as causes of
future experiences are located.
Before proceeding with an explication of the
salient topics in the above quote, three more
quotations that deal with this unitrinity called
96 The International Journal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
"unexcitability" in its "errancy mode" ('khrul-pa)
may be adduced. The one tells us:
3
Although in Being-qua-being there are no such
features as errancy or non-errancy,
It is when [its] ecstatic intensity (rig-pa) comes
to be active that the egological self (yid ) be-
comes agitated and the [system's] mental-
ity (sems) goes astray,
Whereby, not recognizing the reality of its
Dasein, [the system's very] ecstatic inten-
sity (rig-pa) becomes [its] unexcitability
(rna-rig).
Losing its head, this ecstatic intensity, no
longer holding to its legitimate dwelling,
Does not recognize (its) creativity (source)4 and
strays into the darkness that is samsara,
[in which case]
Errancy that is the belief in something to be
what it is not, takes over
And from it all the beings in the six life-forms
embark on their going astray.
The other has this to say:5
Unexcitability's flickering is sort of (Being's)
ecstatic intensity.
Although, actually, (this unexcitability's flick-
ering) is the inner dynamic (rtsal) of
(Being's) ecstatic intensity,
It becomes the ego logical self (being carried
away) by (its own) motility (acting as the
egological self's) horse.
And the last one states:
6
The "stuff' mentality is made of is its
unexcitability;
Its inner dynamic is its unceasing beliefin du-
ality, and
Its ostensible functioning is its being engaged
in joy as well as in sadness.
In the first quotation, that initiated the
subsequent quotations with their emphasis on
ma-rig-pa as a corollary of mentality (sems) and
the egological self (yid), the "aggregate of
patterns" refers to the experiencer's "physical"
situatedness. It does so in the sense that one is a
preeminently visible and tangible pattern among
other visible and tangible patterns with which
interaction occurs. In the narrower sense of the
word "situatedness," one is the site on which
emotionality and unexcitability determine one's
specific aliveness. This aliveness' specific features
are the lungs and the heart. In the first place,
there are the lungs, intimating breathing as the
whole system's motility. Figuratively speaking,
this motility may get out of control and, like a
panic-stricken horse, may carry its rider, ma-rig-
pa, ever farther away from a state of authentic
being. In the second place, there is the heart,
intimating, again figuratively speaking, the fact
that one who has no heart also cannot think, in
the same way as an unthinking person has no
heart to make him feel with and about others.
In the quotations following the introductory
one the emphasis is more on the underlying, if
not to say, inner dynamic of the going astray into
unexcitability and unexcitedness that is the
hallmark of an ordinary living being. Such a being
is aptly termed in Tibetan sems-can, meaning
"(someone) being of the nature of (can) mentality/
mentation (sems)." In plain English, that is
someone having opinions, but not necessarily
knowledge. In passing it may be pointed out that
there is an enormous difference between what in
Tibetan is called sems-can and in Sanskrit sattua.
The Tibetan term reflects a worldview that bases
itself on the Geistigkeit des Seins (Being's mental-
spiritual nature); the Sanskrit equivalent sattua,
a relatively late derivative from the verbal root
as-"to be," "to exist"-reflects a worldview that
bases itself on the palpable and/or the "materiaL"
This inner dynamic (rtsal) may be conceived of
as the anthropocosmic whole's functionality that,
precisely because it is never at rest, is ambivalent.
Through its functioning "things may go wrong,"
which means that its optimal "ecstatic intensity"
(rig-pa) may slip into its nonoptimal intensity,
that is, an intensity and/or "excitability that is .
not quite what it could be" (ma-rig-pa). This
means that a concrete living individual, the
ubiquitous experiencer, is a malfunction that just
happens ''by itself' (rang-byung) with no external
agent or agency being involved or even required.
By the same logic, this "by itself' inner dynamic
is self-regulatory which, with respect to the
concrete living individual, means that "something
can be done" to restore, if this is the apppropiate
word, the functioning's optimal intensity that is
felt to express itselfin gracefulness of movement,
vivacity, agility, lissomness, and its pervasive
luster and radiance.
Accordingly, in an impressive passage that
already foreshadows the importance of self-
cognition as are-cognition of what we really are,
we are told:
7
The Re-Cognition of Being's Infrastructure as Self-Completion 97
! '
! i
Although with respect to [Being-qua-being]
there are no such (statuses as) an ordinary
sentient being (sems-can) and an erlichtet
(spiritually alight) one,
It is suffocated [and hampered in its being
itself] by the snare of (one's) dichotomic
thinking (that is the hallmark of one's)
unexcitability.
Since it is difficult to remove this stain (put
on Being-qua-being) by dichotomic
thinking,
It is important to deal with it in a practical
manner proceeding step by step.
Although (the whole's) originary awareness
(ye-shes) is present in (the whole's closure
onto itself) mentation (sems),
It will not radiate as long as it is not cultivated
["polished"] ;
Although oil has been pervasively present
since (Being's) beginningless beginning
In a sesame seed or a mustard seed,
It will not come forth as long as either seed is
not pressed;
Although milk is by nature butter,
It will not become butter as long as it is not
churned;
Even if seeds are lying in the soil,
How will they ever ripen into a crop
If no farming is done?
In the same manner, all the features that
constitute one's reality
Are present in (what is) a living being's
Existenz
8
(and)
Although they have been, since time before
time, the impetus of one's becoming
erlichtet,
How will one realize (Being's) symbolic
pregnance (as) the outcome
Without dealing with them practically, step
by step,
By means of an imaging process that moves
from the external to the internal.
9
Although (Being's) originary awareness is, (in
showing) its face,10 versatile,
It is unable to rise in its four objectively
[visibly and feelingly] experience able
intensities
ll
Unless [its self-imposed] deceptions are step
by step brought under control.
When in this process the originary awareness
that has risen
Encounters its real being in (Being's) ecstatic
intensity that is its very "stuff,"
Whatever has risen [as a presence] dissolves
like the coils of a snake (uncoiling).
This rising (as an "objectively" seen and felt
presence) and its dissolving that occur
simultaneously, do not involve a subject (as
their agents),
The [seemingly] ecstatic intensity and the
welter of dichotomies do not involve a
subject (as their agents);
The phenomenal and its interpretation
dissolve [in the higher order of their]
understanding, (and)
Through (the whole's) cognitiveness having
become relaxed all problems dissolve.
12
By having (one's) Dasein brought under
control one knows (what Dasein) is (in
showing) its face.
Mter this excursion into and exegesis of ma-rig-
Cpa) as rig-Cpa) at its lowest level, a similar
excursion into and exegesis of rig-Cpa) at its highest
or penultimately highest level, is now called for.
To highlight the difference ofma-rig-Cpa) from rig-
(pa) I render rig-Cpa) hermeneutically as
"supraconscious ecstatic intensity." Here,
intensity is meant to describe the whole's
excitability and excitation that is ek-static
(ecstatic) by virtue of its "standing" (static)
"outside" (ek-, ec) the ego's narrowly circumscribed
confines; hence, it is also "supraconscious." The
implication is twofold. The first implication is that
rig-Cpa) is basic or, as the rDzogs-chen texts would
say, pervasive of the whole. This is the case,
whether from the perspective of the ever-present
experiencer, from that ofthe whole itself, or from
that ofthe experiencer as the whole's closure onto
itself; hence rig-pa is "stable" (not to be confused
with "stagnant"). The other is that rig-Cpa) is
"unstable" (not to be confused with "inconstant"
and/or "unbalanced") and hence "creative" in
opening up new and fresh visions. It is in-between
these extremes, that of "lack of excitability and
mental-spiritual intensity" (ma-rig-pa), and that
of "supraconscious ecstatic intensity" (rig-pa),
that an "inner dynamic" exists. It is inseparable
from the whole, and yet defies any reduction to
it. It is at work, and gives rise to either extreme,
the one, as we have already seen, a sort of
alienation from; the other, as we shall see, an
approximation to, what just is. About the latter
we are told:
13
The "stuff' the supraconscious ecstatic
intensity is made of is its irrealization [of
what is deemed to be "real"J,14
Its inner dynamic is its discriminatively
appreciative capacity par excellence, and
Its ostensible functioning is its being engaged
in nonduality.
98 The International Journal ofTranspersonal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
This quote relates the supraconscious ecstatic
intensity to nonduality that is descriptive of the
immediacy of experience. It also introduces
another key term of Buddhist thought that has
been sadly misunderstood, and still continues to
make a farce of what the Buddhist thinkers had
to say. 15 This key term is, in Tibetan, shes-rab,
and, in Sanskrit prajfia. Its analytically
discerning, discriminatively appreciative
character, reflecting the basically positive and
wholesomelhealthy outlook of what goes by the
name of Buddhism, can be traced back to its
earliest stratum and was never forgotten. It even
gained added significance in the context oflived-
through experience, as may be gleaned from its
specification by par excellence (Tib. chen-po).
Notwithstanding its importance and the high
esteem in which it was held, shes-rab is not some
solitary or abstract phenomenon; rather it is a
multifaceted "operation" with respect to the
phenomenality of what we eventually call "world."
By "world" is meant an expression of the inner
dynamic (rtsal) of the whole's in-formationlself-
organizing dynamic (thig-le), in whose encounter
as a re-cognition of what we "really" are, three
kinds of shes-rab playa significant role. Thus we
are told:
16
The inner dynamic of (Being's) in-formation!
self-organizing dynamic concerning
(Being's) lighting-up in an ultimate sense
(as the phenomenality of world)
Involves an "invariant" shes-rab,
An "unceasing" shes-rab, and
A "transsubjective" shes-rab.
By coming face-to-face with these three kinds
of shes-rab [and re-cognizing them as one's
creativity]
One irrealizes the very now [and here oftheir
projections mistaken as "realities"].
The same text continues presenting a variation
on the above theme, first by specifying rig-pa as
autonomous, (as not depending on anything other
than itself and hence self-reflexive, rang-rig); and
then by elaborating it in terms of its "stuff," its
thereness, and its functioning:
17
This rang-rig involves the triad of its "stuff"
its thereness, and its functioning: '
Its "stuff" is this rang-rig as auto-
luminescence,
Its thereness is its not having an eigenbeing,
and
Its functioning is the triad of shes-rabs-
A shes-rab that is without a beginning,
A shes-rab that maintains its flow, and
A shes-rab that irrealizes [what is deemed to
be "real"].
By coming face-to-face with these three kinds
of shes-rab [and re-cognizing them to be our
creativity]
This rig-pa dissolves in (what is Being's)
originary awareness modes in their
ultimate sense.
It would exceed the space and scope of this
disquisition to go into the details of the
relationship of these three kinds of shes-rab to
the three fore-structures (sku gsum) of the
concrete individual, and into their hierarchical
order-referred to in terms of the external the
internal, and the arcane. Suffice it to refer to its
being inextricably interwoven with such other
aspects of psychic life as rig-pa and ye-shes as
evidenced by the following quotation:
18
'
Since rig-pa andye-shes are such that neither
the one nor the other can be added to or
abstracted from each other
Efficacy (thabs) is unceasing ;e-shes and
Critically appreciative acumen is
unalterable ye-shes.
Efficacy and critically appreciative acumen are
mutually enhancing in the sense that, the more
critically appreciative (shes-rab) I become of a
given situation, the better I can deal with it; and
the better I can deal with the situation (thabs),
the deeper becomes my appreciation of what the
situation holds for me. Eventually and
imperceptibly both will fuse with my, the
participatory ubiquitous experiencer's,
nonegological and nonegocentric originary
awareness modes (ye-shes). These, in presenting
themselves, can be geometrically "seen" as an
almost circular design (or Being's incipient closure
onto itself). The design has no planes of weakness,
because none ofthe sutures lie opposite each other
. '
It can be holistically conceived of as a kind of
Urwissen, a higher-order cognitiveness whose
inspiriting and enlivening power and intrinsic
intensity are rig-pa. It should, therefore, not come
as a surprise that in this supraordinary, imaginal
dimensionality or realm we come across a plethora
of process pointers, such as shes-rab, ye-shes, rig-
pa, rang-rig, rig-pa'i ye-shes, rtsal. All of these are
suggestive of a still deeper or higher "reality" that
we ascertainably "feel" deep within us, in our
closure as the unlimited whole's "core intensity"
(snying-po). But if we live in an environing reality
The Re-Cognition o/Being's Infrastructure as Self-Completion 99
that is imaginal through and through, we too as
an integral aspect of this reality are and
experience ourselves as imaginal through and
through. This imaginal quality, as pervasive of
what we, as embodied beings, cannot but
analytically refer to as our body-mind syndrome,
is in the usual code diction ofthis literary genre
succinctly expressed in the following passage:
19
In particular, this rig-pa in its functionality
as ye-shes (rig-pa'i ye-shes)
Pervades all embodied beings (Ius-can), (and)
In particular, dwells in the following
("physical") locations:
The heart, the veins, the cerebrum, and
The eyes, together forming an immeasurably
large (palatial) mansion.
It is in this (mansion) that this ye-shes par
excellence (ye-shes-chen-po) dwells. [To
restate the above in terms ofthe "imaginal"
expressing itself in direct experience:] 20
In the body (lus) of all embodied beings
The tsitta, the dung-khang, the rtsa, and the
sgo
Are the locations of the rig-pa.
Mind/mentality (sems), too, is this rig-pa's own
inner dynamic [which is to say]:
[Being's] openness-nothingness-"stuff" (ngo-
bo) (as) mind/mentality is a brightness with
no trace (of brightness) in it.
[Being's] own most unique ability-to-be (rang-
bzhin) (as) mind/mentality is a radiance-
(estatic) intensity-nothingness,
[Being's] suprasensual concern (thugs-rje) (as)
mind/mentality is an intangibility as to
subtleness and coarseness.
Mind/mentality is, (as far as its) creating
dichotomies (goes), radiant, but (as far as
its) openness-nothingness-"stuff' (goes,) (it
is) a voiding:
[In this respect] it does not present a duality
of itself and rig-pa;
[Rather,] in the body as a value (rin-chen-lus)21
It is (its) sole, holistically pervasive mind/
mentality.
(Its) openness-nothingness-"stuff' in its
voiding-cum-radiating (stong-gsal) abides
as [the experiencer's] corporeal pattern
(sku);
(Its) own most unique ability-to-be in its
radiating-cum-voiding (gsal-stong) (abides
as) the luminosity that is its [the
experiencer-qua-system's] in-formation!
self-organizing dynamic (thig-le'i 'od );22
(Its) suprasensual concern in its lighting-up-
cum-voiding (snang-stong) (abides as) a
shining lamp.23
After a lengthy discussion of the luminous-
sonorous imagery emerging in the imaginal
dimension ofthe experiencer's psychic reality, the
author links this seemingly "static," horizontally
seen landscape, with its "dynamic," vertically-
hierarchically organized unfolding in the
experiencer's growth process. The following
quotation should make this clear:
24
rig-pa is precisely the three ("seen and felt")
fore-structures (sku) [of one's embodied
being]:
[In its capacity of its] voiding with no cessation
involved (stong-pa 'gag-med) it is (one's
being a) chos-sku;
[In its capacity of its] radiating-cum-voiding
(gsal-stong) with no subjectivity involved
('dzin-med) it is (one's being a) longs-sku;
[In its capacity of its] intensity-cum-inner
dynamic (rig-rtsal) with no cessation
involved ('gag-med) it is (one's being a)
sprul-sku;
(To restate it briefly:) the non-cessation ('gag-
med) of (a) voiding-cum-radiating (stong-
gsal) [is what is meant by] rig-pa.
rig-pa, by virtue of being invariance ('gyur-
ba-med ), 25 is the starting point [of one's
spiritual growth and journey through life]
(gzhi ),
rig-pa, by virtue of being noncessation ('gag-
pa-med), is the way (as one's going) (lam);
rig-pa, by virtue of being self-reflexivity (rang-
rig) is (a) voiding (stong-pa), (and this
triunity)
Is called the climax/goal ('bras-bu).
We now have all the key terms and/or ideas that
go into the making of what is the emergent
experiencer's tacit infrastructure. Being itself a
process that, temporally speaking, has neither a
beginning nor an end, and, spatially speaking,
neither a center nor a periphery, it has been
described as involving three phase spaces that
language can express only in a linear fashion.
Moreover, our language is so steeped in the
Aristotelian categories that we fail to realize that
our "adjectives" (accidentals with respect to nouns)
are rather "adverbs" that cannot be abstracted
from the process. The three verbaVadverbial
terms, as listed in the original texts, are
stong gsal rig-(pa)lkun-khyab.
Here kun-khyab ("all-pervasive") means that
what all three terms stand for is mutually
100 The Internationaljournal ofTranspersonal Studies, 2002, Vol 21
pervasive. In the process of their experience they
become expressed in the formula
stong-gsal gsal-stong rig-stong / snang-stong.
Here snang-stong ("a lighting-up of what becomes
and is the phenomenal that yet remains 'nothing''')
describes, in mathematical terms, a symmetry
break in Being's perfect symmetry. The break
comes when, as we might say, Being starts closing
in onto itself, which is tantamount to saying that
the cosmic becomes anthropocosmic, with
emphasis on its anthropic (''human'') aspect. The
result is that a subtle and yet decisive change in
Being's infrastructure occurs and henceforward
affects the framework in which we are about to
understand ourselves, and in which our actions
are going to be carried out. This "new"
(substantival) formula is the triad (unitrinity) of
ngo-bo rang-bzhin thugs-rje.
The literal meaning of thugs-rje is "spirit/
spirituality being the lord." As such, it is more
than one's petty ego, with its diminished
cognitive-mental-spiritual intensity (ma-rig-pa),
and hence more of the nature of rig-pa, if not to
say, identical with it. It expresses itself in its
human cpntext as a "suprasensual concern" for
what is the phenomenal (snang-ba), and deals
with it from its supraconscious ecstatic intensity
level, that is the infrastructure's rig-pa.
While this "suprasensual concern" for all that
comes into the orbit ofthe vision and other senses,
stresses the individual's cognitive side, it is
matched by his "circumspective concerned
activity" (phrin-las). This, far from being
narrowly circumscribed, is more in the nature of
what we might call "free play" (rol-pa) and in this
respect is quite different from what is called
"games." In the usual sense, "games" turn
Juvenal's (c. 55-c.130 C.E.) dictum of mens sana
in corpore sano ("a healthy mind in a healthy
body") into its travesty of mens insana in corpore
defatigato ("an insane mind in a tired body") if
not a corpore mutilato ("mutilated body"). The
association of an individual's circumspective and
concerned activity with play lets the above
mentioned formula now read as follows:
26
ngo-bo rang-bzhin rol-pa.
This idea of playas specific to the individual's
circumspective and concerned activity, which
adds gracefulness to one's dealings with others,
calls to mind the German poet Friedrich von
Schiller's challenging prononncement:
27
Denn, um es endlich auf einmal heraus-
zusagen, der Mensch spielt nur, wo er in
voller Bedeutung des Wortes Mensch ist,
under ist nUr da ganz Mensch, wo er spielt
(Therefore, to state it finally and once and for
all, Man only plays when, in the strict sense
of the word, he is Man(-qua-man), and he
is only Man(-qua-man) when he plays).
[Emphasis in the original]
More than two centuries later, the physicist David
Bohm and the scientist and writer F. David Peat
took up the idea of "thought as play" and noted that:
Unfortunately, however, our English language
does not have a word for thought which plays
true. Perhaps this is a reflection ofa work ethic
which does not consider the importance of play
and suggests that work itself is noble while play
is, at best, recreational and, at worst, frivolous
and nonserious. (Bohm & Peat, 2000, p. 48)
As these two authors also point out:
This notion of falseness that can creep into
the play of thought is shown in the etymology
of the words illusion, delusion, and collusion,
all of which have as their Latin root ludere,
"to play." So illusion implies playing false with
perception; delusion, playing false with
thought; collusion, playing false together in
order to support each other's illusions and
delusions. (p. 48)
Other modern writers emphasize the
relationship of the word "play" to the erotic and
unduly narrow its broad meaning (Huizinga,
1955, p. 43; Ackerman, 1999, p. 8).
Again, it is Padmasambhava who, centuries
before the above Western writers noted that play
can be true and false, spoke in terms of its having
a symbolic character as well as a samsaric one:
28
(Play's) division is twofold:
Symbolically (speaking), (Being's) creativity
is a play;
Samsarically (speaking), (one's) subjectivity/
individuality is a play.
He then elaborates this aphorism by placing
it into the context of Being's (the whole's) inner
dynamic (rtsal ), that apart from its playfulness
(rol-pa) also manifests itself in its "ornamenta-
tion" (rgyan). The point to note is that for him
The Re-Cognition of Being's Infrastructure as Self-Completion 101
:1
samsara is not eo ipso negative (as usually
claimed); it becomes negative when "something
goes wrong" in what is said to be Being's inner
dynamic, that, in the last analysis, is ourselves
as its experiencers according to the degree of our
mental/spiritual capacity.
In passing, it may be pointed out that the two
formulas run as
ngo-bo rang-bzhin thugs-rje
and
ngo-bo rang-bzhin rol-pa
are supplemented by a third formula that runs as
ngo-bo rang-bzhin mtshan-nyid.
Although this formula is first found in a work by
or attributed to Srisirilha,29 a contemporary of
Padmasambhava and Vimalamitra, it does not
figure at all in the available works pertaining to
this early phase of rDzogs-chen thought, but
seems to have gained prominence in circles that
were inclined to thematization-speculation.
30
The
word mtshan-nyid, meaning "that which makes
(nyid ) specific characteristics (mtshan / mtshan-
ma) to be specific characteristics," is usually used
as a summary designation of the epistemology-
oriented philosophical systems that somehow can
be said to be frozen phase spaces of something
very much alive and thoroughly dynamic.
31
Its
original dynamic intention is well expressed by
Padmasambhava:
32
mtshan-nyid is determined to be threefold:
mtshan-nyid as (Being's) lighting-up is
(Being's) auto-lighting-up;
mtshan-nyid as (Being's) Dasein is (Being's)
birthlessness;
mtshan-nyid as (Being's) errancy is
The belief in (Being's) supraconscious ecstatic
intensity and (its) egological closure
forming a duality.
In view of the fact that the terms Dasein
(gnas-lugs) and eigenbeing (rang-bzhin)
are used synonymously, and refer to the
emergence of our individuality-qua-
individuality or what we "really" are, the
emphasis placed on (our) eigenbeing results
in the formulas
rang-bzhin ngo-bo thugs-rje
and
rang-bzhin ngo-bo mtshan-nyid.
The emergence of rang-bzhin (or, stated
differently without changing the basic idea, the
rang-bzhin becoming the "foreground" against its
"background"), or the whole's nothingness-
openness (ngo-bo) from a dynamic perspective,
also marks the unfolding of the originary
awareness modes (ye-shes). The relationship
between rang-bzhin and mtshan-nyid can be
therefore stated, in modern phenomenological
diction, as the founding (rten) and the founded
(brten), implying, in the technical language of
rDzogs-chen thinking, the inseparability of
structure (sku) and function (ye-shes).
In any case, the interactive dynamic between
ngo-bo and rang-bzhin is, (as far as we can say
anything about what must be experienced in order
to be known) the very "stuff' we are made of. It is
this which, as the very infrastructure of concepts,
ideas, intuitions, and values, impels us to learn
more about ourselves. This task is summed up in
a single term, ngo-sprod. Literally it means a
"coming face-to-face with (one's selflSelf) ," this self!
Self being, in its irreducibility to anything other
than itself, a Mystery. It is a task for which no
human being has ever been able to find a word or
name, and which, in its mind-boggling "giving
itself (to us)," explodes us out of our conceptuality
prison and enriches us beyond measure. Listen to
Padmasambhava's explication of this term:
33
By showing its face to itself giving (itself to
itself) is (its) receiving.
This giving and receiving are not two different
acts; rather, the giving gives without holding
back, which means that it gives itself and becomes
selfless (as usually understood or misunderstood).
And, in this giving up of itself, it opens itself up
to receiving what may be given to it. And what
may be given intimates its visibility by virtue of
its showing of itself. This process, in turn, relates
to our visual and visionary capacity that, far from
being "merely" receptive, is also preeminently
creative. In this sense, seeing is not believing; it
is knowing, and as a creative act it outgrows its
everyday mode of seeing that in its subject-object
structure merely reflects the petty ego's need for
security, an obsession shared by politicians and
metaphysicians alike. It should, therefore, not
come as a surprise that in the many synonyms
for ngo-sprod, seeing and knowing playa
significant role in pointing out that "self-
102 The Internationaljournal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol 21
knowledge" is not a spectator sport. Such
synonyms are:
34
"Seeing (one's) nothingness-openness" (ngo-bo
mthong-ba); "knowing (one's) face" (rang-ngo
shes-pa); ''knowing Being (as) the reality (that
we are)" (gzhi'i don shes-pa); (cognitively
ecstatic) intensity (as [one's] existential)
meaning-rich (spiritual) fore structure (as
[one's] deeply felt) understanding (rig-pa chos-
sku rtogs-pa);35 "to see (one's) existential
reality (to be) infallible" (don ma-nor-ba
mthong-ba), [all of which] is "(Being's) binding
communication in showing one's intelligence's
functionality" (rang-gi mtshan-nyid bstan-pa'i
gdams-ngag).36
In view ofthe fact that Buddhist thinkers were
fond of numbers, the text, not unexpectedly,
continues listing seven procedures to come face-
to-face with what we are and to know, rather than
to opine about, the mystery that we are and that
challenges us to fathom it. However, it should be
borne in mind that the use of numbers is not
primarily meant to itemize what is under
consideration, but rather to bracket related ideas
within the complexity of their anthropocosmic
worldview. According to the manner in which we
go about "counting things," the numbers range
from three to twenty-one "encounters" (ngo-sprod )
that, in one way or another, can be reduced to the
most favored number three. It also should be noted
that this "numbers game" vanes with the different
schools of Buddhism.
37
Let us begin with the "threefold" approach and
follow it up with excursions into its ramifications.
Its process character is unmistakable as it moves
from the "external" (phyi) through the "internal"
(nang) into the "arcane" (gsang), which is
mysterious or a mystery for those unable (and
maybe unwilling) to break out of their
enframement in the commonplace, (the Gestell in
Martin Heidegger's probing terminology). Though
the "arcane" may, for simplicity's sake, be conceived
of as the "end" of the process, the very nature of a
process counters this assumption, since it is such
that it never ends. In order to intimate this never-
ending, language cannot but speak of an "arcane
more arcane than the arcane" (yang-gsang) and
run the risk of falling prey to its own thingification.
Padmasambhava is quite explicit in stating that
each successive encounter is meant to transcend
the preceding one. This transcending is likened to
crossing a mountain pass (la zla-ba) that somehow,
figuratively speaking, stands between us in our
closure and us as openness. Padmasambhava's
words, emphasizing the anthropic implication, are:
38
The encounter with each topic in the triad of
the external, the internal, and the arcane
Is meant as transcending each (of its limits
in order to effect one's)
Linkage with what vision means.
Encountering the external means
Re-cognizing the phenomenal as the
dimensionality where meanings are stored
and in statu nascendi;
Encountering the internal means
Re-cognizing it as (Being-in-its-closure-onto-
itself's) two patterned manifestations;39
Encountering the arcane means
Recognizing it as (Being's) supraconscious
ecstatic intensity as being (us as presenting
a) structure that is meaning through and
through (chos-sku).
Elsewhere he speaks of this encounter as one's
re-cognizing oneself from an cosmo-ontology-
oriented perspective:
40
The ngo-sprod is threefold:
Encountering (Being in its) Dasein (gnas-lugs)
is re-cognizing it as being invariant,
Encountering (Being in its) lighting-up (snang-
tshul) is re-cognizing it as being indetermi-
nate;
Encountering (Being in its) duality (of its be-
ing invariant as (one's/its) Dasein and in-
determinate as (its) lighting-up) is re-
cognizing it as being non-dual.
The number three occurs again in the
syllogistic presentation ofthe ngo-sprod that runs
as follows:
41
A river, a mirror, and a crystal ball are the
analogies of ngo-sprod,
The chos-sku, the longs-sku, and the sprul-sku
are the substance of the ngo-sprod,
[Being's] thinking's thinking (sems-nyid),
[Being's] creativity (chos-nyid), and
[Being's] originary awareness as functions
of its supraconscious ecstatic intensity (rig-
pa'i ye-shes) are the rationale of the ngo-
sprod.
A few explicatory remarks concerning this
aphorism may not be out of place. For our binary
mode of thinking, caught in the impasse of
matter/material as more or less static and mind!
mental as more or less dynamic, the first two lines
pose a problem because, according to rDzogs-chen
thinking, they are on the side of what we would
call the "material." Certainly, we have no
The Re-Cognition of Being's Infrastructure as Self-Completion 103
difficulty in assessing a river, a mirror, and a
crystal ball as material objects and, with some
stretching of our imagination, the chos-sku, longs-
sku, and sprul-sku as mental objects.
Unfortunately this facile assessment misses the
point. The river, the mirror, and the crystal ball
are images of movement: the river flows on and
on; the mirror ceaselessly reflects and, more
importantly, reveals; and the crystal ball never
stops shimmering in all the colors of the
spectrum. By contrast, the chos-sku, longs-sku,
and sprul-sku are images of rest in the sense that
they describe our existentiality as remaining the
same under all conditions and in all
circumstances. Only the third line can be said to
be "mental," providing we do not reduce it to
something egological and turn it into another
thing by our ego's thingifying thinking.
The thrust of what is designated by the term
ngo-sprod that, strictly speaking, defies any
reductionist translation, is in the direction of
understanding by coming face-to-face with what
we really are and in so doing re-cognizing
ourselves. This experience is the dissipation
(sangs) ofthe darkness of one's re-presentational
mode ofthinking, and as such a spreading (rgyas)
of the light of one's Urwissen (ye-shes).42 As an
experience, sangs-rgyas is never a commercial
Buddhathing (to be roused from its sleep,
whatever this and similar slogans may mean); it
has no name (ming-med ), and its encounter-cum-
re-cognition (ngo-sprod) allows itself to be
expressed only in images of symbolic pregnance:
43
There is the profound instruction
44
by way of
the symbolically meant statement of five
luminescences arising in their irrealizing
quality
Out of a luminous lantern that is the radiat-
ing (of Being's) spatiality;
There IS the profound instruction by way of
the symbolically meant statement of the
darkness becoming completely translucent
by the brilliant sun arising in (what is) some
pitch-black darkness, which is to say that
The totality ofthe phenomenal world with its
probabilistic interpretation is filled with a
brilliant luminescence.
There is the profound instruction by way of
the symbolically meant statement of there
being two mansions: the one being the di-
vine mansion of the luminescence of
(Being's) [nirvanicl lighting-up, the other
being the samsaric mansion of darkness
which is to say that '
Once the door of darkness has been shut, the
door through which the originary awareness
(modes) will shine, opens, whereby
All the sentient beings of (Being's) lighting-up
and probabilistic interpretations in terms
of samsara and nirvana will be seen in gaz-
ing at them as becoming and being erlichtet
(alight, sangs-rgyas).
After this excursion into the deeper
significance of the term ngo-sprod, we may now
return to the much favored numerical assessment
of its application on the part of the experiencer.
Most intriguing in this context is its being ofthe
nature of seven varieties.
45
The preamble to these
self-encounters is the differentiation between the
"elemental forces" ('byung-ba) that are basically
luminous, and their "corruptions" (snyigs-ma)
that prevent their luminosities from prevailing
in what is the joint cosmogony and anthropogony.
This differentiation makes it possible to come
face-to-face with the three forestructures of our
enworlded being (sku-gsum), their five originary
awareness modes (ye-shes lnga), and their
deterioration into the eight perceptual patterns
(tshogs-brgyad ) that we call our mind and/or
consciousness, due to the loss of luminosity and
the lack of awareness.
46
Within this complexity of encounters that is
meant to make us understand (rtogs) ourselves
and even further to transcend (la zla) ourselves
the exposition of the three forestructures
images of what we feel to constitute our
wholeness, has been a recurrent theme. Although
the relevant literature is enormous, it has been
mostly ignored for obvious reasons: the difficulty
of a language that reverberates with the
immediacy of experience, and the inherent
defiance of any reductionism. Two quotations may
suffice. The one states:
47
From perspective of (its) ecstatic intensity,
a radiance-cum-nothingness, in which its
Proto-light and (proto-)turbulence have not yet
arisen,
One speaks ofthe "stuff" (of which) the chos-
sku is made.
From the perspective of a stirring (that has
occurred in this nothingness and resulted
in the) emergence of its proto-light (taking
on the character of a) corporeal pattern that
together with the spirituality (of the noth-
ingness)
Forms a whole, (this is what is the) longs-sku.
104 The InternationalJournal ofTranspersonal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
From the perspective of the (unity of) a corpo-
real pattern and a spiritual (quality) one
speaks ofthis combination as the sprul-sku.
The other has this to say:48
From the perspective of (Being's) ecstatic in-
tensity (one speaks of) a chos-sku,
From the perspective of (Being's transforma-
tion into its) proto-light (one speaks of) a
longs-sku,
From the perspective ofthe radiance of the five
perceptual patterns, this is seen as a stir-
ring (in the direction of a) multiplicity, and
this very stirring is (what is meant by)
sprul-sku.
Even more intriguing in this context is the
encounter with, and assessment of, the five
originary awareness modes. In the epistemology-
oriented and speculative texts, these have been
dealt with in terms of their being the founded
(brten) on the founding (rten), that, is the sku.
Here, there are two approaches. In the one
approach, (which I shall call the "more or less
conventional" one), the interchangeability ofthe
awareness modes with the elemental forces,
similar to the interchangeability of rig-pa and
chos-sku, is stated to be as follows:
49
The mirroring/revealing awareness mode
[has its raison d'etre in what is] the
water's raison d'etre,
The identity-with-itself-and-with-every-
thing-else awareness mode [has its raison
d'etre in what is] the earth's raison d'etre,
The specificity-initiating awareness mode
[has its raison d'etre in what is] the fire's
raison d'etre,
The task-posed-and-accomplished awareness
mode [has its raison d'etre in what is] the
wind's raison d'etre,
The meaning-rich dimensionality awareness
mode [has its raison d'etre in what is] the
(sky-like) spatium's raison d'etre.
Translated into the modern, preeminently
rationalistic jargon, this quotation attempts to
impress on us the deeply felt understanding of
the nature of each element. Water is primarily
cleansing and, in so doing, reveals what has been
normally hidden from sight: Earth provides a
solid ground, on which we, being an identity in
the sense of an as yet unbroken symmetry, can
stand firmly: Fire is the spark evolving into the
blaze of our analytically selective rationality:
Wind blows away our laboriously built-up
figments: The spatium is an opening-up, as well
as the openness in which "things can happen."
The other approach reflects Padmasambhava's
yang-ti understanding and teaching, that goes far
beyond his spyi-ti understanding and teaching.
The presentation of this approach is by (or
attributed to) a certain Sriratnavajra (about
whom nothing is known). It runs as follows:
50
An originary awareness mode (that is
Being's) symbolic pregnance (and) no-
birth.
An originary awareness mode (that is
Being's) brilliance (emerging) from the
vortex of its proto-light (having become an
actual) brilliance,
An originary awareness mode (that is
Being's) brilliance in its self-
originatedness (and) disposition to be
luminous,
An originary awareness mode (that is
Being's) auto-luminescence (and) auto-
dissipation (of darkness)-(as a) spreading
oflight, .
An originary awareness mode (that is
Being's) lighting-up by itself and (this
lighting-up's) dissolution in its legitimate
dwelling.
It would exceed the scope of an essay to go into
the details of each and every encounter with and
recognition of one's "infrastructure." Suffice it to
point out and emphasize that this infrastructure's
Lichthaftigkeit (alightness), as revealed in its
understanding that, however it is prized, is never
a speculant's absolute, but a phase in one's growth
into one's humanity (so often misunderstood as a
regression into some sort of primitivism or an
escape from being-in-this-world). Rather, this
growing-up is crossing the mountainlike barrier
that stands between us as sentient (opinionated)
beings (sems-can) and us as sensibly erlichtet
(alight) beings. In the words ofPadmasambhava:
51
As long as we are [mere] sentient beings (sems-
can) we deal with the five sense objects com-
placently,
Once we have some deeper understanding
(rtogs-ldan), (we deal with them in such a
manner) that as (Being's) auto-manifesta-
tion we let them dissolve in our no-(longer-)
appropriating them,
Once we have become erlichtet (sangs-rgyas)
we (deal with them) in having become sen-
sitively concerned about everything, which
means n-o-t-h-i-n-g.
The Re-Cognition o/Being's Infrastructure as Self-Completion 105
But this "nothing" is not a nothing; rather, in
our having become and being erlichtet through
an ongoing process of encountering and re-
cognizing this dynamic state's infrastructure, any
rigidifying and thingifying trend, positive or
negative, has been transcended. This ongoing
transcending is a challenge and few will rise to
face it. Within our Western world frame I do not
know of any better formulation of this pursuit
and vision than the one as a postscript to his
distich Kenne dich selbst ("Know yourself'),
written in 1798 by the German poet N ovalis
(Friedrich von Hardenberg):
Einem gelang es-er hob den Schleier der Gottin
zu Sais-
Aberwas sah er? Er sah-Wunder des Wunders-
sich selbst
(One person succeeded-he lifted the veil of the
goddess at Sais-
But what did he see? He saw-miracle of
miracles-himself ).
Notes
1. A very lucid interpretation of intelligence as dynamic
and creative and of intellect as static and more or less self-
limiting, has been given by Bohm and Peat (2000, p. 114).
2. Kun-tu-bzang-mo klong-gsal 'bar-ma nyi-ma'i gsang-
rgyud, 25: 379ab.
3. rGyud thams-cad-kyi spyi-phud nyi-zla bkod-pa nam-
mkha' dang mnyam-pa'i rgyud, 1: 101b.
4. This rather cryptic statement presumes an
acquaintance with Padmasambhava's favorite image of
a child "returning home" to its mother and, in this reunion
with her, recognizing the intimate bond between them
that makes the two one, though not in a numerical sense.
In the Rin-po-che sNang-gsal spu-gri 'bar-bas 'khrul-
snang rtsad-nas gcod-pa nam-mkha'i mtha' dang mnyam-
pa'i rgyud, 2: 296b, Padmasambhva tells us:
By recognizing (Being's) creativity as one's mother,
there is no aversion (and its)
Mistaken identification as hell has been eradicated.
5. Kun-tu-bzang-mo klong-gsal 'bar-ma nyi-ma'i gsang-
rgyud, 25: 374a.
6. Rin-po-che 'od-'bar-ba'i rgyud, Taipei ed., vol. 55, p.
404, column 7.
7. Kun-tu-bzang-mo klong-gsal 'bar-ma nyi-ma'i gsang-
rgyud, 25: 353a. A similar passage is found on fol. 380a
of the same work.
8. The meaning of this German word as explicated by
Karl Jaspers (1883-1969) in his Philosophy, I:
Existenz is the never objectified source of my thoughts
and actions. It is that whereof I speak in trains of
thought that involve no cognition. It is what relates
to itself, and thus to its transcendence ... Standing on
the borderline of world and Existenz, possible
Existence views all existence as more than existence [.J
(1967, p. 56)
The definition corresponds exactly to what the rDzogs-
chen thinkers understood by rgyud. Its Sanskrit
equivalent tantra, having the double meaning of being a
treatise and an experience of an intrapsychic reality, has
nothing to do with what the sex-crazed "Tantrics," be they
Westerners or Easterners, have made of it by way oftheir
being in the clutches ofma-rig-pa.
9. "Imaging process" is my rendering ofthe Tibetan term
sgom, whose Sanskrit equivalent is bhavana, usually
rendered by "meditation." What the Tibetan and Sanskrit
terms describe is akin to what the late Carl Gustav Jung
has called "active imagination." Specifically, the Sanskrit
term is a causative noun, meaning "letting and aiding
images to come to the fore." As a dynamic process,
imaging has nothing to do with what is popularly referred
to as "meditation," concerning which its contemporary
practitioners are deeply confused due to their inability,
or should one say, ma-rig-pa, to distinguish between
fixation and concentration.
10. rang-ngo. The use ofthis expression foreshadows the
experiencer's coming face-to-face with what he really is
in his beingness from a dynamic perspective.
11. These are the immediacy of its felt presence, its
growth in intensity, its reaching the limits of its intensity,
and its transcending itself.
12. In the above four stanzas the key terms bral and grol
highlight the principle of complementarity, characteristic
ofrDzogs-chen thinking. Both bral andgrol are "neutral"
verb forms (neither transitive nor intransitive according to
our verbal categories): bral intimates the feeling tone of
"apartness," grol intimates the feeling tone of a "parting."
13. Rin-po-che 'od-'bar-ba'i rgyud, Taipei ed., vol. 55, p.
404, column 7.
14. The Tibetan term zang -thaI is a concept that describes
an experience in which one comes to what seems to be
an impenetrable wall, that suddenly gives way so that
one can go "right through" it.
15. This harsh statement is amply supported by wisdom-
crazy cultists and academics (in the West) and their
imitators (in the East). The mistranslation of prajiiii by
"wisdom" goes back to the late Edward Conze who is
reported to have thrown a fit when the word wisdom was
mentioned in its Western context, and to have declared
that the West has no wisdom, which he then identified
with the ordinances ofthe politbureau ofthe former USSR.
The perpetuation ofthis mistranslation by academics seems
to be due to their being more concerned with proving the
dictum (ascribed to Anatole France) "Les savants ne sont
pas curieux," rather than with studying the original texts.
1 06 The International Journal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
16. Nor-bu-rin-po-che'i rgyud, Taipei ed., vol. 55, p. 404,
column 4.
17. Ibid., columns 4-5.
18. sPros-bral don-gsal, 1: 7b.
19. Kun-tu-bzang-mo klong-gsal 'bar-ma nyi-ma'i gsang-
rgyud, 25: 350ab.
20. The borderline between the "physical" and the
"imaginal" is extremely fluid so that, without taking the
context and its linguistic expression into account, under
the still prevailing reductionism, the distinct features of
these two dimensionalities may simply be ignored or
obliterated. Thus the imaginal tsitta (a Tibetanized form
of the Sanskrit word citta) may be equated with the
"heart" as the seat of dispassionate thinking,
mythopoeically assuming the shape of calm and serene
"deities." The imaginal dung-khang may be equated with
the "cerebrum" as the seat of passionate thinking,
mythopoeically assuming the shape of fierce and furious
"deities." The imaginal rtsa may be equated with the
"veins," mythopoeically assuming the character of the
imaginal body's skeleton or, more precisely, its dynamic
scaffolding. The sgo may be equated with the "eyes,"
mythopoeically assuming the character of gates through
which, as we might say, the so-called mental-spiritual
"goes out" to meet the so-called physical and letting it
"come in." The reference to the two eyes implies the other
senses as well. This reference to the eyes reflects the fact
that in us, as living beings, sight has taken precedence
over the other sensory functions.
21. The term, in this spelling, links the more or less
concrete body (lus) of the experiencer with its dynamic
process character, as experienced in the incipient closure
onto itself of Being, and referred to as rin-chen-sbubs
"preciousness envelope." In view of the fact that rDzogs-
chen thinkers thought of the living individual as being
basically spiritual and luminous, it may not be out of
place to quote Ernst Cassirer's (1874-1945) similar idea
expressed in his The Individual and the Cosmos in
Renaissance Philosophy:
Every spiritual being has its centre within itself. And
its participation in the divine consists precisely in this
centring ... Individuality is not simply a limitation;
rather, it represents a particular value that may not
be eliminated or extinguished, because it is only
through it that the One, that which is "beyond being,"
becomes ascertainable to us. (1964, p. 28)
22. The rendering of this admittedly difficult Tibetan
phrase is prompted by the consideration that the term
'od refers to "light" as virtual. It becomes "actual" when
it "radiates" (gsal ) and in its radiance comes in distinct
colors. This distinction between "virtual" and "actual"
calls to mind Thomas Aquinas' (1224125-1274) dictum:
color nihil aliud est, quam lux incorporata
(color is nothing else but light embodied)
quoted in Anita Albus', The Art of Arts - Rediscovering
Painting (2001, p. 293). The term thig-le denotes a
multifaceted reality in the specific sense of in-forming
and organizing the system that it is. This "information"
is "light," and just as this light shines in itself and by
itself, so also information is not a transfer of information,
but the system's information to itself of its dynamic.
23. The last three stanzas are also quoted by Klong-chen
rab-'byams-pa Dri-med 'od-zer (1308-1364) in his mKha'-
'gro yang-tig II, 199-200, forming volume 5 of his sNying-
tig ya-bzhi. His version collated with the sDe-dge edition
makes it possible to present a correct text. It is this
"corrected" version that has been given in translation.
The last stanza is particularly difficult to render. The
term snang has the double meaning of "lighting up" (as
translated), and of "making visible." Similarly, "a shining
lamp" may imply a quincunx of lamps. Our language
simply cannot cope with the singular and plural as a
single "reality."
24. Kun-tu-bzang-mo klong-gsal 'bar-ma nyi-ma'igsang-
rgyud, 25: 352a.
25. From a linguistic point of view it is important to notice
the difference between 'gyur-ba-med and mi-'gyur-ba.
According to our categories the first term is a noun, the
second is an adjective. The same holds good for 'gag-(pa)-
med and mi-'gag-pa.
26. Ye-shes thig-le zang-thal-gyi rgyud, Taipei ed.,vol. 55,
p. 417, column 7.
27. Die asthetische Erziehung des Menschen, in einer
Reihe von Briefen. 1795, 15th letter.
28. sPros-bral don-gsal, 1:12a.
29. bDe-ba-chen-po byang-chub-kyi sems rmad-du byung-
ba'i le'u, 25: 225b-226a.
30. To the best of my knowledge, the longest and most
detailed disquisition is given by Klong-chen-rab-'byams-
pa Dri-med-'od-zer in his Grub-mtha'-mdzod, sDe-dge ed.,
vol. Kha, fols. 122a-127a.
31. It is interesting to note that the Sanskrit language
does not distinguish between mtshan-nyid and mtshan /
mtshan-ma. It has only one word: laklarta.
32. bDud-rtsi bcud-bsdus sGron-ma brtsegs-pa: 2: 328.
33. sPros-bral don-gsal, 1: 37a.
34. Ibid.
35. In this capacity it is (a) "voiding" (stong-pa) , (b)
"unceasing" (mi-'gag), (c) "indivisible" (dbye mi-phyed-pa),
(d) ''knowing this to be so" (der shes), and (e) "intangible"
(thogs-pa med ). These five qualifiers are the "insubstantial
and irrealizing rig-pa's" transformations into originary
awareness modes (ye-shes) such that: (a) the "voiding"
becomes the awareness mode-qua-dimensionality where
meanings are stored as well as being in statu nascendi (chos-
dbyings ye-shes), from whose auto-luminescence the voiding
is seen and felt as being of a deep-blue color; (b) the
"unceasing" becomes the quasi-mirroring awareness mode-
qua-dimensionality (me-long lta-bu'i ye-shes), from whose
auto-luminescence (unceasingly mirroring the meaning
The Re-Cognition o/Being's Infrastructure as Self-Completion 107
dimensionality and revealing its richness) this unceasing
mirroring is seen and felt as being of a white color; (c) the
"indivisible" (in the sense that the "two" preceding qualifiers
cannot be separated from each other) becomes the identify-
with-itself-and-with-everything-else ("the plane of
consistency" in the words of Giles Deleuze and Felix
Guattari [1987, p. 70f.], "perfect symmetry" in the
mathematicians' language) awareness mode-qua-
dimensionality (mnyam-nyid ye-shes), from whose auto-
luminescence the indivisible is seen and felt as being of a
yellow color; (d) the "knowing this to be so" becomes the
specificity-initiating selectively mapping awareness mode-
qua-dimensionality (so-sor rtog-pa'i ye-shes), from whose
auto-luminescence the intangible is seen and felt as being
of a red color; (e) the "intangible" becomes the task-posed
and accomplishes awareness mode-qua-dimensionality
(bya-ba grub-pa'i ye-shes), from whose auto-luminescence
the intangible is seen and felt as being of a green color.
While from the perspective of complementarity rig-pa
emphasizes the dynamic aspect of Being, chos-sku
emphasizes its stability that, strictly speaking, defies any
verbalization. As the last term in this triune ngo-sprod code,
"the understanding" (rtogs-pa), intimates, what we have to
understand is the paradox of nothing being everything.
36. On the difference between intelligence and intellect
see note 1. In the Tibetan language this difference is
expressed by the terms mtshan-nyid and blo.
37. The counting by three in different contexts applies to
the older form of Tibetan Buddhism with its ontological
interest; in its later form, the highest number is five, as is
evident from sGam-po-pa's writings. See his Collected Works
(gsung-'bum), vols. 10, fol. 18b; 23, fol.2a, and 25, fol. 11b.
38. sPros-bral don-gsal, 1: 35ab.
39. These are the longs-sku and the sprul-sku. The longs-
sku refers to us as social beings (being-with-others and
enjoying it) and the sprul-sku refers to us as being guiding
images.
40. sNang-srid kha-sbyor, 2: 253b.
41. Kun-tu-bzang-mo klong-gsal 'bar-ma nyi-ma'igsang-
rgyud, 25: 356b.
42. The use of the German word Urwissen for ye-shes
does not contradict the rendering ofye-shes by "originary
awareness." Urwissen emphasizes the ontological (stable/
invariant) character of Being, while "originary
awareness" emphasizes its dynamic character. It is
unfortunate that in our language "aware" has lost its
verbal character. If I were allowed to use "aware" as a
verb, its gerundival form "awaring" would convey what
ye-shes means: "a knowing (shes) rooted in Being's
primordiality (ye) and bringing it to its illumining Being."
43. I have borrowed the expression "symbolic pregnance"
from Ernst Cassirer's The Philosophy of Symbolic Forms
(1953-1957). The above exegesis is an attempt to render
intelligibly the Tibetan phrase sangs-rgyas ngo-sprod
brda'-chos. The quoted passage is found in
Padmasambhava's rGyud thams-cad-kyi rgyal-po Nyi-zla'i
snying-po 'od-'bar-ba bdud-rtsi rgya-mtsho 'khyil-ba, 3: 36a.
44. Although the Tibetan term man-ngag is said to
correspond to the Sanskrit word upadesa, it represents
the quintessence of Being's efficacy (thabs).
45. sPros-bral don-gsal, 1: 28a-37a.
46. The number eight derives from the observation that
the four sensory perceptual patterns of (1) seeing, (2)
hearing, (3) smelling, and (4) tasting are spread out over
our (5) body. This is itself a perceptual pattern (touching)
and thus forms the founding stratum ofthe egological mind
that is twofold in (6) perceiving something to be there and
(7) perceiving this something emotionally-affectively; and
(8) their "founding stratum," that is our ontic foundation.
47. sPros-bral don-gsal, 1: 30b-31a.
48. Ibid., 35b.
49. Kun-tu-bzang-mo klong-gsal 'bar-ma nyi-ma'i gsang-
rgyud, 25: 367a.
50. rGyud thams-cad-kyi rtse-rgyal nam-mkha' 'bar-ba'i
rgyud, 1: 94b-95a.
51. sPros-bral don-gsal, 1: 32a.
References
A. Works in English
Ackerman, D. (1999). Deep play. New York: Vintage Books.
Albus, A. (2001). The art of arts: Rediscovering painting (M.
Robertson, Trans.). Berkeley, CA: University of California
Press.
Bohm, D., & Peat, F. D. (2000). Science, order, and creativity
(2nd ed.). London: Routledge.
Cassirer, E. (1964). The individual and the cosmos in Renais-
sance philosophy (M. Domandi, Trans.). New York: Harper
& Row.
Cassirer, E. (1953-1957). The philosophy of symbolic forms (R.
Manheim, Trans.). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1987).A thousand plateaus: Capi-
talism and schizophrenia (B. Massuni, Trans.). Minneapo-
lis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Hardenberg, F. v. (1798). Distichen [Distichs] (M. Kiessig, Ed.,
1966). Stuttgart: Reclam.
Huizinga, J. (1955). Homo ludens: A study of the play element
in culture. Boston: Beacon Press.
Jaspers, K. (1967). Philosophy (E. B. Ashton, Trans.). Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.
Schiller, F. v. (1795). Die iisthetische Erziehung des Menschen
in einer Reihe von Briefen [The aesthetic education of Man
in a series ofletters]. [In: Samtliche Werke in zwolfBanden.]
Berlin: A. Weichert.
B. Works in Tibetan
Unless stated otherwise all works are quoted from the
Derge (sDe-dge) edition ofthe rNying-ma rgyud-'bum by
volume and folio numbers.
108 The Internationaljournal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
Arrest, Interrogation, Prison Life
v. V. Nalimov
Moscow State University
Moscow, Russia
The Arrest
T
HERE WERE no signs of trouble. On
October 22, 1936, I came home after a
concert and peacefully went to bed. I woke
up immediately, however: Someone was searching
under my pillow. I opened my eyes: The
investigator was looking for a revolver. I also saw
his assistant in the room, a witness, and a soldier
with a rifle, the bayonet out. I was shown the
warrant with the word "search," but the words
after were covered by the investigator's finger. I
demanded to see the whole warrant that the
investigator would not show me. Then, at last, I
saw the previously covered words, "and arrest."
It turned out the words were covered so as not to
worry me ahead of time. The whole story began
with a lie; they wanted to convince me that the
warrant was only for the search.
The search was carried out meticulously:
Every bit of paper, every page of every book was
carefully examined. The investigating intuition
of the searchers helped them to select anything
that would characterize my personality. Then the
search continued in my mother-in-law's room. My
father started to protest: So far the warrant for
the search was valid only for me. The protest was
registered.
Editors' note: In publishing this work and the following
one, IJTS commemorates the extraordinary character of
Professor V V Nalimov (1910-1997) and his many
contributions to transpersonal and global understanding.
At last the search was over. Mother-in-law
solicitously prepared winter clothes and
underwear for me. The investigator summoned
a car and we squeezed into it. The first piece of
luck that occurred was that the investigator,
dazed by the search, with heaps of books and
papers, forgot to take away his loot. (Later, they
were never demanded, an act of forgetfulness that
could well discredit the investigator.)
The car arrived at the famous building on the
Lubyanka square. Iron gates were opened.
A few formalities. Photos were taken that came
out better than any before.
Then off to the Butyrki prison, this time by a
prison car (called a "black raven" by the folklore).
In the morning I entered cell N 70. A short
conversation followed with the monitor ofthe cell.
I was given a place in the middle of the plank
bed, which turned out to be a privilege.
Newcomers were commonly given places near the
toilet pail. Only people with "true political
charges" were an exception. I became a political
convict from the start.
The first act of this absurd theatrical
performance came when I was asked about the
recent political news. I answered that I was not
in the know. They started to reassure me, "Don't
be afraid!" But I was not afraid. I simply had not
read newspapers for a couple of weeks; we never
subscribed to them in our family. The political
quarrels did not interest us a bit. But who would
believe it? I looked like a true political case, not
a mere joke-teller. Later, only a few people
The Internationaljournal of Transpersonal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21, 109-117 109
2002 by Panigada Press
understood that this not reading newspapers was
already a political challenge.
Interrogations
T
HE SAME evening, I was summoned for a short
interrogation. The investigator read the
information he had on me and informed me that
I would be accused according to article 58, 10-11
(pertaining to counterrevolutionary propaganda
I:l.nd organization).
He immediately started to pretend that the case
was not really serious: "It is a trifle, of course, you
should confess everything, then you will only be
sent into exile, you will practice your profession
and will soon return to Moscow." He suggested that
I sign the confession and indicate that Alexei
Alexandrovich Solonovich controlled everything
from exile, through his wife, Agniya Onisimovna
Solonovich.
1
It goes without saying that I refused
to sign this piece of absurdity. The response was,
"So much the worse for you." That was the end of
the first interrogation.
The information against the accused described
a group of six people, five of whom had known one
another from childhood or early youth, and four of
whom (Ion Sharevsky, Yura Proferansov, Igor'
Tarle [who died young], and myself) were intimate
friends. Ion [Iosif] Ioffe was named as part of our
group, being a younger cousin of Sharevsky; and
Igor' Breshkov was a friend of his. It was obvious
that some member of the group was an informer.
But who? How could such a thing happen in a
small group of people, well-acquainted since
childhood? It was also obvious that the whole
matter was somehow connected with the village
ofKargasok, in Western Siberia, where Sharevsky
and Solonovich had been exiled and where the
repressive organs of the State were preparing a
provocation.
A day later I was called to another
interrogation: This time it lasted throughout the
night. All in all, there were about thirty
interrogations. All of them were held from evening
until morning, every other day. The situation soon
became clear: it was Iosif Ioffe
2
who turned out to
be the KGB informer. For two years, he had
informed the KGB about each of our meetings,
including, for example, one lasting only a few
minutes when we had come to a railway station to
see Proferansov off, who, being a geologist, often
used to leave Moscow.
The situation developed in a very dangerous
way. The group was accused of belonging to the
clandestine counterrevolutionary terrorist
organization of Mystical Anarchists (see note 1)
whose activities were said to be directed against
the Soviet administration. Sharevsky refused to
give evidence, that is, he refused to play the game.
Proferansov and Breshkov pleaded guilty. They
gave up without fighting.
I was the only one to start a defense. I
demanded information about the charges. What
kind of organization was this to which we were
alleged to belong? Where were its statutes, its
program, or goal? The investigator then changed
the formulation: It was not an organization, but a
political group. However, the Criminal Code deals
with organizations, not with groups of people who
come together informally to talk.
Next came the charge of spreading propaganda.
Whom had I tried to persuade? I asked to have a
confrontation with this person. The investigator
retorted, "You campaigned for the kind of
nonviolence, nonresistance to evil advocated by
Gandhi." I denied this. "No, I never campaigned
for that, I merely discussed a new successful way
of nonviolent social action; I discussed it with my
friends who were interested in this subject." The
investigator remarked, "Also, you recited anarchic
poems by Maximilian Voloshin." I had, indeed,
done so; but these poems are not interdicted, they
can be found in libraries.
Some facts I acknowledged in order to make
them look neutral, nonpolitical. Indeed, I gave
money to support the Kropotkin museum. In that
epoch it was the only institution in Moscow not
supported by the State.
3
Its existence presupposed
potential donations. I also gave money to the Black
Cross to help repressed anarchists. But this
foundation had existed since the beginning of the
century, and was never prohibited. The Red Cross
was a similar foundation.
4
I confessed that we had buried books on
anarchism. However, these books had never been
banned by anyone.
5
The decision to bury them was
made because in those years of general suspicion,
it was unnecessarily dangerous to keep them. We
felt we could not possibly burn them; it would have
been a shame.
Thus for thirty nights we repeated the same
interrogation. The investigator'sB task was to make
me acknowledge the existence of a clandestine
counterrevolutionary organization. I would refuse
110 The International Journal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol 21
stubbornly. Sometimes he would start to threaten
me saying that my relatives would be "repressed,"
to which I would answer, "Is it stipulated by the
Criminal Code?" That irritated him; he would start
to shout something about terrorism and
Trotskyism, then he would suddenly switch back
to my crime which, according to him, was my
favorable attitude to Gandhi, Tolstoy, and Voloshin.
Once, a small performance was even staged for
my sake: A group of investigators came and
scrutinized me. Then someone said, ''Yes, it's him."
- "Of course, it's him!" - "I recognize him." -
"Stop playing the fool," I answered. After which
all ofthem left, abusing me in the foulest language.
Some evidence against me was given by M. A.
Nazarov, a senior member of the group, also
arrested. For some reason, however, it was not
registered in the protocols and remained in
reserve. I insisted on having a confrontation with
Nazarov. At last he was brought. I could hardly
recognize him. He was completely broken. I only
had time to tell him, "Mikhail Alexeevich, collect
yourself!" and then he was taken away.
After about two months, the interrogations
stopped. I was of no interest to the investigator,
and stayed for months in the cell waiting to be
sentenced. It was evident that the investigation
had taken a new direction, and that Gandhi and
Voloshin were now regarded merely as a nuisance.
Life in Prison
A
PRISON IS a special world, an island of madness
in everyday life. Not only are its inhabitants
mad, but also its rulers. Butyrki prison was a
Moscow threshold to the hell of a correction camp.
The Butyrki prison was a fundamental
institution. It had been built by Christian
guardians oflaw and order. It had large cells with
large windows, over which the new order had
installed special shutters (called "muzzles"), and
long and wide corridors. At the intersections, there
were big electric clocks, another novelty, each
showing its own encoded time, in order to
unbalance the psychical state of prisoners by
giving them a sense ofthe instability oftime. Small
exercise yards were surrounded by high walls of
brick, from which the guards watched prisoners.
The punishment cell was in Pugachyov tower, so
called because according to the legend, the great
Russian rebel Yemelyan Pugachyov was held
there. Many new small cells had been made for
interrogations, also a novelty, because there were
not enough old ones. There was incessant motion
in the corridors: Prisoners were convoyed to and
from interrogations, to the toilets, to the exercise
yards; all this, accompanied by the sound of keys
clinking against the convoyers' buckles. On
hearing this sound, prisoners must turn their faces
to the wall, to avoid recognizing one another or,
God forbid, exchanging a few words.
The cells were large. Twenty-four folding bed
frames were fixed to the walls. The frames had
been permanently unfolded and covered by solid
wooden boards. On days when there were many
inmates, these boards were also put down in the
passage between two rows of bed frames. A toilet
pail was placed near the door. The cells had
originally been intended for twenty-four persons.
N ow, in the period of constructing socialism,
sometimes a hundred or even a hundred and fifty
persons were squeezed into each. This was the way
in which the significant statement of the "Father
of the People" [Stalin], on the "acute" stage ofthe
class struggle in the transitional period, was
reflected in life.
The first impression one had of the prison in
the initial period of an investigation was of a tense,
even an overtense, waiting and of the complete
idleness of a hundred men. This idleness was very
strange for me, who had always been an active
and busy person. There was nowhere to hurry to,
and nothing to take care of All my previous aims,
values, and worries lost their meaning. They were
gone from my life in an instant, and, it seemed,
were gone forever, like a dream. A new reality
opened up that had only one aim: to fight against
the demoniacal force of the crazy State.
However, life is apt to adapt itself to new
circumstances. Quite unexpectedly, I discovered
the fascinating aspect of being in prison: There
were ceaseless talks with people of different
backgrounds, with different pasts. Separated
before, these now all of a sudden lived together:
representatives of different parties and ethnic
movements; those who simply liked to tell jokes;
true spies; and representatives of foreign
communist parties-the rigorous Persian one, the
Bulgarian, the German. All of them turned into a
uniform "enemy"; and there was no place for them
in that glorious future which the "Father of the
People" was preparing for humanity. Many ofthese
people still worshipped this demon; they were still
blind.
Arrest, Interrogation, Prison Life III
I
I,
Here are a few interesting episodes.
1. A middle-aged stout man, very excited, was
brought into the cell. He told us he had been
"driven out"7 from another cell, which made
everybody feel on the alert. But he explained, "It
was not my fault. When I was taken to Butyrki I
had to fill in the form. There is a question which
asks whether I am a Party member. I indicated
that I was. So I was put into the cell for Party
members.s But when I told them I had been a
member ofthe Party of Socialist Revolutionaries
since the turn of the century, and had been in
Butyrki under the tsarist regime, awful
indignation was aroused. Those were members
of the ruling communist party, and I was for them
a cursed enemy. 'Take him away, annihilate him!'"
This man also told us the history of the Butyrki
prison. Every cell in it, every corridor, was
marked by a certain event. "In this corridor in
such-and-such a year we put a toilet pail on the
warder's head." It is hardly possible to record a
complete history of this prison. And anyhow it
could only become a fragment in the history of
the Russian fight for freedom.
2. Once a man of Oriental appearance was
brought in. He was gloomy and confused. But
after the first interrogation he came back happy:
"They only wanted me to confess that I was a
spy. Well, ifthey really want it, why not confess?"
The following day: "Today they wanted to know
my connections. This is a reasonable question; if
indeed I was a spy, I had to have connections. So
I named the man who sold peaches at the corner."
We were amazed and asked why he had betrayed
an unknown man for nothing. "But what was I to
do? I am in prison; let him also be put into prison;
he is no better than me." Quite a logical piece of
reasoning, though the logic looks somewhat
frustrating.
3. Another case was that of an odd-looking
redhead. He introduced himself as "a citizen of
the free town of Danzig." His Russian was poor.
We tried to speak other languages to him, but
also failed. Then we asked him what was his
nationality, his origin, and why he was in Moscow.
"I did not answer these questions even when the
pq)curator asked them. Why should I answer
them now?" Soon he was taken away - for good.
That one seemed at last to be a real spy.
4. All of a sudden, several dozen Germans were
brought in. Far from being intellectuals, they
were all members of the communist party, and
all had fled from Hitler, to their "brothers" - and
got into a trap. They were indignant and irritated.
Participating in a common talk one of them told
us how they, the Germans, had won the battle in
the Baltic Sea during World War I. A former
Russian seaman, my neighbor, whispered
indignantly: "Stuff and nonsense! What a
bastard! We bombed and destroyed them!" - "Say
it out loud! How does it look when a German in a
Russian prison disgraces Russia?" ---,-- "I don't
care!" That was the spirit of internationalism of
the epoch. There was also a Russian German in
our cell, gentle and somewhat sentimental; his
compatriots, the Party members, scared him to
death.
5. Many of us had a prison account (based on
money sent from home), and once every ten days
we were allowed to order food from the prison
store for a limited sum of money (ten percent of
which was assigned for the poor ofthe cell, mainly
to buy cigarettes). One day an old and sick
intellectual said that it was hard for him (on his
days of duty) to carry and empty the toilet pail
and that he was ready to hire a poor cellmate for
the price of his store share. One ofthe cellmates
was willing to do that. But that provoked a real
storm of indignation! "An exploitation of man!
Hired labor in prison!" An acute discussion went
on for hours, an aftertaste of socialist upbringing.
Such was, indeed, the dominant attitude ofthose
years, the attitude preserved even in prison. It is
difficult to understand it now. The theater of the
absurd can be truly appreciated only by those who
were brought up in an absurd way.
N ow I would like to present to the reader
portraits of certain inhabitants of the prison.
1. Eyup Ibragimovich Akchurin; a Tartar, the
son of a Kazan millionaire. His parents were
educated in Paris. His own education was also
affected by this. He was an intellectual, with a
brilliant knowledge of foreign languages, and
with an almost professional mastery of his voice.
He and several dozen other Tartars were arrested
in Moscow. They did not deny that they used to
gather together, to respect their mullah. They
were proud of their culture. And that was
sufficient reason for arrest and incrimination for
active nationalism. His personal case was based
on the information given by an acquaintance. She
conveyed the contents of a conversation she
pretended to have overheard through a thin
partition. Akchurin denied everything and
112 The International Journal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol: 21
managed not to say anything dangerous at the
interrogation. At the trial he demanded to see the
document concerning when the notorious partition
was built. It turned out to have been built a year
after the conversation in question. The charge
should have surely been removed, but no: He was
condemned to seven years of imprisonment.
2. Nikita Ivanovich Kharus; a Ukranian
nationalist. He told us about the traditions of
rural Ukranian culture, intertwining his stories
with memories of national heroes of the past. He
saw his task in the liberation and revival of his
people; so that "everyone had bread and fat." "We
would make everyone work," he used to say,
"including those whores of ballet dancers; we
shall make them plough." He had already been
to the camp, and escaped. He walked from the
Komi Republic to N ovorossiisk (near the Black
Sea), visited by foreign ships, from where he was
able to escape aboard a ship. He told us that Komi
peasant women gave him food. He had a very
common appearance. In Novorossiisk he
pretended to be a worker and started to work at
the shipyard. Someone wanted to marry him to
an old woman. Thus he would be above suspicion,
but a letter he sent to his relatives betrayed him.
The secret police discovered him. At the first
interrogation, he put down on the questionnaire:
"uneducated." The interrogator showed him the
letter and he understood he had been found out.
"OK, then note that I have two higher education
degrees." He had been in Butyrki for about a year
already. He seemed to have been prepared for
some special case. At present his dream seems to
be coming true in the Ukraine. For me, however,
it was clear even then, in Butyrki, what a huge
force was accumulating in reaction to national
suppression. It could not be annihilated by terror.
It was the only force that could not be suppressed
despite its archaic and obsolete nature.
3. A Menshevik, whose name I do not
remember, had been a mechanical engineer in the
Black Sea Squadron before the revolution. He had
been in prison for a year under the tsarist regime
for participating in the Menshevist movement.
Under the new regime he had worked in
polygraphy. But once an old friend came to see
him. They had a talk, and discussed current
events: They had both been brought up under
Marxism, though of a different flavor. And later
this conversation cost him five years of labor
camps. I seem to remember that once, while being
deported, I met the son of the man who had
informed the KGB about the contents of their
conversation. It was not so rarely that a noose
would close this way.
N ow I would like to say a few words about the
general arrangement of cell life. It was based on
a mutual guarantee: The whole cell was
responsible for the behavior of each of its
members. All obeyed the orders of a monitor, who
was honestly elected and respected by everybody.
If, for instance, someone needed to contact
another person in a neighboring cell, who was
charged with the same case, by "knocking," he
had to approach the monitor, explain everything,
and get permission for knocking (in a serious
case). If the knocking was discovered by the
prison authorities, the whole cell could be
temporarily deprived of a walk or of access to the
store. The noteworthy fact is that the decision to
endanger the whole cell was taken by the monitor
on his own responsibility, and the nature of the
request made to the monitor was guaranteed not
to be disclosed.
The second important person in the cell was
an "organizer of cultural leisure." He organized
general discussions, and lectures on various
subjects (including scientific ones). In the
evenings, concerts were organized: recitations,
the singing of opera airs and romances, or the
telling of stories, usually of one's life. Those who
left the cell for the camp or another prison were
seen offwith a chorus of the SolovkiAnthem and
the romance by Vertinski, beginning with the
following words:
I don't know who needs that and why,
Who sent them to death with the untrembling
hand.
The prison had an excellent library. Once in
ten days each prisoner could order several books,
including those in foreign languages, together
with dictionaries. For me this was a very
important privilege.
The system of inter-cell connections was well
developed. Almost every day someone was taken
away to an interrogation in the Central Lubyanka
prison, to a hospital, or to some other place. On
their way these prisoners would meet many
people. Thus, when I had to transmit a message,
I would give the message after the interrogation,
and it would be passed on by a chain of these
brief meetings.
Arrest, Interrogation, Prison Life 113
Here is an example: At the beginning of the
investigation, the investigator hinted that the
initial information had come from Sharevsky. It
was important for me to know for sure if that
was true. The message was sent. The result was:
One day the peep-hole ofthe door was opened for
a second and I heard, "Vasya, don't believe them!"
Then the noise of a fight. It is true that for sending
this message Sharevsky had to spend several
days in the punishment cell of the Pugachyov
tower. We learned that also by means of an inter-
cell message.
I was lucky to be put in Butyrki in the epoch
when the freedom-loving traditions ofthe Russian
revolutionaries were still preserved there.
The Sentence
J
UNE, 18, 1937. My sentence was announced: I
was condemned to five years of corrective labor
camps according to article 58, 10-11.9 The
sentence was passed by the Special Conference,
and it goes without saying that I was not present:
Even the procurator expressed no desire to talk
to me. In those days a sentence like mine was
the maximum possible given in the absence of
the accused. It was a miracle that I was not tried
by a court. I would like to think that this was
largely due to my resistance. I interpreted the
material of the preliminary investigation in a
different way, and at the trial many ofthe accused
could have supported my interpretation. Another
miracle was that our case was over before the
Special Conference acquired the right to sentence
for ten years, which happened soon afterward. I
would surely have been given this sentence, and
it would have complicated many things in the
future.
All the prisoners involved in our case and
sentenced by the Special Conference
1o
gathered
near the room where the sentence was
announced. After the sentence, we were all sent
to the same temporary cell from which prisoners
were taken to other places. Here at last we could
talk to each other to our hearts' contentY My
friendship with Yura Proferansov held despite the
fact that he had given evidence against me, which
made my resistance to the investigator all the
more difficult. Certain events in his private life,
however, extenuated his guilt. He had passed
through a difficult unrequited love, and when this
experience was over, and he had settled down
with another woman and was blissfully happy,
he was arrested. It was natural for him to believe
the interrogator's promise that he would be
sentenced only to exile. That was his last hope. I
am well aware that this justification of his
behavior is rather insufficient, but it was
inconceivable for me to break up our former
friendship.
As for the elder participants of the movement,
their position remained unclear; they avoided
discussing this subject. I will, however, return to
this later.
It can be imagined how much we talked and
thought during the days before sentence was
passed. We understood we were approaching
death. What would be our lot?
In prison we were informed that the situation
in the camps was becoming more dangerous every
day. Those were the years of unrestrained
mounting terror: terror directed against the
people ofthe country in the name of a crazy idea.
We were aware that those in our group were
the only ones in the cell to have chosen our lot
back while we were yet free. We were even proud
to have made this choice; to us that was a
continuation of the tradition of the Russian
revolutionaries. It was the awareness of the
significance of our choice that enabled us to
survive in the camps. The only one to perish
(during the first year in the camp) was Yura
Proferansov. Being a geologist, one would have
thought he would be able to adapt to the new
conditions more easily than the others. I believe
it was the loss of his love that broke his resistance.
It is not easy for a young man to suppress the
first glimpses of mutual love.
The Siberian High Road
T
HIS ROUTE is famous in Russian history. It has
seen the passage of many brave, unsubdued
people. Now it was my turn.
We were taken by "black ravens" to the freight
yard of Yaroslavsky railway station. The train
that awaited us was composed of freight cars
adapted for carrying prisoners. Inside they had
two-story bed frames, a makeshift toilet, and a
small window. The cars were packed to capacity
and even beyond. The destination was
Vladivostok, a town in the Far East, and the
journey took a month, according to the schedule
of freight trains. We got off the train only once,
114 The International Journal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
in Krasnoyarsk. There we were taken to the
baths; to get there we were marched across the
whole city, accompanied by a convoy strengthened
with dogs.
Quite by chance, I was lucky enough to get a
place on an upper bed, near the window, and thus
could see at least one side of the Siberian road.
In the subways of Moscow, at small stations,
deserted crying women were waiting for us: They
knew the schedule of the prison trains. Some of
us threw them messages to be sent to relatives.
12
The wind would blow these scraps of paper away
and the women would run to catch them; and
indeed, messages would finally come to the
addressees.
The food was, of course, scant. We were often
given salted herring (which is today regarded as
a delicacy). Hungry people, though well aware
there would not be enough water, ate greedily,
and then at the stations would start screaming,
"Water, give us water!" The cry would come in
waves all along the train. We were badly fed, but
well guarded. Every evening all the prisoners
were counted one by one, and the floor was
knocked by a wooden stick to discover any hiding-
place. On the roof was a machine-gun.
These prison trains were running all over
Russia. Some prisoners were taken to camps,
others to new interrogations. The industry of
prison transportation was well developed. Those
in charge had their own cars,13 their own rules of
transportation, food supplies, guarding. Prison
transportation composed an essential part ofthe
entire system of transportation of the country.
Golden Horn Bay
A
T LAST we arrived in Vladivostok. It was a
sunny day, as if in a Southern town. Again
we were convoyed across the city.
Though the prisoners from each car were
ordered to march separately, I managed to run
through the whole column and to see familiar
faces, to ask what was the accusation and the
sentence.
The prison zone was situated on the shore of
the bay. Calm, friendly sea was visible shimmering
in the sun. This seascape was incongruous side by
side with barbed wire and the now familiar sentry
boxes. After the boring voyage the sea seemed to
be willing to apologize for the madness of the
country and to welcome us.
If I were asked what national emblem our
country should choose, I would suggest a
watchtower: to commemorate those who perished;
and for the edification of posterity, so that future
generations would never forget the past, and that
the country would feel its guilt and never attempt
to repeat it. That would be a real repentance.
The necessary formalities in the zone took a
lot of time. We were treated as strictly
accountable articles, therefore there were
numerous searches, countings and re-countings,
checkings, and so on. It grew dark and started to
rain; at last we were assigned to different sections
of the zone. I, and another person who was
seriously ill, were directed to a special gate where
we were passed on to the local administration.
All the officials wore dark cloaks with hoods and
had torches just like members of the Spanish
Inquisition, the way we see it in pictures. I was
ordered, "Take the sick person by the hand and
march ahead!" While we walked, one of the
hooded figures turned towards me, took off the
hood and lifted the torch:
"You don't recognize me, Vasya?"
"Misha!"
Indeed, it was Mikhail Stepanovich Cherevkov,
a painter, and in the not so distant past, the
husband of Ion Sharevsky's sister. He used to
belong to a different world alien to me, the world
of exquisite Moscow Bohemia a la Oscar Wilde.
But here our paths crossed. The amazing fact is
that even in the pre-camp zone he really looked
"artistic," unlike others; even his ragged clothes
looked elegant and picturesque.
Thus I found myself in the special section of
the zone: On the one hand, it contained gravely
sick people; on the other hand, prisoners who
registered those newly arrived and prepared
papers for their further transportation to
Magadan. Strange as it may seem, at that time
politicaP4 prisoners were still allowed to do office
jobs. The team was headed by the former
physician of the Bolshoi Theater, and he was also
responsible for selecting its members.
That was a real "resort behind bars":
Bohemian intellectuals,15 and the sea so close at
hand, just a few steps down, that one could jump
into the water. But no, we were taken to baths.
That realm was already ruled by criminals. My
boots were immediately stolen, and I walked in
the zone in rubbers, and was still wearing them
Arrest, Interrogation, Prison Lifo 115
when I arrived at Magadan. I was happy to have
them; we were given nothing by the administration,
and had to make do with what we had of our own.
The boat, "Zhurba," that took us to Magadan
was a common cargo steamer adapted for the
transporation of prisoners. In the holds
(naturally, without windows) were built four rows
of bed frames. The air could enter only from the
upper hatches where the stairs began. This
monster of a boat had to accommodate no less
than three thousand people. The task of
organization was assigned to a small group of
prisoners, while the guards stood by grinning. I
was a member of this group, which enabled me
to spend almost all of the ten days of the voyage
on the deck, not in this horrible hold. But we were
responsible for everything that happened in the
hold.
We were the first to reach the deck. We
understood that many would feel sick in the hold
and we had to leave places for them in the upper
storey. But when the crowd rushed inside,
everybody wanted to climb upwards onto the
upper storey and we felt we were unable to control
them. At this moment, a young man who was in
our group, a slender youth with a sort offeminine
grace, a former student of the Navy College,
ripped off his buttonless
16
uniform and with all
his might struck the first burly man right across
his face, ordering him to go downstairs. It helped:
Nobody struck back, nobody rebelled. Everyone
obediently went downstairs. I breathed a sigh of
relief, remembering the lines of the Russian poet
Gumilev:
When rebel on board alighted
Captain pulls a pistol out of a belt
Such that down drops lace gold
Of the pinkish Mechlin cuff
No, there was no gold and no lace, there was
merely a violent blow, but it had been struck in
time, and the rebellious man submitted; Indeed,
in a critical situation that was the only way to
control people; and though I am an anarchist by
conviction, I have to acknowledge that. This is sad.
The steamer pushed off and I said goodbye,
for long years, to the continent
17
and to everything
that was dear to me.
From the ship, I could see the Southern sea,
the Southern starlit sky, the coast of a Japanese
island and their black patrol destroyer. Then very
soon we sailed out into the cold gray and stormy
Sea of Okhotsk. Water was pouring over the mid-
deck. On guard at the entrance to the terrible
hold, I suddenly forgot my slavery and
humiliation. I felt in me a power str()nger than
that which brought me to this deck.
I also remember a tragic-comical episode. A
man, mad with seasickness, rushed to the deck
with a toilet pail, ran (for some reason) to the
prow, and splashed out the contents in the teeth
ofthe hurricane. It was next to impossible to wash
off the filth. I feel the same thing keeps happening
to us in the hurricane of political battles, when,
exasperated and exhausted, we splash everything
on ourselves.
That was the beginning of a new, savage and
mutilated life. We were doomed for years of
slavery to the brutal system, in a climate unfit
for human existence.
And who could know or believe in that epoch
that half a century later, I, a former prisoner of
the Stalin camps, would again see the waters of
the Pacific - but from the other shore, from
friendly California and a cozy island near Seattle,
with a still-existing Indian reservation on it.
Notes
This work is based on the author's personal experience
and materials from the Central Archives prepared by
Jeanna Nalimov-Drogalina. It is a chapter from V. V.
Nalimov's autobiographical memoir, A Rope-Dancer (A
Wreckage), published in Russian in 1994. The chapter
was translated into English by A. V. Yarkho and has been
further edited for the present work.
l. See V. V. Nalimov, (2001), "On the History of Mystical
Anarchism in Russia," International Journal of
Transpersonal Studies, 20,85-98;
2. From his childhood, Iosif Ioffe had followed his older
cousin; he was very enthusiastic about the ideas of
Anarchism and could pass his enthusiasm on to other
people. But he seemed to be less talented than his cousin
and that could have been the reason for a secret rivalry.
In 1934, a man who had been in exile in Kargasok brought
greetings from Sharevsky. The man seems to have been
an informer, and it was probably then that some contacts
could have been made.
The noteworthy fact is that I was warned twice. Once,
the warning came from a student from the college where
Ioffe studied. It was just a warning; no explanations were
given. Another time, it came from our former housekeeper,
a retired woman who still lived in our apartment. She
told me, "Why do you, Vasya, go to meet him? He will
surely betray you." And again I did not listen to the
prophetic voice.
116 The International Journal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
I was later told that, immediately after my arrest,
loffe visited my family. When my father saw him, he
understood everything. Without uttering a word, loffe
went away, confused and embarassed. But what was done
could not be undone. In the archives we found evidence
to the effect that he had helped to concoct several such
cases.
3. The widow of Kropotkin refused to accept a state
pension on principle.
4. I remember that, for some time, cigarettes provided
by the Red Cross were brought into our cell.
5. These were mainly the editions ofthe publishing house
"Golos Truda" (The Voice of Labor). The shop of the
publishing house existed in Okhotnyi Ryad (one of the
central streets of Moscow) until the end of the 1920s.
6. The investigation was mainly carried out by a man called
Makarov. He acted in a fairly professional way: He had at
his disposal a prefabricated set of questions and standard
formulations of answers. Now that we have access to the
archives and can read the protocols, we get the impression
that all those interrogated spoke a standard language,
whether they accepted or rejected the accusations. The
administration seemed to approve of such a
standardization ofthe procedure - Makarov got his first
promotion for the interrogations.
Sometimes, another interrogator would come, a
certain Golovanov. In contrast to Makarov, who wore a
uniform, Golovanov was always in civilian clothes. His
interrogations sometimes even had a philosophical flavor.
For example, he said to me, "You are a Stoic, that is why
we cannot get anything from you." I had an impression
that he was not a rank-and-file investigator but controlled
the whole case.
7. That means that other prisoners in the cell required
that he be expelled for an offense. Each cell was held
collectively responsible for the behavior of all of its
members, and it had the right to ask that a disobedient
member be sent away. Such persons were very unwelcome
in other cells;
8. In that epoch special cells for the members ofthe ruling
party still existed. Even in prison they had privileges.
That meant that even in prison all were equal but some
were "more equal than others." The principle of
Bolshevist "equality" was observed everywhere.
9. The sentence read as follows: "Condemned for
counterrevolutionary activities" (denoted by the index
eRA). The essential thing was not only the term of
confinement, but the wording as well. Trotskyites were
condemned with the index CRTA (T for "terrorist"), which
carried a much graver sentence, even though the term
was the same.
10. Some of the accused were tried by the Supreme Board
of the Military Collegium.
11. These are the people who were together in the cell on
that day: S. R. Leshchuk, a mathematician; P. A. Arensky,
of the theater; G. V. Gorinevsky, an architect; and B. V.
Korostelev, on the staff of the Central Aerohydrodynamic
Institute (he was somewhat avoided). The members of
the youth group, besides myself, were: Yura Proferansov,
a geologist; and Igor' Breshkov, a teacher.
12. Despite meticulous searches, experienced prisoners
managed to keep a stub of a pencil, a scrap of paper, and
a razor blade.
13. Some prisoners were also transported in common
"Stalin" compartment cars with barred windows; these
compartments were usually unbearably stuffy, as the
number of prisoners squeezed into them was fantastic.
There were also the so-called "Stolypin" cars, with a big
salon inside, which was rather comfortable. Even now,
when I hear the name ofStolypin, I remember cars named
after him: the severe Russian tsarist minister was a true
humanitarian.
14. Officially, there were no political prisoners in our
country. The notorious clause 58 belonged to the Criminal
Code, and all people sentenced according to the Criminal
Code are criminals. But as a matter of fact that was a
sinister clause.
15. I learned later that the elite ofthe "resort" zone could
by some means avoid being sent further. They had a
secret life of their own; they even published a homosexual
magazine. It is amazing that people remain themselves
under all conditions.
16. All metal objects were cut off from our clothes.
17. People who lived on Kolyma called it an island,
because then it was accessible only by Sea.
4:..
Arrest, Interrogation, Prison Life 117
v V Nalirnov, Paris, 1989
118 The International Journal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
The Universe Grasper
S. L Shapiro
University of Hawai'i
Honolulu, Hawai'i, USA
I wanted to look through the open window,
behind the window of the whole universe,
and that very Universe to grasp.
T
HESE WORDS were spoken by Vassily Vassilievich N alimov to his wife and colleague,
Jeanna, two days before he died in Moscow on 19 January 1997 .
.. , Nestled in a four-legged woven basket on my desk at the university sits a quaint
wooden egg, 9mm tall, painted in bright shades of red, yellow, green, and blue. It is a
treasured memento. 1 lift the egg out of its resting place and look at it once again,
slowly rotating it in my hand: onion-domed Russian churches and green trees pass by;
above, a deep blue sky, below, a vivid red flower with a yellow sun for a center; an
elliptical universe memorializing the marriage of heaven and earth. My mind drifts
off to the symbolism of the egg: life, renewal, rebirth .
. . .I look up from work for a moment. On top of two file cabinets in my university office,
reaching almost to the ceiling, are a dozen red, green, brown, and maroon stacks ofVassily's
books translated into English awaiting shipment. On my desk at home lie two ofVassily's
manuscripts 1 am editing for publication .
... On cold, blustery winter days in New England, my son, David, a Russian history
and literature major in college, makes his way between classes protected by a gray
and white woolen turtleneck sweater. It was given to him by Jeanna during a study
visit to Russia. It belonged to Vassily .
... 1 sit down to write this paper-our paths cross again. Three years have passed
since Vassily's departure, but we continue to meet. Why?
Reprinted (with revisions) from Scientometrics, 2001, Vol. 52, pp. 337-344, by permission of the publishers,
Akademiai Kiad6, Budapest, and Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht. 2001 Akademiai Kaid6, Budapest.
The InternationalJournal of Transpersonal Studies, 2002, Vo!. 21,118-124 119
I came to know Vassily only during the last decade of his life. Others have
known him and been inspired by him for much longer. Still; we are deeply
connected. Why? To me it is 'unfathomable ... a mystery. But it would not have
been a mystery to Vassily. His natural bent was to seek out new frontiers alid
connectIons, following his mUSe undaunted as the urikhown beckoned to him.
In his lifelong quest to grasp "that very universe" -'-the meaning and ground of
existence--'-Vassily was a :polymath who apprehended connections alid wandered
across borders with unbounded imagination and enthusiasm. One new territory
Vassily discovered was the burgeoning field ofttanspersonal psychology.
The transpersonal psychology movenient emerged in the United States in
the late 1960s. It sought to open up and legitimize an area of human
consCiousness and experience largely neglected by modern Western psychology,
calling for an exploration of "the farther reaches of human nature"--'-inclucling
spiritual, mystical, ahd t:hmspersonal states Of consciousness (Maslow, 1969).
In Vassily's words, transpersonal psychology "represents an attempt to study
htiman consciousness beyond the boundaries of its discrete capsulizatibn;'
(Nalimov, 1985, p. 70). Oile reviewer commented:
The relevance of Nalimov's work transcends the boUndaries of science.
His view of the world enCOmpasses and integrates the totality of the
experience acquired by all of humanity; It transcends provincial,
national, politiCai; racial and religious chauvinism, and ideological
clashes of competing systems based on igIiorance of the holistic nature
of reality. In the cOIltext of his vision, the only hope for humanity is the
creatioIi of an entirely new human cuiture through a radical
transformation of consciousness. (Grof, 1982, p. 188)
VassilY's transpersonal work appeared in the rEllevant major English-language
journals: The Jburnal of Humanistic Psychology; The Journal of Trans personal
Psychology; ReVision; and The International journal ofTranspersonai Studies;
The last journal was especially instrumental in milking Vassily's work known
to an international audience by publishing some 22 contributions by or about
him (see Bibliography; also website: http://panigada.hypermart.net). Vassily's
transpersonal publicatibnS in English also helped to inject the transpersonal
ihovement with intellectual vigor, breadth, and vision.
Equally important to understanding Vassily's transpersonal views, are four
books published in English by 1St Press through the foresight of Eugene Garfield
in the USA In the Labyrinths of Language: A Mathematician's Journey (1981);
Faces of Science (1981); Realms of the Unconscious: The Enchanted Frontier
(1982); and Space, Time, and Life: The Probabilistic Pathways of EvoZution
(1985). The publication of these visionary works helped to internationalize the
transpersonal perspective and to expand it to other disciplines;
The specific contributions Vassily made to trarispersonalism have been
summarized well elsewhere (e.g., Kazyutinsky & Drogalina-Nalimov, 1997; Z.
n Nalimov, 1990; Na1iInbv, & Zuyev, 2000; Thompson; 1993).
Vassily was also the Elarliest researcher I ani aware of to make use of
scieritometrics tb survey and characterize the field oftranspersonal psychology
CNaliiri.bv & Drogalina, 1996); An early and prolific contributor te the
tiansperEiOhal movement, by nature; reflection, and experience, Vassily would
have embodied a traIlspersbnal perspective had the formal transpersonal
movement hever arisen. Early in life he was already drawIl to Mystical
Anarchism, a spiritual movement ih Russia whose ideals continued to inspire
120 the International Journal iJjYranspersonit1 StUdies; 2002, Vol. 21
him. Later on, the many years Vassily spent in the Gulag and in exile provided
ample grounds to test his transpersonal mettle,
Penetrate deeply enough to the ground of some one thing and it is possible to
arrive at the ground of everything. Vassily's chosen doorway to Everything was
to pursue, relentlessly, the meaning of meaning. What he found at the core was
a semantic vacuum of plentitude-the principle of Spontaneity and ground of
hmnan potential:
The World is dialectical, its unpacked meanings are ephemeral within it.
They are not substantial. They are born in spontaneity and into
spontaneity are they gone, leaving an invisible trace behind.
Spontaneity is the Incomprehensible.
Spontaneity is what acts through Measure, not through Law.
Spontaneity is Freedom ofthe World.
Spontaneity is Love.
Spontaneity is Gnosis, revelation of meanings, their extraction frolll
Non-existence.
Spontaneity is Ma:n himself.
Spontaneity is Entity.
Spo:ntaneity is the Potentiality of the World.
CNalimov, 1985, pp. 96-97)
One and the same semantic vacuum encompassing limitless possibilities: at
one end, manipulation, subjugation, oppression; at the other end, creativity,
freedom, transcendence. Words used to kill, words used to emancipate,
In preparing these reflections, I leaf through the ph()tographs I have ofVassily,
seeking to stimulate my memory. One picture leaps out at me, speaks to me.
You see it facing the title page of this essay.
The photograph was taken in 1989 at a railway station in Paris. Vassily, a
universal man, was delighted to be able to travel outside Russia in the twilight
of his life.
It's both a worldly and otherw()rldly portrait. The architecture of his face
hints at a wealth of story lines. It looks t() me like a weary and saddened face,
but untrammeled-supported by a light from within. It's the face of a scholar
certainly. A shock of white hair and thick eyeglass frames; a civilized and
professional-lo()king man, wearing a tie ... a bit loose, unconstricting. It's a kindly
face behind the scholarly eyeglasses. The eyes are knowingly focused both here
and on a faraway place. The mouth has a bit of a smile; amusement, too. Some
time after writing down these impressions, I receive a copy of a memorial notice
about Vassily published iIi Scientbmetrics a few years ago (Colleagues, Friends,
1997). It is accompanied by the very same photograph that I chose to desc:ribe
above.
I continue to look at Vassily's picture ahd he seems to look back at me ...
What does it mean to live?
What does it mean to die?
Once Vassily corpo:really roamed the Earth, now his presence
is .. ;collnectivity-=manifest in photographs, books, journals, mem()rial issues;
loved ones, students and colleagues, eggcshaped mic:rocosms, warm tu:rtleneck
The Universe Grasper 121
sweaters ... and what else? The master of the realm of words was also conversant
with the wordless realm:
The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be named is not the eternal name.
The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth.
The named is the mother often thousand things.
Ever desireless, one can see the mystery.
Ever desiring, one can see the manifestations.
These two spring from the same source but differ in name;
this appears as darkness.
Darkness within darkness.
The gate to all mystery.
(Feng & English, 1972, sect. 1)
Although we corresponded for several years, it was only in the summer of
1995 that I met Vassily and Jeanna in person at their flat in Moscow. I was
welcomed one evening into a small combined living room and study, filled with
books, artwork, photographs, and memorabilia. We conversed together for some
hours, slowly making our way through a bottle of Georgian wine and Jeanna's
pastries. My most vivid impression of that enchanted evening was the sheer
warmth and radiance that emanated from my two gracious hosts-its palpable
quality remains with me to this day. It was an altogether timeless evening.
Before leaving, Vassily and Jeanna placed in my hands the painted egg and
woven basket that grace my university desk. In March of 1997, two months
after Vassily died, Jeanna wrote to me the following words that best express
Vassily's extraordinary presence:
You know Vassily's most remarkable quality-his radiant nature. He
had the star inside-the light from within.
It is no wonder that Vassily came to be one of the leading figures of the
international transpersonal movement. He was naturally attuned to taking a
cosmic eye view of the universe-such was the nature of his mind and inner
vision from early on: where others saw fragmentation, he apprehended unity;
where others saw discrete events, he perceived connectivity. Others had one
specialty, Vassily had many; others were comforted by answers, Vassily rejoiced
in raising new questions; others sought the meaning of this or that, Vassily
sought the meaning of meaning; others tried to grasp some one thing, Vassily
wanted to grasp everything-the whole universe.
To sum up the contents of an earlier journal issue commemorating Vassily
(Soidla, Shapiro, & Gross, 1997), the editors entitled their introduction: "v. V.
Nalimov-Scientist, Teacher, Friend, Mentor, Prisoner, Rope-Dancer, Master of
Meaning, Mystical Anarchist, High Priest, Apostle of Spontaneity,
Transpersonalist." To epitomize the boundless nature ofVassily's life and work,
we could simply say:
Vassily Vassilievich Nalimov-Universe Grasper.
122 The Internationaljournal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
References
Colleagues, Friends. (1997). In memoriam of Vassily Vassiliyevich Nalimov, 1910-1997.
Scientometrics, 39, 143-145.
Feng, G.-F., & English, J. (Trans.). (1972). Lao Tsu: Tao Te Ching. New York: Knopf.
Grof, S. (1982). [Review of the book Realms of the unconscious: The enchanted frontier J.Journal of
Transpersonal Psychology, 14, 186-188.
Kazyutinsky, V. v., & Drogalina-Nalimov, J. (1997). Apostle of spontaneity. Voices of Russian
Transpersonalism, Vol. 4, International Journal of Trans personal Studies, 16(2), 15-37.
Maslow, A. H. (1969). The farther reaches of human nature. Journal of Trans personal Psychology,
1969, 1(1), 1-9.
N alimov, V. V. (1981). Faces of science (R. G. Colodny, Ed.). Philadelphia: lSI Press.
Nalimov, V. V. (1981). In the labyrinths of language: A mathematician's journey (R. G. Colodny,
Ed.). Philadelphia: lSI Press.
Nalimov, V. V. (1982). Realms of the unconscious: The enchanted frontier (R. G. Colodny, Ed., A. V.
Yarkho, Trans.). Philadelphia: lSI Press.
Nalimov, V. V. (1985). Space, time and life: The probabilistic pathways of evolution (R. G. Colodny,
Ed., A. V. Yarkho, Trans.). Philadelphia: lSI Press.
Nalimov, V. V., Drogalina-Nalimov, J., & Zuyev, K. (2000). The universe of meanings. Interna-
tional Journal of Trans personal Studies, 19, 109-118.
Nalimov, Z. D. (1990). Nalimov's conception of human nature. ReVision, 12(3), 19-29.
Thompson, A. M. (1993). Vassily Vasilyevich Nalimov: Russian visionary. Journal of Humanistic
Psychology, 33(3), 82-98.
Bibliography
English Language Works Related to Transpersonalism by or about V. V. Nalimov
Clement, C., & Trott, J. (1998). From the earth to the sky: Shamanic roots of Russian
transpersonalism. Voices of Russian Transpersonalism, Vol. 5, International Journal of
Transpersonal Studies, 17, 161-166.
Drogalina-Nalimov, J. (1998). Vassily Vassilievich Nalimov ... The whisper of destiny. Voices of
Russian Transpersonalism, Vol. 5, International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 17, 103-
105.
Garfield, E. (1997). Professor V. V. Nalimov-Dear friend and mentor. Voices of Russian
Transpersonalism, Vol. 4, International Journal of Trans personal Studies, 16(2), 5.
Granovsky, Yu. V. (1997). Dedicated to the memory of V. V. Nalimov. Voices of Russian
Transpersonalism, Vol. 4, International Journal of Trans personal Studies, 16(2), 9-14.
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124 The International Journal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol 21
Endangered Asanas
Ralph Augsburger
Geneva, Switzerland
The Internationaljournal of Transpersonal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21, 125-134 125
2002 by Panigada Press
The Ostrich
126 The International Journal ofTranspersonal Studies, 2002, VOL 21
The Flamingo
Endangered Asanas 127
The Caterpillar
128 The International Journal of Trans personal Studies, 2 0 0 ~ , Vol. 21
The Spider
EndangeredAsanas 129
The Rooster
130 The International Journal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
The Microbe
EndangeredAsanas 131
The Mosquito
132 The Internationaljournal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
The Pinocchio
Endangered Asanas 133
The Firefly
134 The Internationaljournal ofTranspersonal Studies, 2002, Vol 21
The History of Sanity in
Contemplative Psychotherapy
Edward M Podvoll
Mahamudra Ling
Le Bost, France
A patient in therapy has two kinds of psychological history: a history of sanity as well as a
history of illness. In order for healthy development to begin within the therapeutic
relationship, it is necessary that both patient and therapist shift their allegiance towards
the history of sanity. Landmark events in that history can be found in both developmental
moments and in the current experience of neurosis or psychosis. Six types of landmarks
derived from clinical experience reveal the history of sanity. The patient has periods of
repulsion when feeling estranged from life and nauseated about his or her way ofliving. If
the repulsion is not recognized as an intelligent response to the patient's condition, it can
degenerate into a suicidal self-loathing. The patient longs to transcend his or her stifling
and constant self-centeredness. Ordinary everyday experience can provide a glimpse beyond
the walled-off territory of isolation. The patient has an urge for discipline, to gain some
control over mind and body. Each seemingly mundane attempt at discipline carries with it
the urge to work with one's state of mind, by synchronizing physical and mental activity.
The patient has a longing for compassionate action. The patient's regret and frustration at
losing this basically human capacity is a powerful sign of his or her intelligence, although
if fixating upon this the patient comes to feel less than human. There have been times in
the patient's life when he or she was capable of a precise sense of clarity. The patient longs
for this capacity for nondistraction. By being helped to track and be mindful ofthe wandering
mind itself, the patient can again sharpen his or her sense of clarity. The patient has
demonstrated courage in daily confrontation with fear and punishment within the thought-
world of psychosis. If others do not support this courage, the patient may lose confidence
and abandon himself or herself to illness. It is essential for client and therapist to learn to
recognize and protect these six landmarks of sanity. The author discusses particular
applications of the history of sanity to the therapeutic relationship, and shows that the
therapist's path of training parallels the patient's path to recovery.
HERE ARE two kinds of psychological history
that we come to know when working with
people. One of them is the history of pain,
discouragement, missed opportunities, the
continual accumulation of unfulfilled hopes and
the consequences of unrealized actions in
relationships. Such a history of neurosis has a
compelling quality that can capture and freeze a
psychotherapeutic relationship into an endless
dissection, searching for the origin of an inhibited
development. On the other hand, embedded
Excerpted from an upcoming book by Edward Podvoll to be
published by Shambhala Publications in autumn, 2003. Printed
with permission.
within the history of neurosis is another kind of
history whose subtlety and evanescence make it
more difficult to explore. It is the history of sanity.
In order for a healthy development to begin within
the psychotherapeutic relationship, it is necessary
that both the therapist and patient shift their
allegiance towards the history of sanity. That shift
of allegiance might be more possible if we can
identify and clarifY the landmarks in the historical
development of health or sanity.
Seeing psychotherapy from the point of view
of eradicating or undoing an illness, one looks for
signs of the disease process, perhaps to highlight
it, expose it, or work it through. The implicit
historical question becomes, "Where did things
The InternationalJournal ofTranspersonal Studies, 2002, VoL 21, 135-144 135
go wrong?" That kind of psychological history
involves a limited conception of psychotherapy
and imposes a particular kind of relationship. The
form of such a relationship might range anywhere
from a collaborative search for an object of blame
to subtle forms of paranoia.
Ultimately, the point of view of psychotherapy
is rooted in, and further raises the question of,
what is meant by sane or healthy development.
There is a particular impoverishment, however,
in most psychological theory about the nature of
health, in general going little beyond the notion
of domestication and survival in a complex world.
At the same time the development of
psychological health and even brilliance does exist.
Paradoxically, the history of sanity can be glimpsed
even within the biographical history of neurosis.
The development of health is especially prominent
in recollections of the past and its manifestations
in the present, of how people work with their states
of mind. Other historical questions then become
meaningful: What kind of training is needed to
work with one's mind? Where does it come from?
And, where in one's life is it missing?
Flight of Ideas
A
BRIEF AND ordinary clinical example might be
useful here. When one talks with a man who
is in a state of impending manic excitement there
is a hectic quality to his ideas, stories, anecdotes,
memories and plans. The pressure of his words
fills up every instant of doubt and reflection, going
further out on limb after limb, all of which is
difficult to follow and oppressive to listen to. At
some point we acknowledge this difficulty.
Following this, a spontaneous gap frequently
occurs in the patient's streallling thought
processes. A moment of confusion is punctuated
by the question: "Where was 17" Then there occurs
a somewhat tortured return to the point, and the
process of escalation begins again.
This natural occurrence comes from the
sensation that one has gone too far in the
elaboration of a daydream: a sudden awakening
followed by a struggle about which way to go. The
whole thing often happens very quickly and
usually we notice it only after the fact.
The above example was taken from
psychotherapy with a skilled musician. His musical
discipline had been strengthened in the course of
psychotherapy to the point where he could play
his sight-reading exercises while entertaining a
complex train of disturbing and self-condemning
yet fascinating thoughts. His musical discipline,
which allowed him to cut short the wanderings of
his mind, gradually was expanded into other areas
of his life. The spontarieous returns from "flights
of ideas" began to increase and gather during the
psychotherapeutic sessions. He recognized that he
had always had a latent ability to let go ofthought
patterns, even as a child. From that point he began
to communicate the source of his pain while at the
same time developing some confidence that he was
not at the mercy of his thought processes. The
patient was able to use the pressure of a chain
reaction of thoughts as a sudden reminder. From
that he was better able to discriminate daydream
from reality. He then began to exert the effort to
come back to the point and from there developed
the courage to work directly with his twenty-year"
old habitual tendency towards a manic state of
mind. This is an example of the sharp, intelligent
quality of sanity that can manifest moment-to-
moment even in the midst of psychopathology.
The above example indicates that one could be
relieved from the illlPulsive pressure of the chain
reaction of thoughts, the root pathology of manic
denial or obliviousness. Thereby one could
cultivate the ability to discriminate daydream
from reality with increased precision and could
begin to rouse the effort, even courage, to come
back to the point. Experience has shown that this
leads to the development of patience.
Returning to the story of neurosis, we find that
a symptom or dysfunction is an attempt to tie
together and find a coherent cause-and-effect
relationship in the disparate phenomena of one's
life. Such a story is frequently filled with fear,
guilt, blame and aggression; it resembles the
history of nations at war, where one war
inexorably triggers another in the ageless
recycling of insult and territorial revenge. The
story line threads together a variety of memories
with an explanation of why one event follows
another and how one got to be the way one is.
Sometimes the therapist does the same thing by
using the template of his particular develoPlllental
theory to string together a story line just as in a
dream, where the display of dream fragments
forms a seemingly logical and expectable dream
story.
The history of neurosis can seem like a
complete cloth covering all of experience. The
136 The International Journal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Wl. 21
history of sanity on the other hand, is episodic
and appears to be fleeting and delicate. Because
it is the history of wakefulness, dignity and
patience; its continuity is often lost by people in
despair. To perceive the history of sanity, we need
the curiosity and effort to look further. When the
psychotherapist relates directly to another's
wakefulness and becomes curious about the
history of his sanity, a different kind of
relationship develops: one of mutual appreciation
and trust not based on dependence, hope or even
memory.
The question arises of how to relate to the
history of sanity: "what to look for." But the issue
is not really what the therapist searches for or
hunts; rather it is what the therapist recognizes.
There are certain signs and landmark events that
characterize wakefulness and sanity in another's
life; but they can hardly be noticed until one first
experiences and identifies them in oneself. Then
one can recognize the inherent health in another
person's experience. This is why the personal
discipline of mindfulness-awareness meditation
practice is so crucial for the development of the
psychotherapist. Only by studying the nature of'
our own minds and examining the experience of
wakefulness in our oWn lives, can we recognize
and appreciate it in another. The practice of
meditation is the most direct, straightforward way
to do that. It is a tuning process, making one more
sensitive to psychological and interpersonal
experience. This way of training oneself in the
history of sanity might appear to be an extra burden
put onto the psychotherapeutic relationship. But it
is hardly that. It is really the first necessary step
taken toward fully appreciating the intrinsic
health of another.
With that kind of training, a natural curiosity
begins to develop about the other person's sanity
and we begin to feel drawn to it. What we see
occurring frrst in our own, then in another person's
experience, is an intrinsic instinct toward
wakefulness. It is first sensed as a flickering, and
from that flickering there can occur an enormous
curiosity. We find that instinct to be as strong and
as omnipresent as any described by Freud and
his students, by ethnologists or by cognitive
scientists.
While most other instincts appear to involve
striving towards personal security, self-
justification Or pleasure, the instinct toward
wakefulness is the urge to penetrate beyond the
continuous cycle of ego's self-justification and
aggrandizing daydreaming. The most subtle aspect
ofthe history of sanity is how one works with that
instinct. The signs ofthat instinct are manifest in
the most confused and degraded psychopathology,
as well as in mild neurosis. It becomes the choice
of the patient whether or not to develop that
instinct, and it becomes the option ofthe therapist
to encourage and enrich that development.
We are always startled to see how people in
intense despair, locked into a hallucinatory world,
can suddenly step out ofthe grip of delusion in a
moment of communal crisis, as for example during
a fire in a hospital. Sometimes it takes that vivid
an awakening to strike through the sleep of
delusion. Less dramatically, we see any number
of people who, in spite of their own turnioil, act
wakefully in a crisis, maybe even showing the
"best" of themselves. Something allows them to
immediately drop their preoccupations and act
appropriately, possibly even wisely.
Marks of Sanity
T
HE SIGNS or trademarks of the history of sanity
can be recognized in both the development
ahd the current experience of all neurosis and
psychosis. They could be divided into several
categories. It should be noted that these categories
are not derived from a conceptualization about
relationships or a theory of development traced
onto the psychotherapy; neither do they COllie from
any technique or proposed strategy. This view
stems from direct clinical experience and the
categories are abstracted from a variety of clinical
phenomena of patients during the phases of
recovery. Interestingly enough, the therapist's act
of recognizing signs of recovery, whether within
the person's life cycle or on a moment-to-moment
level, has the subtle effect of turning the
psychotherapeutic relationship into an allegiance
toward sanity.
Repulsion
F
IRST, THERE is a sign of fundamental
estrangement and a feelIng of nausea about
one's way of living. It might last for a brief moment
or it might endure for years. One is simply sick
and tired of unceasing daydreams, instantly
manufactured hopes and fears, and the endless
cycle of habitual patterns ofthinking' and acting.
The History of Sanity in Contemplative Psychotherapy 137
The endless cycle of alcoholism and a variety
of other addictions takes the following form:
bingeing/repentance/self-aggression/despair/
bingeing. That is the experiential form-almost
an energy cycle of the psychopathology of
addictions. Conventionally speaking, the "chief
complaint" ofthe patient is usually self-aggression
and contempt over the destructive quality of
bingeing, gorging or any other collapse into
animal-like indulgence. But that is only the outer
shell of the "chief complaint." If it persists, it
almost immediately chain-links into repentance,
attempts at purification, and an insistent
solicitation of forgiveness.
The inner aspect of the "chief complaint" is
actually repulsion toward the cyclic nature ofthe
whole situation, the endless circularity, the
nauseating rotation. That repulsion degenerates
into self-aggression and begins the chain reaction.
When seen together, the outer and inner "chief
complaints" reveal intelligence in the original
repulsion. The patient says, in one form or
another, "I'm tired of this because I see through
things." From the viewpoint of the history of
sanity, the question becomes, "What does one see?"
This disgust is connected with how one is
working with one's state of mind. One could
acknowledge that a real discrimination takes
place. That discrimination requires a moment of
clarity, a sign of active intelligence. A feeling of
despair might occur, but that is only an elaboration
ofturning away from the insight that things could
be different.
The ability to discriminate that something
could be different in one's life means that
something different has been glimpsed. Where
and when has that happened? And how can one
carry through with that? Perhaps it has been in
relationship with one's grandfather, a teacher, or
oneself during a particular year of school. It might
include subtle or subconscious distinctions
between what is healthy and what is not, and it
frequently occurs at the height of neurosis itself.
An unnamable feeling of guilt can develop
because one cannot live according to the more
wholesome vision. It was at such points that the
insane John Perceval would look into the mirror
and lacerate himselfwith the word hypocrite, later
echoed in his hallucinations.
1
Such repulsion can
happen in a moment of clarity but may soon
degenerate into despair and self-loathing; ending
in a nihilistic view about the worth of life at all.
In the same way, each landmark event or moment
of wakefulness in the history of sanity can be
distorted into an aggressive drama. That is the
basic perversion: the turning away from
intelligence. But with the help of a therapist the
situation need not go that far.
It is the sense of repulsion that usually leads one
to a psychotherapist. Quite early in the
psychotherapeutic relationship-during the initial
allegiance toward sanity-the heightened
discrimination between what is healthy and
unhealthy may take the form of token actions such
as the long-awaited giving up smoking, a sudden
end to chronic nailbiting, or an attempt to attenuate
obsessional masturbation. These are more likely to
happen when the patient has recognized some
glimpse that such activities are mindless, that they
have the qualities of absorption or trance.
Beyond Self
F
ROM THE moment of repulsion there occurs a
longing to transcend the sense of self. This
longing can become manifest in an instant, or from
one sentence or association to another, or occur
over a period of months. But it is the moment-to-
moment phenomena that provide the seed and
the pattern for the more gross forms of behavior
and pathological symptoms. This is one of the
important contributions that contemplative
psychotherapy has to offer: By understanding the
patterns and tendencies of the mind, our
understanding of both pathology and the variety
of spontaneous attempts at recovery of health is
vastly enriched. One of those spontaneous
attempts at recovery is an urge to go beyond a
stifling sense of self.
It is a fascinating and mercurial moment. For
example, a patient in crisis often arrives at the
statement, "1 don't know who 1 am any more. I
used to know, but now I don't." This might happen
from the shock of awakening from a manic spree,
from psychotic delusion, or from a dream. During
moments of depression the statement might be
made, "1 don't know myself any more. I have lost
myself."
When we try to find out who this self really is
or was, there usually occurs an immediate
confusion, followed by a series of confabulations.
Then tenuous attempts are made to construct a
cohesive story that describes the nature of self.
Nietzsche called this the major obsession of
138 The InternationalJournal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
Western man. A feeling of uncertainty, of
cloudiness and doubt undercuts each attempt to
materialize a consistent sense of identity. But we
forget that it is a futile task. No wonder that the
syndrome of "identity crisis" has become such a
popular conception. Even though the seemingly
reflex attempt to manufacture a self can be seen
to be made up of a series of discrete habitual
patterns which yield a momentary sense of
security, there remains a gnawing doubt about
the creation. Sometimes, if this doubt is
intensified, there may occur frantic efforts to
override it, to strengthen an image of identity or
jump to a new one. Such a situation is involved in
the "actual neurosis" of adolescents.
No matter how vigorous the effort becomes to
reinforce or idealize a feeling of centeredness or
self through identifications, projections or denials,
there is dissatisfaction. Discontent or loneliness
arises, not simply because one cannot safely live
up to that ideal image but also because there is a
clarity and awareness that one is actually more
than that. One senses that the limitations ofthat
image are not only false and arbitrary but are
also constricting and inhibiting one's health. That
feeling might escalate into a sense of self as
monstrosity, but even that can be abruptly
undercut, as in the experience of falling in love,
where the feeling of who one is can change in a
moment.
Psychosis has one of its primary origins in the
desire to transcend the sense of self. One
generates an enormous hope of arising fresh and
purified from an abandoned and disfigured self.
This leads to unwitting mental manipulations
through which the former identity can be
discarded and a new self hallucinated.
However, in psychotic mental turmoil a
genuine and wakeful vision of self, freed from the
boundaries of identity, may fleetingly occur before
it is degraded by the lust and greed for a purified
self of pleasure or power. Such people may
demonstrate a belief in the fantasy of rebirth
through letting go completely, touching bottom,
getting it over with, as if to exhaust the selfthat
craves alcohol, violence or withdrawal. This
completes another form ofthe perpetual cycle we
saw occurring in the alcoholic who is forever
bingeing, insightfully repenting and bingeing
again. Suicide, of course, would be the ultimate
perversion of a desire to transcend self.
Many of the so-called "mystical experiences"
during psychosis or other states of mind undergo
a similar kind of abortion. Often they are felt to
be "awakenings," and the accompanying
psychological fireworks are seen as evidence of
personal extraordinariness. Hallucinogenic
experiences take this familiar course: having
briefly experienced the potential beyond self and
having seen through the beguiling machinery of
continual self-reorientation, the experience
frequently deteriorates into arrogance and
paranoia.
2
Unlike the conventional psychological models
of "ego" that view an identity as formed bit by bit
from childhood through adolescence to form a
vehicle that carries one to adult life, the history
of sanity exposes the quest for identity as a
perpetual crisis. In adults it can be recognized as
a primordial anxiety. In children it may translate
itself into a sense offragility or a threat to bodily
survival. The perpetual crisis is not in failing to
achieve a substantial enough identity but in
recognizing that it is an unstable state, a delusion,
and always falling apart. Thus the history of
neurosis points to the anxiety, self-consciousness
and embarrassment of self-fabrication, while the
history of sanity emphasizes the clarity of
perception behind the anxiety.
The first hint of a longing to transcend self and
an urge toward a fresh state can be provoked by
experiences of body-mind synchronization. People
in morbid states of mind, even in the grip of self-
hatred, have said that their nihilistic depression
dissolved in a moment while somehow "engrossed
in activity." Ordinary everyday experiences, in
particular the disciplines of art forms, provide a
glimpse beyond walled-off territory, beyond the
hesitations imposed by identification. When these
glimpses occur, one's curiosity begins to heighten
further.
The Urge for Discipline
F
ROM THE point of repulsion or nausea and then
a longing to transcend one's conditioned
personality, there usually develops a desire for action
towards making things more straightforward: a
sense of pruning or paring down. A natural
movement develops that has the quality of renewed
energy. With it one feels a sense of urging towards
simplicity and discipline. It could be as simple as
beginning to make schedules for daily activities
The History of Sanity in Contemplative Psychotherapy 139
or meeting a therapist with regularity. It could
happen ina moment of cleaning one's desk before
working. The urge for discipline may develop over
a long period of time or it may appear in a
moment.
From the point of view of the history of sanity
the therapist would be particularly curious about
the details of the experiences of discipline that have
taken place in another person's life. The reasons
why the history of discipline should be so precise
are twofold: to find out exactly wl:mt another person
understands by the natq.re of discipline and what
his or her relationship has been to it; and secondly,
because there is a possibility that within that
discipline, there has occurred some insight into how
mind and body work.
Everyone seems to have a basic curiosity about
how mind works and thif3 can be provoked even in
periods of extreme disinterest or distraction. On
looking into the nature of discipline, one often finds
that one has learned more than one realizes. The
practice of a discipline might have sharpened one's
accuracy to perceive smaller moments of
psychological time. It might be exactly that quality
of prE')cision that will allow for the recovery of
health.
An episode of discipline often stands out. OnE')
woman, who for several years drifted around the
country and wandered from one source of
entertainment to another until her aimlessness
ended in despair and (3uicidal preoccupation,
recalled a year of her otherwise futile college
experience during which she went swimming
every day. Not a very dramatic memory, but the
daily discipline had become a focus of her life; she
had a sense of "taking care" of herself properly.
Consequently, she studied in a more orderly way
and felt some sense of development taking phl.Ce.
Rejection by a boyfriend ended all this. Her
statement, "If only I had that kind of energy again,"
turned out to be a comment on the accuracy and
effort that resulted from her si:rnple discipline.
Within such episodes of personal discipline, people
often talk of a feeling of dignity, not necessarily
because they were happy, but because there was a
senf3e of dOIng something correctly and relating
straightforwardly and pointedly to the rest oftheir
lives,
Each seemingly mundane attempt at discipline
carries within it the urge to work with one's state
of mind, by directly connecting or synchronizing
physical and mental activity. It might be athletics,
survival disciplines, art forms, cooking, collecting
stamps---,-any of which can become highly
discriminating disciplines that sharpen the senses
and create further vividness and appreciation for
the sensory world.
The history ofthe experience of discipline and
"settling down" can give us important clues about
working with people. How does a person relate to
that discipline? What is the experience of effort?
Is there a love-hate relationship with the
discipline? What did they learn from it about
cutting daydreams and taming the mind? How do
they expand that to other activities? Who were
their teachers and what were they like? These
experiences can become directly intertwined with
the psychotherapeutic relationship. The discipline
ofthe relationship itself can become a prototype of
how one works with one's state of mind and life
situations in general. When the musician in the
state of mania, who was mentioned before, became
irritated by even the most simple daily structure
that might harness his energy, he said, "It's too
much for me. I can't do it." When asked what he
would reply to his young music student who voiced
the same hesitation many times, he said, "I would
tell him to start again and take it very, very slowly."
His own advice soon became a useful guideline to
the psychotherapy.
Yet, any discipline can become perverted into
the service of neurosis, providing all the
possibilities for escape, avoidance and trance
states. That is, the discipline may be distorted into
an activity which causes disconnection between
body and mind, leaving mind unanchored, out of
COntrol and free to hallucinate. From this point of
view, the relevant history of neurosis involvef3
curiosity about how such disciplines were lost,
where and why they broke down, how they were
perverted, and how the feeling of dignity was lost.
Compassion
T
HE HISTORY of longing toward compassionate
action is continually present in the lives of
our patients. It is this compassion that is the key
to psychotherapeutic work of any kind. Generally,
we see cQmpassion as arising out of the
development of basic warmth toward oneself, but
most of our patients are particularly undeveloped
in this area. In fact, it is usually obvious that much
self-hatred has accumulated over the years.
Nevertheless, patients manifest compassionate
140 The International Journal ofTranspersonal Studies, 2002, VOL 21
urgings, even in moments of extreme despair, and
are unable to recognize them. An elderly woman
whom I worked with for several months said, "I
have become obsessed with myself; I don't seem
to care for anyone else anymore." I replied that
that couldn't be true because I felt her recently
caring a lot about me.
In some types of psychopathology; compassionate
longing takes a particularly disfigured form, as in
the undercurrent of messianic megalomania, It
appears that, when compassion is frozen, either
situationally or developmentally, it undergoes a
perverse form of development. From the point of
view of the history of sanity, the therapist can
b ~ g i n to recognize, even within the crudest
symptoms, aspects of healthiness. This means
that psychopathology is not something to be
eliminated but to be worked with in its
momentary detail, because it is primarily seen
as the result of obstruction to intelligent impulses.
Because of the history of discipline, both
therapist and patient should be able to become
acutely precise about the chain-linking states of
mind particular to any psychopathology. The
therapist might weave back and forth between
the accuracy of the patient's real discipline-for
example, skiing-and bring that same precision
to bear on the patient's symptom offear, paranoia,
the wish to regress, to sleep.
When a therapist begins to recognize the
enormous richness and fertility of another
person's psychopathology, a relaxation appears
that allows one to begin working with people
exactly as they are, without the slightest desire
to change them. In fact, out ofthat, a vivid sense
of appreciation for the other develops. I recall
many delightful hours I spent with a young
woman recovering from psychosis, turning the
accuracy she developed during her competitive
skiing career toward the phenomena of thoughts
escalating out of control into hallucination.
Recently, I was pleased to find myselftalking with
a diminutive but rugged ex-jockey who was
determined to ride through a violent alcoholism.
I wondered what he knew about how to hold his
seat on a wild horse on the verge of being out of
control. It is just this quality of appreciation and
heightened curiosity that makes "burn-out" out
of the question.
It is this very same progression-from
compassion to appreciation and vividness-that
our patients need to make to recover genuine
health. Once I worked with a woman in her
seventies who had been in a state of deteriorating
depression and alcoholism for three years. She
was obese and slouched but also manifested the
robustness and courage of her earlier life as a farm
woman building a home on the great plains. She
said she "just wanted to die"; more than that, she
was "already dead." She felt that she had
completely lost her connection with the outside
world. Nothing struck her any more. Nothing
moved her or inspired her: colors failed to excite
her, birds were of no interest, and even as she
watched her young grandchildren playing she was
appalled by her lack offeeling for them. Her mind
was obsessed with the following recycling
obsession: "What has happened to me ... I am a
monstrosity ... I am losing my mind .. .I want to die,
I must go to sleep." But she was also severely
insomniac. She would sit in a chair at home
churning her obsessive thoughts, immobilized in
a state of daydreaming. She dreaded her lack of
energy, though at one time she had had a
relentless enthusiasm for work; she was unable
to concentrate on any detail, although she had
been a superb craftswoman at patchwork quilting.
Passion arose in psychotherapy. In turn, it
awakened her love for her husband, which over
the years had become frozen by fear and
ambivalence. Her dreams were filled with glowing
warmth about the way "things used to be"-
energetic, warm and childishly joyful. They were
patently nostalgic and provoked her irritation
with the way she was living. Then there came a
time when she delightedly schemed to win back
her husband, to seduce him out ofthe torpor and
constriction that he called his "old age." Along with
this, there gradually developed an increasing
interest in her perceptual world, an appreciation
for her environment, and then insight into the
patchwork quality of her depression.
The course ofthe relationship showed that kind
of progression which later could be seen
happening even within one psychotherapeutic
session. It was not as though the course oftherapy
did not have some serious interruptions, but the
repeated sequence of passion, opening toward
concern for others beyond an impoverished self,
leading to a more general appreciation and
vividness, had a cumulative effect. The recovery
of her health was inseparable from the recovery
of her compassion.
The History o/Sanity in Contemplative Psychotherapy 141
The experience of compassion and its
relationship to recovery is rarely talked about in
psychotherapeutic writings. One striking
exception is Harold Searles who refers to "a
therapeutic devotion that all human beings
share." He says, "1 am hypothesizing that the
patient is ill because, and to the degree that, his
own psychotherapeutic strivings have been
subjected to such vicissitudes that they have been
rendered inordinately intense, frustrated of
fulfillment or even acknowledgement, and
admixed therefore with unduly intense elements
of hate, envy and competitiveness." He goes so
far as to say, "1 know of no other determinant of
psychological illness that compares in ideological
importance, with this one." About the course of
recovery, he has observed, "The more ill a patient
is, the more does his successful treatment require
that he become, and be implicitly acknowledged
as having become, a therapist to his officially
designated therapist ... "3
When such strivings are not acknowledged,
their sudden upsurge in the form of selfless
devotion could become intoxicating because they
expand so vastly. It could become a compassion run
wild. In fact, this is related to the fifty-year habitual
tendency to manic-depressive cycles experienced
by the elderly farm woman. When faced with an
exploding generosity and warmth, the compassion
turned aggressive and became only a burden to
others. Then the object of passion became an object
of disapproval and rejection. That sequence, which
could be seen in a single hour, was the seed of
psychotic depression, because any feeling of sanity
or worthwhileness that she felt was directly
dependent on her compassionate strivings.
The permutations of passion and compassion
are of course endless, and the forms are completely
individual. But experience shows that people
recover when their compassion is more fully
developed. This is why the unfolding or the journey
of compassion within the psychotherapeutic
relationship is such a crucial factor in the
awakening of one's history of sanity.
Environment of Clarity
P
SYCHOTHERAPY CAN be a specialized environment
where the history of sanity is articulated and
acknowledged. One's active relationship to basic
wakefulness or intrinsic health could begin at that
point. Many moments of any psychotherapeutic
encounter are marked by a sense of clarity and
complete presence. Actually, such moments are
continually happening throughout our lives. Even
our dreams bear the imprint of this intelligence.
At the moment of awakening from a dream, we
frequently find that the whole dream experience
is totally clear, translucent and even brilliant. At
that moment we are beyond reflection, before
interpretation or analysis. The dream is vivid and
clear, without subterfuge or disguise. It is a naked
experience of clarity that becomes clouded over and
forgotten.
These barely perceptible moments of clarity are
highlighted within the context of disciplines that
synchronize or balance body and mind. A young
rock climber bitterly complained about the
meaninglessness and oppressiveness of his life.
His ordinary adolescent life was sullen and
confused but while climbing he felt accomplished
and thoroughly awake. No matter what problems
occupied him in his internal dialogue, while
climbing they were cut through as every foothold
and piton placement became a life-or-death
possibility.
Within that framework, he described how he
would work with the tendency of his mind to
wander. The accuracy of his discipline sharpened
his ability to notice shifts or transition states of
mind. At that point he would allow himself to come
back to the sensation of his body hugging rock or
the wind whipping around him. If this was
particularly difficult, he would remind himselfto
wake up with the saying, "Come to your senses!"
It was not just the exhilaration of accomplishment
that he longed for but also the sense of sharpness
and precision that can arise out of fear. When such
experiences were clarified and he could appreciate
them within the context of psychotherapy, he
became able to recognize their natural and
spontaneous occurrences in the less dramatic
aspects of his life. In the same way, he began to
recognize the effort that was required to notice
the elastic drifts and returns of his state of mind.
But this longing for clarity might have some
perverse variations. People might put themselves
in extremely frightening situations in order to
experience moments of clarity, as in the ritualistic
preparations for some types of self-mutilation, or
the fearful drama of recurrent suicide attempts.
There are also more subtle forms of perversion
such as the manic "flight of ideas," which may be
an attempt to cover over any moment of gap or
142 The International Journal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
doubt, or the "pressure of speech," which can
become a systematic resistance to coming back to
the senses or the situation. Eventually they become
mindlessness practices to produce altered states
of consciousness. Perhaps this is the ultimate
meaning of the word resistance: an unwillingness
or an incapacity to experience intrinsic health. It
may even lead to pain, envy or paranoia when
wakefulness is experienced in the therapeutic
environment.
The clarity of the therapeutic environment is
crucially involved in the practice of psychotherapy.
The qualities of wakefulness, crispness, simplicity
and dignity provide an extremely important
environment for patients to observe the shifts in
their state of mind. It is that kind of atmosphere
that might be the provocation that awakens one
to the natural history of sanity.
Courage
F
INALLY, IT is important to talk about courage
and history. In his autobiographical journals,
Charles Darwin asks, "Why don't the psychologists
ever talk about courage?" Darwin traveled widely
during his development as a field biologist and
also became something of an anthropologist. He
came to feel that courage was the most significant
factor in allowing individuals and tribes to survive
and propagate their culture, even in the most
remote places and extreme conditions of isolation
and loneliness. Darwin was no stranger to fear,
loneliness and courage. It could be said that
Darwin's courage was the primary factor in his
struggle between confidence and debilitating
neurosis. He held back for some thirty years the
explosive announcement ofthe non-theistic origin
of the species. During that time he suffered with
his own cycle of confidence, fear and isolation
while he amassed overwhelming evidence. But
before that, his nightmares were concerned with
the murder of God, the destruction of his father's
well-being, and the ransacking of t4e deepest
convictions of his culture. In the end, he would
publicly be accused of exactly that.
Before he could make his outrageous statements
however, symptoms developed. He developed a
profound revulsion toward aggression, especially
his own. Each occasion of confidence that arose in
his investigations faced him with the action he
might have to take and its fearful deterioration
into aggressive pride. He would then collapse in
punishing headaches and exhausting physical
illnesses of unaccountable origin. His courage was
continually fluctuating. It was only through the
force of circumstances and his deep friendship with
a group of naturalists turned street-fighters that
he was able to persevere.
Because the experience of courage in the
history of sanity is so connected with the
experience of fear, it is useful to look into the
psychological structure of fear at a moment-to-
moment level. Fear is particularly observable
during the stages of recovery from a psychosis,
when one feels so vulnerable and tender.
One young woman vividly described a cycle
offear occurring throughout the day that turned
her "blood into ice-water" and culminated in
shaking chills that made her irresistibly drawn
to return to bed to crawl under the covers to sleep.
This was especially exaggerated at the moment
of awakening in the morning.
At first, her descriptions were only of intense
fear. When her attention was turned toward the
nature of that fear, she began to notice a
preliminary phase of "overwhelming brightness."
Then there appeared the thoughts, "I can't go on,
I can't get up." She felt herself pulled back to
"dimness, warmth and coziness." From there she
would begin to indulge in fantasies of safety that
progressively enclosed her in a dream. Coming
out ofthat state took excruciating effort, and any
interruption was met with aggression.
Gradually, the oscillation between brightness
and fear was seen in a variety of life situations
and was understood to be an exaggerated habitual
regressive tendency accumulated over many years
of psychotic episodes. On the one hand, her
psychotherapy consisted of arousing her courage
to work directly with her fear, and on the other
hand, her environment was arranged so that she
could relate with many courageous people.
Even in the case of what seems to be irreversible
damage, we find that a quality of courage is not
only necessary for recovery but is the nature of
health itself. There is much to learn from the case
ofthe warrior Zasetsky.4 His life as an enthusiastic
engineering student was interrupted by war,
during which he manned a flame-thrower on the
Russian front. There he endured a penetrating
brain wound to his left parieto-occipital cortex. The
resulting disability was vast and every aspect of
his life seemed damaged beyond repair. His
memory, cognition, and perceptions were all in
The History of Sanity in Contemplative Psychotherapy 143
disarray and he lived in a "terrible body" which he
could no longer recognize.
His aphasia was almost complete and he could
not communicate even his fragmented world. He
suffered from severe attacks of "catastrophic
reaction" with the usual progression of confusion!
fearlstupor/grief/denial and outrage. Intense
headaches and incomparable fatigue exhausted his
endurance. He found himself "waiting for the
nightmare to be over," but eventually began to
realize the hopelessness of either waiting or suicide.
He said, "I can't just wait until I wake up," and
he resolved "to start all over again ... without a
past ... to make bits and pieces into a coherent
whole ... to break out ofthe. fog ... never give up." He
began to work directly with the ground of his
damage. Over the years he gradually developed
practices that allowed him to partially circumvent
the defects in his neurological circuitry. His journal
of twenty-five years was one such painstaking
practice, through which he felt he discovered further
depths of patience and tenacity and the possibility
of a fresh start within illness itself. Throughout it
all, his major inspiration was to ''be useful. .. to
contribute to others about how to live beyond
helplessness" and what it means "to be human."
The experience of psychotherapy teaches us
about aspects of courage, that of the patient and
that of the therapist. The patient's courage takes
many forms-for example, the effort to follow a
path out of addiction or the weaning fro:m. chronic
psychoactive medications. The therapist's courage
also takes diverse forms, but the most
comprehensive of all is the ability to be in a
relationship beyond memory, repetition, or
transference. But if such a relationship is not
guided by a variety of personal practices it could
become dangerous. The extreme might be
therapeutic megalomania or lesser forms of what
used to be called "furor therapeuticus."
Something quite interesting occurs when the
therapist practices the various disciplines of
courage: Courage becomes a quality of the
therapeutic relationship, and as that expands into
the total therapeutic environment, it begins to
attract and motivate the intelligence and
healthiness of everyone involved.
The practice of psychotherapy involves a
therapist in the whole sequence of events, from
revulsion to courage, just as it does the patient.
The conventional psychotherapies have
attempted to describe in great detail the history
of neurosis or pathology, but even the most useful,
such as the concept of "developmental lines"
described by Anna Freud,5 neglect the
developmental line of mind: wakefulness,
inquisitiveness and curiosity.
A genuine contemplative psychotherapy adds
that crucially missing dimension, the training and
study of mind. This was understood by William
J ames from his observations of nitrous oxide
intoxication, psychosis, and religious conversions,
but he was unable to follow through with his
studies because he lacked a framework or
discipline to continue.
6
The various disciplines of contemplative
psychotherapy can vastly extend our
understanding of mind and relationships. When
oile trains in this way, one naturally becomes
interested in history from the point of view of
sanity, and that gives rise to the development of
compassion. From the perspective of the history
of sanity, it is apparent that the pathway of
psychotherapeutic training has the same form as
the pathway to recovery from illness.
Notes
1. Perceval, J. (1961). Perceval's narrative; a patient's
account of his psychosis, 1830-1832 (G. Bateson, Ed.).
Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
2. Michaux, H. (1974). The major ordeals of the mind, and
countless minor ones (R. Howard, Trans.). New York:
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
3. Searles, H. (1979). The patient as therapist. In
Countertransference and related subjects. New York:
International Universities Press.
4. Luria, A. R. (1972). The man with a shattered world;
the history of a brain wound (L. Solotaroff, Trans.). New
York: Basic Books.
5. Freud,A. (1966). Normalcy and pathology in childhood.
New York: International Universities Press.
6. James, W. (1961). Psychology: Briefer course. New York:
Dover. (Original work published 1892):
The faculty of voluntarily bringing back a wandering
attention, over and over again, is the very root of
judgment, character, and will. No one is compos sui if
he have it not. An education which should improve this
faculty would be the education par excellence. But it is
easier to define this ideal than to give practical direction
for bringing it about. (p. 424)
144 The International Journal of Trans persona I Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
Altered States of Consciousness and Psychotherapy
A Cross-Cultural Perspective
Mario Simoes
Psychiatric University Clinic
Lisbon, Portugal
The main physiological and induced Altered States of Consciousness CASCs) are outlined as
well as methods of induction. The phenomenology of ASCs is described and related to
psychopathology. A short commentary is given about ASCs used in some ethnopsychotherapies.
Psychotherapies of Western origin using ASCs, especially hypnosis, Holotropic Breathwork,
and Personalized Experiential Restructuralization Therapy CPast-LifelRegression Therapy) are
outlined and discussed.
Altered. (Waking) States of
Consciousness (ASCs)
ULTURAL ISSUES were included, although in
a limited fashion, in the diagnostic man-
uals ICD-10 (World Health Organization,
1992) and DSM-IV (American Psychiatric Asso-
ciation, 1994). As Fabrega (1995) points out, the
study of the cultural sciences as they pertain to
psychiatry offers a necessary corrective to the in-
creasing impersonality and reductionism that has
come to characterize the neurobiological ap-
proach. A major enterprise in cultural psychia-
try in recent years has been the integration of
clinical science and anthropology (Minas, 1996).
This paper is also an attempt to make such an
integration. It deals with a psychological phenom-
enon that is rooted in the cultural life of a wide
variety of peoples and which has only recently
come to the attention of Western researchers, in
spite of a long European tradition in research on
Altered States of Consciousness (Beringer, 1927;
Stoll, 1947).
There is a current view that accepts the
existence of different levels of reality, according
to the state of consciousness (level) which an
individual is in at the moment. Normal daily
consciousness (the ordinary state of
consciousness) gives access to an ordinary reality,
but altered states of consciousness, for example,
in dreaming, permit contact with a nonordinary
reality. Less familiar forms of consciousness are
those categorized under the general designation
of altered states of consciousness (ASC). These
should be understood as altered or modified in
relation to the waking state of consciousness,
since this ordinary state of consciousness can be
considered, itself, an unusual state, impossible
to maintain for long, and secured only by a
modicum of perceptual intake and continuous
interior discourse (Gowan, 1978). In fact, a
discrete fluctuation in the ordinary state of
consciousness exists, giving rise to what Tart
(1975) calls discrete states of mind.
An ASC is present when there is a deviation
in subjective experience or psychological
functioning from certain general norms for that
individual, recognized by the subject or observers
(Kokoszka, 1987; Ludwig, 1966). Some authors
(Dittrich, von Arx, & Staub, 1986) add some other
features to this basic definition:
1. Every ASC has certain verbally comprehen-
sible features which occur only infrequently
during the normal waking state. The number
of such differential characteristics determines
the state of an ASC on dimensions ranging
from the normal waking state to an extreme
ASC.
The InternationalJournal of Transpersonal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21, 145-152 145
2002 by Panigada Press
2. ASCs normally last for only a few minutes
to hours, which is an important difference
from psychiatric diseases.
3. ASCs are self-induced, that is, they are
usually voluntarily induced, or may occur in
the normal way oflife. They are not the result
of illness or adverse social circumstances.
4. The various means of inducing ASC can be
grouped into four types: (a) hallucinogens of
the first order (e.g., LSD, DMT, THC); (b)
hallucinogens of the second order (e.g.,
Scopolamine, nitrous oxide); (c) reduction of
environmental stimulation or contact in the
broadest sense (e.g., sensory deprivation,
meditation, falling asleep, awakening); and (d)
increased environmental stimulation and
contact (e.g., intense rhythmic stimulation,
extremely variable stimuli).
U sing the APZ (Abnorme psychische
Zustaende) questionnaire (Dittrich, 1975) for
scanning ASCs of the different types mentioned
above, various authors in different countries
(Dittrich, vonArx, & Staub, 1986; Simoes, Po16nio,
von Arx, Staub, & Dittrich, 1986) found that some
common characteristics of ASCs remained
sufficiently stable under different methods of
induction. Analyses on a dimensional level
identified three primary subscales, positively
intercorrelated, and designated as follows with
regard to content: (1) Oceanic Boundlessness; (2)
Dread of Ego-Dissolution; and (3) Visionary
Restructuralization. The first subscale describes
a state similar to mystical experiences; the second
subscale contains features which indicate a very
unpleasant state, similar to what is called a "bad
trip" by drug users and similar to some symptoms
in schizophrenia; and the third subscale includes
items on visual (pseudo)hallucinations: visions,
illusions and coenaesthetic hallucinations, or a
change of significance of the surroundings. As
Dittrich, von Arx, and Staub (1986) point out,
referring to Huxley (1961), it could be said that
the three primary etiology-independent aspects of
ASCs correspond to Heaven, Hell, and Visions.
Altered States of Consciousness
and Society
A
SCs, even when recognized in Western soci-
eties, still possess negative connotations.
They are labeled as different, irrational, strange,
abnormal, or pathological. This is more likely to
happen if these states emerge spontaneously,
because the so-called "functional" psychiatric dis-
eases also arise in an apparently spontaneous
way. An acute paranoid syndrome triggered by
marijuana, in its early stages, is very similar to
an acute schizophrenic episode, giving some sup-
port to the classification of an acute paranoid
syndrome as an ASC (Simoes, 1995). The phe-
nomenology included in the three subscales men-
tioned above can be present simultaneously in a
psychotic and in a spiritual/mystical experience,
but the degree of involvement of each subscale is
different in the two kinds of experience (Dittrich,
1988). These data indicate the possibility that
both experiences may have a common psycho-
physiologial basis, such as a common path of fi-
nal expression. As Mandell (1982) admitted, this
common path may "reflect the neurobiological
mechanisms underlying transcendence, God in
the brain," or, metaphorically, the brain as a ho-
logram of the all-one.
But the question remains whether a givenASC
is to be considered pathological. Its classification
as pathological is not strictly based on biological
or phenomenological criteria, for the stigma of
pathology can as well be seen as a measure of
social control (Dittrich, 1996).
Crombach (1974) believes that ASCs would
lose their strange and "irrational" character if
they were considered as "another" way of getting
knowledge or "framing reality." Pathological ASCs
should be recognized as those that arise
spontaneously and present the following
characteristics: (1) they are a dominant experience
in daily life; (2) they serve to enable the
experiencer to avoid the necessity of finding
adequate solutions for the problems of daily life;
and (3) the context in which they emerge provides
no cognitive or social structures with which those
ASCs can be dealt with. The last situation, for
example, is the case where societies, although
used to spontaneous or induced ASCs, cannot
integrate in their cultural frame the ego
dissolution experienced by schizophrenic patients
(Scharfetter, 1990).
Ethnological studies (Bourguignon, 1973)
indicate that in ninety percent of societies quoted
in the Ethnographic Atlas (Murdock, 1967),ASCs
are used for some social events, so one can speak
of them as an anthropological constant. Earlier
on, ASCs were thought to be an uncommon
experience in Western societies, and those
146 The International Journal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
experiencing them did not talk about the subject,
fearing to be considered psychiatric patients. But
now, the results of a survey conducted by Hay
(1982) have been confirmed (Kokoszka, 1989;
Valla, 1992) and indicate fifty-four percent ofthe
population experiencing a "deep" (mystic-like)
ASC, whereas eighty-four percent referred to
some form of "slight" (alteration in reality feeling
and disturbance of cognitive process) ASC,
occurring more often in religious situations than
in everyday situations or during cognitive
processes. The tendency to emphasize rationality
and intersubjective communication makes an
ASC more likely to be considered abnormal. It
evokes fear of mental disease because it does not
conform to experiential stereotypes. It should be
noted that relaxation techniques, socially spread
as meditation or autogenic training, can be
followed by ASCs. In Western societies, mystic-like
ASCs can be considered as a healing mechanism
(Lukoff, Turner, & Lu, 1992; Valla, 1992).
Altered States of Consciousness in
Ethnopsychotherapy
M
ANY NONINDUSTRIAL cultures employ ASCs in
various spiritual and healing rituals.
Anthropologists have used phrases such as trance
or possession states to describe these practices.
Psychologists have used other terms to describe
them in Western cultures: hypnotic states,
mystical experiences, and hysterical dissociation
are some examples (Jilek, 1989). Differences
among these states are considered to be more
cultural than psychological or neurophysiological
in nature. The capacity to enter into an ASC is
common to all human beings, but frequency is a
function of social and cultural variables. Among
these, there is the possibility that an individual
may be required to fulfill certain social roles in
the culture, to practice certain permitted "roles"
sometimes sought after in that culture to satisfy
social, personal, or other healing needs.
Some cultures use ASCs in healing rituals that
are similar to Western psychotherapeutic tech-
niques. These rituals may employ psychoactive
plants (Rios, 1989) or rhythmic stimuli such as
dancing or drumming (Jilek, 1989) in the induc-
tion process, while in the Western psychothera-
peutic context, other means (e.g., sensory overload
or deprivation, with or without guided visualiza-
tion) are generally preferred. There is no contra-
diction here because according to the current un-
derstanding of the interdependence of the mind-
body, psychological processes affect biochemical
changes and vice versa.
When we study ASCs in different cultural set-
tings, the first problem we must face is whether
these states are internally consistent or dependent
upon social or cultural factors (Ward, 1989). The
data indicate that these positions are not antago-
nistic. Although behavior during ASCs in some
aspects can be different, ways of induction, and
social and cultural objectives exhibit some simi-
larities. There is not always social and functional
equivalence, however, even when neurophysiolog-
ical mechanisms are common. The greatest dif-
ference between what is observed in Western cul-
tures and those of other cultures in relation to
psychotherapy has to do with causal attribution
(Lambek, 1989). It is interesting to note that in
Western societies there are different schools of
psychotherapy, each with its own etiological mod-
el of disease.
Yoga
Y
OGA HAS been practiced in Asia for millennia
and has often been used therapeutically in
contemporary times to treat insomnia and other
psychological problems (Hehr, 1987). A
practitioner of yoga strives to become aware of
corporeal sensations and perceptions, while
keeping this bodily awareness free of ego
involvement. To attain this state, one uses
visualization techniques as well as physical
postures, or asanas, frequently in combination
with controlled breathing. This state has
neurophysiological correlates which are similar
to those observed in opium smokers (Hehr, 1987)
-thus leading to the endorphin hypothesis for
explaining these sensations associated with Yoga.
Umbanda and Voodoo
H
EALING CEREMONIES in Umbanda (Brazil) and
Voodoo (Haiti) cults contain psychophysical
techniques which manipulate consciousness.
According to U mbanda, the etiology of disorders
is centered on supernatural fluids that are
prejudicial because of ethical-religious errors,
magic, spiritual and karmic forces, or derived
from an underdeveloped mediumship. Therapy
is executed by a medium in an ASC under the
influence of a spirit of a deceased person that
Altered States of Consciousness and Psychotherapy 147
blows away those fluids. Many clients themselves
seek to become mediums, which brings them
social prestige and assists in the cure. Voodoo
technique is partly similar to Umbanda, and both
aim to promote social and psychological
integration (Pressel, 1987).
The types of "spirit" that orient therapy,
through the medium, which are the caboclo
(handsome man), preto velho (old man), crianr:;a
(child), and exu (a supernatural being), represent
aspects of a socially well-adapted personality,
which explains the frequency with which they
appear in terreiros (ceremony playgrounds)
(Pressel, 1987). Voodoo ceremonies are not
principally for healing as in Umbanda-and
animal sacrifice is often involved. The concept of
supernatural fluids permits the medium an
approach to modern neurophysiological and
biochemical correlates on one hand and the social
relations ofthe patient and other persons on the
other hand. It can be seen as part of an organized,
integrative effort by that society to satisfy the
need of its members to know life's meaning, as
well as a biological need for a cure (Pressel, 1987).
Induction processes used are dance, mainly
around the body axis, and rhythmic drumming
and hand clapping. These belong to the category,
listed earlier, of ASC induction by sensory
overload with simultaneous rhythmic monotony.
Both rhythms belong to the EEG theta frequency
(4-7 hertz/second) which is the most common
frequency found in ceremonies that lead to trance
(Jilek, 1989) and is confirmed in ceremonies
accompanied by rhythmic batuque in Siberia,
Haiti, Africa, and Indonesia (Neher, 1962).
American Indian Dance
H
EALING CEREMONIES through dance have also
been observed among North American
Indians (Salish, Algonquians, Kiowa; Jilek, 1989).
The patient is brought into an ASC, following the
instructions of an "initiator" and helped by the
community. Production of these ASCs generally
occurs without use of hallucinogenic drugs (e.g.,
peyote, psilocybin). These states are provoked
through waking-sleep variations, hypo- and hyper-
ventilation, or rhythmic acoustic and motor
stimulation (Jilek, 1989). Considering this type of
therapy from a Western point of view, various
therapeutic parameters are clear: occupational
and activation therapy, group psychotherapy,
cathartic abreaction, psychodrama, suggestive
support, and physical exercises. The psychosocial
function of these ritualistic dances with healing
properties can be interpreted as a way to obtain
emotional and spiritual well-being and
responsibility and self-esteem for autochthones,
especially in modern times when they have
difficulties in finding their identity in a society
dominated by white North Americans (Jilek, 1989).
Altered States of Consciousness in
Western Psychotherapies
Because hypnosis, bodywork, and so-called
"image work" are currently popular, I will briefly
consider them.
Hypnosis
A
WELL-KNOWN joke is that the first use of
hypnosis was when God hypnotized Adam
in order to take his rib for the creation of Eve. While
this may be stretching things a bit, hypnosis is
certainly an ancient technique, in use for millennia.
We find the phenomenology of hypnosis in Egyptian
sleep temples, for example, as well as in numerous
other sites around the world. Many famous
physicians were involved in the development of
hypnosis in one way or another: among them,
Paracelsus, Mesmer, Faria, Braid, Charcot, Freud,
Pavlov, and Janet. The Portuguese Abade Faria is
notable in that he was the first to consider hypnosis
to be a state of autosuggestion. Interest in hypnosis
is still strong (Burrows & Stanley, 1995; Walter,
1995; Araoz, 1998).
The hypnotic state (as opposed to the practice
of inducing hypnosis) can be defined as an ASC
characterized by attentive and receptive
concentration with a relative suspension of
peripheral awareness (Spiegel & Spira, 1993). To
date, neurophysiological or clinical correlates have
not been found to be specific to this state (Walter,
1995), which is why some authors claim that it
does not exist at all (Barber, 1970; Wagstaff, 1981).
Others see it as self-controlled behavior by
individuals in response to demanding social roles,
while being present as passive actors in a drama
in which they could lose control (Spanos, 1989).
Still others think that a true ASC is involved as
well as learned responses to social roles (Hilgard,
1986; Tart, 1975).
Experiences and behavior under hypnosis are
associated with a subjective conviction similar to
148 The International Journal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
delusion, and with a sense of unwillingness similar
to compulsion (Kihlstrom, 1985). These aspects
have contributed to some popular misconceptions:
that hypnosis is a dream; that it is passive
(something one does to somebody else); that
everyone is hypnotizable; that it is dangerous; that
it is therapeutic per se; or that it is a special
susceptibility or spiritual weakness. Hypnotic
susceptibility can be evaluated through tests, and
it is influenced by the rapport or trusting
relationship that is established between the
therapist and patient. In hypnosis, "resistance"
does not come from the patient, as in
psychoanalysis, but from a failure in rapport. The
success of the session depends also on hypnotic
susceptibility, which has also been shown to vary
widely among different people, and to vary in
individuals over their lifetime. Hypnotizability
seems to be something that is inherited, in that
parents who are easily hypnotized are more likely
to have children who share this susceptibility
(Matthews, Conti, & Starr, 1998).
Methods of induction are based on monotonous
rhythmic stimuli in an environment of little or
no other acoustic or visual input. Trance levels
range from hypnoidal to somnolent states, and
some of the different phenomena which can be
observed include hallucination, anesthesia, age
regression, and post-hypnotic suggestion. The
spectrum of possible use is wide-ranging from the
treatment of phobias and multiple personality
disorder, to modern research on traumatic
childhood memories (Kluft, 1995). Hypnotic-like
procedures are found in Shamanism, and native
practitioners utilize the same human capacities
(Krippner, 1999; Richeport, 1987). Krippner
(1999), as a cross-cultural psychologist, remarks
that the human psyche cannot be extricated from
the historically variable and diverse "intentional
worlds" in which it plays a co-constituting part.
There is another therapeutic technique in some
Western countries that also uses hypnosis-spirit
releasement therapy-developed by Baldwin
(1993). Such an approach will stretch or overstep
the bounds of some therapists' credulity and it is
advised that psychotherapists who do this type
of work have a working knowledge of
metaphysics, spirituality, and nonphysical levels
of reality (Wicker, 2000).
There is some controversy about the use of
hypnosis in recovering repressed memories
(Yapko, 1995) that would not exist if therapists
were more careful about verifying subjective
"certainty." Of course, material obtained under
hypnosis must be considered as deserving further
research-especially when suspicion of sexual
abuse persists.
Hypnosis can be considered an ASC similar to
others common in daily life (e.g., relaxing, reading
a book in deep concentration), but different from
the normal waking state in relation to dreaming
or sleep, where the distinction between these is
stable both for humans and other mammals
(Stengers, 1993).
Holotropic Breathwork
T
HE NAME ofthis psychotherapy-holotropic-
derives from the Greek, meaning both "whole"
and "moving toward." Developed by Grof (1979),
this method facilitates altered states of conscious-
ness by means of conscious breathing, evocative
music, and focused bodywork. Grof's research led
him to a map of consciousness with three levels:
the biographical, perinatal (related to traumas
of biological birth), and the transpersonal (expe-
riences supposed to happen in a time and space
out of the ordinary frame). The holotropic ap-
proach is intended to bring into consciousness
content from the unconscious that has a strong
emotional charge and is relevant from a psycho"
dynamic point of view (Grof, 1996).
In this therapy, symptoms are seen as the first
stage of healing. Though the majority of
emotional problems have their roots in childhood,
others originate in the other aforementioned
levels. A resolution of problems means letting the
patient experience the other levels associated
with the problems under treatment. Grof (1996)
uses holotropic breathwork to activate the self-
healing potential guided by one's own deep inner
intelligence.
Personalized Experiential
Restructuralization Therapy
(Past-Life! Regression Therapy)
T
HIS DESCRIPTIVE title is intended to summarize
and integrate what in some circles is known
as "Past-Life/Regression Therapy," recent
discoveries on imagery (Achterberg, 1985), and
clinical applications of nondrug-induced states
(Budzinski, 1986). In its early days, this therapy
referred to a concept somehow strange to Western
culture-the notion of reincarnation-the
Altered States o/Consciousness and Psychotherapy 149
possibility that an individual could experience
various lives in different bodies in different times
and cultures through the agency of an immortal
spirit or soul. This idea is not strange for many
Eastern societies and can even be found in some
Western cultural circles. Because it is beyond the
scope of this work, I will not discuss reincarnation
here, although there is a growing literature of
rigorous scientific investigations into the matter
(Stevenson, 1970, 1983; Andrade, 1988; Keil, 1994).
This brief introduction makes clear that it is
more neutral to call the therapy "Personalized
Experiential Restructuralization Therapy." Being
symbolic in nature, imagination permits
representations ofthings that do not exist or which
are approximations of reality. It is a capacity that
allows elaboration of concepts or precognitions
which would be impossible to realize in any other
way. The graphic representation of mental disorder
in a patient's inner world is sometimes like a Bosch
picture. In reality though, one's world is more
similar to daily life than to the representations of
Bosch. There are cognitive distortions leading to
fantasies, logically unsolvable, but able to be
represented in consciousness. This imaginative
potential can be used for healing purposes when
combined with an ASC (Achterberg, 1985). This
procedure is based on hypnosis, and has been used
by Wambach (1978) in an effort to obtain answers
to certain questions. For example, some seek proof
of memories of a supposed past life or to discover
areas in the mind able to be activated under
hypnosis but not in the waking state. Others that
have contributed to "regressive" therapy include
Netherton and Shiffrin (1978), who called it "Past-
Life Therapy." The idea of exploring reincarnation
is close to the therapeutic concept that a patient
must reexperience the primal trauma to exhaust
emotion tied to it. It is arguable whether or not
hypnosis is being used since patients remain awake
and in contact with the therapist in a dreamlike
situation, oscillating in alpha-theta EEG frequency
(Simoes et aI., 1998).
It does not matter if experiences are true or not;
what is important is that an event is experienced
in a personalized way. These scenes can be
dramatizations of unconscious material, facts
experienced in a supposed past life or really in the
biographic life-whatever they are, they are always
accepted as they "happen" (Peres, 1992). It seems
that believing in reincarnation is not important for
success (Clark, 1995), and sometimes the contents
of experiences have nothing to do with past lives
(Baldwin, 1993). The growing importance of these
issues is indicated by the appearance of several
journals and a handbook devoted to the subject
(Lucas, 1993).
As in any psychotherapy, rapport is very
important and is a very good clinical indicator in
relation to the success of treatment. Induction of
the ASC varies, depending on the author or
therapist in question; hyperventilation, minimalist
music, autogenic training, or hypnotic suggestions
can all be used. The experience must be
accomplished in the evolutional stages (in the
womb, birth, childhood, and adulthood) and involve
experiences that the patient attributes to past lives.
Some of these experiences are evoked through a
bodily stimulus that lets the patient reexperience
bodily sensations (Woolger, 2000).
According to Peres (1992), each session takes
nearly two hours and passes through several
phases, the core of which is the subjectively
identified trauma and, afterwards, a cognitive
restructuralization is done by the patient, helped
by the therapist. As in hypnosis, a "hidden observer"
(Hilgard, 1986) controls emotions and the patient
experiences only what he or she can comfortably
handle. In this procedure the patient acts as
therapist and works as a helper ofthe therapeutic
process throughout the session. Afterwards, a
positive suggestion for the future concerning the
problem is made and the patient is brought slowly
back to a normal waking state.
Problematic personal relationships, phobias, and
a lack of meaning and purpose in life have been the
conditions most successfully treated with this
therapy; addictions, weight problems, and
depression have been cited as the least successfully
treated (Clark, 1995).
Some Final Considerations
T
HE FACTOR common to Western and shamanic
psychotherapies consists in a reconciliation
with one's destiny, social group, and the domain
ofthe transpersonal. These objectives are attained
with a modification of perspective in each ofthese
three domains, within an ASC where there is an
intense cathartic and dramatic experience
conforming to the prevailing cultural concepts of
disease, shared by patient and therapist.
Use of ASCs in psychotherapy requires a change
in the usual scientific paradigm (Kuhn, 1962)
150 The International Journal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
concerning Kantian logic and consciousness as
exclusive products of the brain. ASes warrant
more research in terms oftheir psychotherapeutic
application and will come to be seen as an
important way to understand the mind of an
individual in a cultural context.
Notes
I thank Christopher Ryan for help in the translation of
the manuscript and for some suggestions about the
content. The elaboration of this manuscript was part of
a research project supported by a grant from the Bial
Foundation (Porto, Portugal).
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152 The InternationalJournal ofTranspersonal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
Synchronicity, Mind, and Matter
Wlodzislaw Duch
Nicholas Copernicus University
Torun, Poland
Experiments with remote perception and Random Event Generators (REG) performed over
the last decades show small but significant anomalous effects. Since these effects seem to
be independent of spatial and temporal distance, they appear to be in disagreement with
the standard scientific worldview. A very simple explanation of quantum mechanics is pre-
sented, rejecting all unjustified claims about the world. A view of mind in agreement with
cognitive neuroscience is introduced. It is argued that mind and consciousness are emer-
gent properties of the brain and are understandable without any nonphysical assumptions.
A plausible explanation of the results of anomalous experiments, based on the concept of
synchronicity, introduced by C.G. Jung and advocated by W. Pauli, is offered. A proof is
given that strong correlations should exist between any systems that once interacted.
Synchronicity events between parts of the brain and physical objects may be sufficient to
explain the results of anomalous experiments. Standard physics is sufficient to understand
these phenomena.
Motto:
It would be most satisfactory if physics and psyche
could be seen as complementary aspects
of the same reality.
-w. Pauli (In Jung & Pauli, 1952/1973)
I. Introduction: On Mind and Matter
P
UBLICATION OF the Pauli-Jung corre-
spondence (Pauli & Jung, 1992) leaves no
doubt that Wolfgang Pauli devoted much
thought to the concept of synchronicity, or the
acausal synchronicity of meaningful events. This
concept was introduced by C. G. Jung (Jung &
Pauli, 1952/1973) in a book that also includes Pau-
li's contribution. Despite many discussions of
synchronicity that Pauli had with scientists work-
ing at the Institute for Advanced Study in
Princeton, USA (where he spent his war years),
the idea was somehow abandoned. Physicists were
not ready to discuss acausal coincidences between
events distant in time and space, mental experi-
ences (dreams, intentions, thoughts), and mean-
ing. Pauli himself was famous for creating trou-
ble in laboratories he visited, and apparently he
regarded this ''Pauli effect" as a manifestation of
synchronicity. The wish that Pauli expressed more
than forty years ago to see physics and psyche as
complementary aspects of the same reality may
slowly become manifest now, thanks to our deep-
er understanding of the foundations of physics and
the development of the cognitive sciences.
Perceptual and cognitive processes are not
passive but involve fitting the best models to the
incoming data. Perceiving three-dimensional ob-
jects with colors that are almost independent of
illumination requires many assumptions that the
brain has learned to make in the course of evolu-
tion. Active perception leads to the metaphor of
the brain as the "machine generating meaning"
(Freeman, 1996), discriminating and evaluating
everything from a subjective perspective. It is
sufficient to see only those aspects of reality that
may influence our decisions, so we do not see
more. Looking for meaning is a great strategy
facilitating survival in typical situations, but it
also leads to finding meaningful patterns in ran-
dom dots or shapes of the clouds. At the cogni-
tive level the situation is analogous. We assume
that "we" know "ourselves," but how can we real-
ly know? We know by observing and making the-
ories about our own behavior (Gopnik, 1993).
The Internationaljournal of Transpersonal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21, 153-168 153
2002 by Panigada Press
These theories lead to deeply ingrained illusions
about our minds.
Understanding means relating new facts to old
theories and personal beliefs. Cognitive science is
based on systematic observations, theories that
cannot be easily replaced by alternative ones. So
many details about cognition are now understood
that the introduction of new paradigms may be
very difficult. The difficulties of a mathematical
description of nature are progressively increasing
at each step: classical physics is able to solve the
two body problem exactly; in relativistic quantum
mechanics exact solutions are obtained only for
the one particle case; in quantum electrodynam-
ics only the vacuum problem (zero particles) is
exactly solvable; while in quantum chromodynam-
ics even the vacuum problem is too difficult to be
exactly solvable. Future grand unified theories will
not be easier to understand or to apply. The solu-
tion ofthe conceptual problems of physics and the
cognitive sciences and the description of physical
phenomena involving ordinary matter cannot lie
in exotic physical theories. A unified view of mind
and matter should be possible already within the
present paradigms, or we may not be able to un-
derstand such a theory at all.
Since paradigms are so hard to change there
is a natural tendency to dismiss all evidence that
does not fit into an existing framework. In the
last decades, a large number of experiments in-
volving human operators have been performed,
giving data that seem to be hard to understand
within the scientific framework (Jahn & Dunne,
1987; Jahn, 1982; Schmidt, 1993; Puthoff & Targ,
1976). The effects observed were analyzed in tra-
ditional terms derived from parapsychology, such
as psychokinesis, telepathy or precognition. More
recent terms include "anomalous data," "remote
viewing," "remote perception," or "human opera-
tor effects." These results are largely ignored as
impossible, or threatening to the scientific
worldview. Hope that a simple systematic error
explaining such data will be discovered does not
seem to be justified. Data pointing to the exist-
ence of such effects are accumulating. In partic-
ular, solid evidence for what is called "remote
perception" and for the influence of intentional
mind states on random events, including past and
future events, has been accumulated.
The last type of effect has also been called a
"micropsychokinetic effect." A large amount of
experimental data has been obtained using the
Random Event Generators (REGs) in the
Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research
(PEAR) laboratory, USA (Jahn & Dunne, 1987).
The portable equipment and the software for per-
forming such experiments is now available from
this laboratory to other scientists interested in
experimenting on their own. These effects seem
to represent the reproducible synchronicity
events that Pauli called for in his letter to Fierz
(quoted in Laurikainen, 1988): "For me person-
ally it would be much nicer to begin with 'acausal
orderings' which are always reproducible (includ-
ing those of quantum physics) and attempt to
understand the psycho-physical connections as
a special case of this general species." Perhaps
the time is ripe for such an attempt.
The explanation of such experiments is very
difficult for two reasons: the involvement of hu-
man operators, and our persistent illusions about
reality. Quantum mechanics is presented first as
a remedy for such illusions. Mind as an emer-
gent property of the brain is presented next. Phys-
ical and mental points of view are combined to
give a plausible explanation ofthe observed data
as a special case of synchronicity. In contrast to
many other explanations of anomalous phenom-
ena, no extensions to physics used in the descrip-
tion of matter, nor cognitive science used in the
description of minds, is needed. The result is a
reasonable, unified view of mind and matter.
H. Quantum Correlations
T
HE PROGRESS of science is the history of shed-
ding illusions and false assumptions. At the
beginning ofthe twentieth century scientists as-
sumed that nature works according to the prin-
ciples of classical mechanics. Ideas about reality
were mistaken for reality itself. Positions, forc-
es, inertia or momenta, have well-grounded in-
tuitive meanings referring to feedback from body
movements. Any object-human, tree, or atom-
is reduced to a rather small set of properties that
human minds are able to conceive. Instead of a
full, infinitely subtle description of an object ("in-
finity in a grain of sand," as Blake puts it), many
ideas about space, time and movement are pro-
jected onto reality. In fact, each object is infinite-
ly complex, and thus it should be represented by
a vector IO(t with an infinite number of com-
ponents, describing its properties (its state) at
time t.
The state vector should contain perfect knowl-
edge about the object, allowing for determination
154 The InternationalJournal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
of any property P. A measurement is needed to
determine it, requiring an interaction with the
object 0. For example, in order to look at a glass,
scattered light is needed to see it, and eyes and
brain (or camera and computer) are needed to
estimate its position, shape, size, and color. The
measuring procedure is symbolized by a certain
operator P acting on the vector, PIO). In return,
a value of the measured property Ap is obtained,
and the state ofthe object 10) remains unchanged.
This measurement procedure is summarized in
symbolic form as:
PIO) = Ap 10)
This is the basic equation of quantum mechan-
ics, called eigenequation for the operator P cor-
responding to some observable property. No as-
sumptions about the world are required to apply
this general procedure. If 10) represents a hu-
man and P a procedure of asking questions then
Ap is a verbal answer. To measure classical phys-
ics properties, such as energy, position, momen-
tum or time flow, an appropriate operator is need-
ed. In psychology and physics the answers to two
questions P, Q that cannot be answered at the
same time may depend on the order of the ques-
tions. This is the celebrated Heisenberg relation,
PQIO) 1= QPIO). For example, the position and
momentum of a particle cannot be measured at
the same time. Localization of a particle increas-
es the uncertainty of its momentum.
All matter shows wave-like properties if an
operation P to measure them is set up. There-
fore, a good mathematical representation of a
state vector for an elementary particle is a wave
function I'll). Setting up the mathematical struc-
ture of such a theory may be done in many ways
and is a technical matter. The momentum opera-
tor p is proportional to the changes of the I')
wave between two points (i.e., to the derivative
of I') in respect to position), while the kinetic
energy operator H (by analogy to classical me-
chanics called the Hamilton operator) is propor-
tional to the square of the momentum p2. This
operator represents a measurement of energy of
a system described by a state vector I'):
HI') = EI')
This is the famous Schrodinger equation. It is
a symbolic representation of the general princi-
ple: to know some property prepare a measure-
ment procedure H acting on the object in a given
state 10)=1').
Quantum mechanics allows only for predic-
tions of results of the measurements. What has
not been measured should not be claimed. The
answers depend on the questions that are posed.
Nature shows different faces in different experi-
ments. This is not a unique property of micro-
objects. Many properties of people also depend
on the questions that are asked and the details
of experimental arrangements. As long as objects
are not changed by interactions in the measure-
ment process, the same values of their proper-
ties are obtained in repeated experiments. This
is usually the case with macroscopic physical
properties. In the realm of complex systems with
internal structure, such as minds, and in the
realm of very small objects, such as atoms, inter-
actions always change state vectors.
Elementary objects are absolutely identical.
Two objects that once were part of a quantum
system (i.e., interacted with each other) should
be described by a common state vector. Even when
these objects become separated at a large distance
they still form one system. Only by measuring
their properties, and finding no correlations
between the results, may the independence of the
objects be established. There are two kinds of
correlations. Trivial correlations result from
conservation laws: If the total object had zero
momentum, and after separation one part had
momentum p, then the other part should have
momentum -po Finding such correlations shows
that the systems have interacted in the past.
Nontrivial correlations concern properties that
cannot be simultaneously measured.
In the hypothetical case of two people with
identical views, it may still happen that some
views change, depending on the order in which
questions are asked. For example, question P may
be about a favorite musical instrument and ques-
tion Q about a favorite musician who is playing
it. Asking the first question prepares (primes) the
subject for the second. If one person is asked the
same questions, in the same order as the other
person, the answer should be identical. Howev-
er, ifthe order in which questions are asked does
matter, PQIO) 1= QPIO), and questions are pre-
sented in random order, then two identical sets
of answers are a sign of nontrivial correlations.
Suppose the first person answers "trumpet" to
question P and "Miles Davis" to Q. The second
person, asked about the musicians, first has
several choices, but still answers "Miles Davis"
and "trumpet." Although their views are identi-
Synchronicity, Mind, and Matter 155
cal, the choices could have been different. If they
are not, they are correlated in a nontrivial way.
Although no one has done such an experiment
with people (learning a list of paired associations
could be one possibility) we assume that only triv-
ial correlations between people are possible.
Quantum mechanics predicts that tests with el-
ementary objects, such as photons, electrons or
atoms, should show nontrivial correlations. In
fact, this was Einstein's main objection to quan-
tum mechanics. His formulation of an apparent
paradox (Einstein, Podolsky, & Rosen 1935),
known as the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR)
paradox, brought the deep problem of a descrip-
tion of separated systems in quantum mechan-
ics to the attention of physicists. Systems that
are described by a common state vector are called
"entangled." The problem is, how can the state
vector representing the whole group of objects be
broken into separate vectors that describe two or
more independent parts, that is, how to disen-
tangle the system?
To summarize the main point of this section:
From a theoretical point of view disentanglement
is impossible. As Wolfgang Pauli once remarked:
"Was Gott vereint hat, solI der Mensch nicht
trennen" ("What God has united men should not
separate"). One cannot start with the two
independent vectors describing the system
without "playing God's role." This became evident
in the last two decades when very precise
experiments measuring correlations between
properties of pairs of particles separated at large
distances were performed (Selleri, 1987). These
correlations were in full agreement with the
predictions of quantum mechanics, but could not
be explained assuming that state vectors of
particles were independent. Existence of these
nontrivial correlations, called the EPR
correlations, or correlations violating Bell's
inequality (an inequality setting a limit on the
magnitude of correlations between measurements
for independent particles) was predicted by
quantum mechanics. The experimental verification
ofthese predictions (cf. Selleri, 1987) was a great
success. Interactions with other particles create
complex networks of nontrivially correlated
events, making it difficult to measure correlations
between pairs of particles. Independence is one of
these illusions acquired in early childhood. It is
an illusion in the same sense as the independent
existence of space and time is an illusion, although
in both cases Newtonian concepts are useful
approximations. The heated debates about the
meaning of these results showed how hard it is to
give up such deeply held convictions.
Quantum mechanics (QM) is unable to de-
scribe the process of separation in which parti-
cles become independent (the proof is in the Ap-
pendix). Some experts came up with alternative
theories announcing the "death of quantum me-
chanics" (Piron, 1985, p. 207) and presenting a
theory ofthe quantum-logic type that allows for
the existence of independent objects (Aerts, 1982).
Despite all the successes of quantum mechanics,
scientists keep projecting their own ideas onto
reality, trying to tell nature how to behave. The-
ories that allow for separation have never been
successful in predicting anything. How can one
tell that the separated subsystems are really in-
dependent? Only by rejecting the temptation to
make unjustifiable claims, and testing for corre-
lations in carefully designed experiments. Cor-
relations between several particles that have not
been directly entangled are also measurable
(Nielsen & Chuang, 2000).
It is not clear how to apply a full quantum me-
chanical treatment to small systems, such as a
crystal or a biomolecule, in the neighborhood of a
large system (Primas, 1981). Microscopic bodies
cannot be isolated in a quantum mechanical sense,
since they are always strongly coupled with their
environment and thus should show nontrivial cor-
relations. Different patterns of neural excitation
may be modeled in quantum mechanical fashion
as the eigenstates of some operators. Since two
different patterns cannot exist at the same time,
these operators cannot commute. An analog of
Bell's theorem for such a model should establish a
limit for correlations between two neural systems.
Straightforward estimation of the correlation co-
efficient obtained in the Appendix shows that cor-
relations should always be large. Why is it, then,
so hard to measure such effects? Interaction with
warm, macroscopic bodies (thermal degrees of free-
dom) may wash them out completely. Detailed in-
vestigation of this point brought Khalfin and
Tsirelson (1992) to the conclusion: "Under very care-
ful, but undoubtedly feasible isolation ofthe collec-
tive degrees of freedom from the thermal ones,
quantum correlations can arise and be conserved
for long periods of time, even in the mechanical
motion of macroscopic bodies" (p. 947). Such quan-
tum mechanical correlations between two sepa-
rated crystals should be induced by mechanical
movement and should persist for a long time.
156 The International Journal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
If the measurement on the first particle is per-
formed after one second, and on the other parti-
cle one year after the separation, statistical cor-
relations between the results may still be stron-
ger than could be expected if the two particles
were independent of each other. From another
point of view, such correlations may look like an
influence of the present measurements on the
future or past measurements, or like precogni-
tive or retrocognitive results. Quantum mechan-
ics does not admit such interpretations, since this
would be claiming more than the experimental
results justify. Nontrivial correlations are
acausal. Experimental devices are designed to
measure only simple correlations, for example by
counting photons. Interactions among a large
number of particles may be too subtle to be mea-
sured with equipment that is not sensitive to
subtle changes in the correlated patterns. Is it
possible that our brains are sensitive to such pat-
terns? Are the remote viewing and the REG ex-
periments simply another expression of this ba-
sic interdependence of nature?
HI. Brains and Minds
I
N THE remote viewing and REG experiments,
intentional states of mind are crucial. Con-
sciousness is regarded by some physicists as an
ill-defined force pervading the universe, some-
thing necessary to "collapse wave functions" and
interfere directly in the measurement process.
This idea has been proposed by E. Wigner
(Wigner, 1962, pp. 284-302), who gave it up later
(Mehra & Wightman, 1995, p. 271), when he un-
derstood the difficulties of maintaining coherent
quantum states in the brain. Discussions of this
topic still go on without any reference to real cog-
nitive phenomena (Stapp, 1993; Penrose, 1994).
Before the measurement the state vector 10) con-
tains all possible outcomes of experiments. After
the measurement they suddenly collapse to the
observed value (e.g., the particle found at some
position). The state vector is not a physical ob-
ject but a collection of properties that are deter-
mined through measurements. The interaction
of a quantum system with classical measuring
apparatus has been successfully described with-
out the need for conscious intervention (Giulini,
Joos, Kiefer, Kupsch, Stamatescu, & Zeh, 1996).
Neurons are sufficiently large to be accurately
described as classical systems. Quantum effects
in neurons may be observed only at timescales
shorter than one picosecond (Tegmark, 2000),
therefore they have no influence on their normal
functioning, which is a billion times slower.
Quantum and spiritual explanations postulate
some mysterious processes that give rise to men-
tal states, without really explaining anything.
Why does a specific kind of damage to the brain
dramatically change the inner world of the per-
son? The only fruitful approach to such questions
so far has been based on a natural assumption
that minds are emergent properties of very com-
plex brains. Mind is a complex of many faculties
related to perception, cognition, emotion, think-
ing, planning, imagining, acting, maintaining a
subjective view of the world and the self in it
(Freeman, 1996). The inner world seems to have
nothing in common with the brain and its state,
being qualitatively quite different. How then can
mind arise from the brain? Philosopher H.
Putnam calls it a "disastrous picture ofthe world,"
an explanation that is "more obscure than the
phenomenon to be explained" (Putnam, 1978).
There are so many misconceptions here that
this issue requires careful investigation. Brain
is the substrate in which mental processes take
place. Connections between information process-
ing by different areas of the cortex and subcorti-
cal nuclei on the one hand, and mental functions
and dysfunctions on the other, are well established
(Ruppin, 1995). Although the brain is the most
complex object in the known Universe, and exper-
iments with human brains are technically very
difficult, the neural sciences have recently made
unprecedented progress, describing processes at
levels ranging from the molecular to that of glo-
bal brain dynamics (Gazzaniga, 1999). Mental
. functions result from information processing by
highly specialized brain areas, and can be observed
using brain imaging techniques. Electric and mag-
netic fields showing this activity may be correlat-
ed directly with mental experiences in monkeys
(Leopold & Logothetis, 1999), and the introduc-
tion of noninvasive techniques that will do the
same with humans is just a matter of time. Con-
sciousness will lose its mystery once we are able
to observe, using brain imaging techniques, what
goes on in the mind of the owner of the brain.
How can the inner world be a product of the
brain? And how is it that sound is converted into
electrical signals, compressed into a wire and sent
over large distances? How is it possible that mov-
ing images, spatio-temporal structures, are stored
in the form of binary patterns on a DVD disk? To
Synchronicity, Mind, and Matter 157
philosophers of a pre technological era all these
questions would have been equally puzzling. Bi-
nary patterns on the disk are turned, with the help
of appropriate hardware, into electrical signals
that become bright and dark spots on a screen.
Binary patterns encode the structure ofthe imag-
es and the electronic player with the TV set recre-
ates the state of the camera's photosensitive ele-
ment. The representation does not have to resem-
ble the original-brain and mind states may be
quite different. Similarity should be sought at
another level. Recognizing danger starts a series
of brain states, a part of a network with complex
inner relations. A network of mind states exhibits
similar relations. Second-order similarity, that is
similarity of relations between states, rather than
the states themselves, is sufficient to link mind
with brain (Edelman, 1998).
Does this mean that mind may be reduced to
the brain? Not at all. The brain is a product of
millions of years of adaptations that enabled sur-
vival in a hostile, changing environment. Cogni-
tive faculties have been framed by the needs of
organisms. We pay attention to and notice only
those events that have potential value or mean-
ing for us. For example, color constancy is achieved
in a wide variety of illuminations, making it easy
to discriminate between red and green fruits. Light
reflected from surfaces carries much information
that the brain removes to simplifY the object rec-
ognition task (Shepard, 1993). The sensory cortex
prepares the incoming signals to facilitate deci-
sions taken by the mind at the highest level of
control. At the mind level individual history, a
subjective view of the world and acquired cogni-
tive skills are responsible for taking actions, de-
riving meaning from the input signals.
Brain structures have evolved to support the
mind; they exist only because they are useful to
the mind. Understanding of the mind requires
understanding of the subjective world, and of re-
lations between different states of mind. Hearing
the same melody brings very different associations
to different minds. Understanding these associa-
tions requires understanding oflocal culture and
individual history. Brain science stops at explain-
ing general cognitive and affective mechanisms.
Mind uses these mechanisms to create an inner,
subjective world at an emergent, autonomous lev-
el. Animal behavior does not follow from anatomy
and physiology, but requires understanding of evo-
lution, environment, and social patterns ofbehav-
ior. Biology is not reducible to chemistry. N euro-
physiological processes are needed to support the
mind but do not explain it fully. If we knew all
about the brain, we still would not understand the
inner world of the individual. Mind states cannot
be reduced to brain states.
Mind is based on states that the brain may po-
tentially enter, relations between those states and
operations transforming one state into another.
Nothing else is needed to explain the structure of
experience. The sensorimotoric actions of primi-
tive animals become inner actions, that do not al-
ways end in motor behavior, but transform one
mind state into another. Seeing is a way of explor-
ingthe environment (O'Regan & Noe, 2001). Brain
states differ in a qualitative way: Seeing and hear-
ing engage different areas of the brain, and see-
ing red and green colors are different states ofthe
visual cortex. These brain states are associated
with other states, creating, for example, a state
that the mind evaluates as "a pleasant red evening
sky" experience. The mind-body problem, which
has been called the most serious obstacle to the
advancement of science (Rakover, 1993), does not
exist. The qualitative character of experience,
called the "hard problem" of consciousness
(Chalmers, 1996), is an obvious consequence of
brain-mind relations. Any system (call it an
"artilect") that works on brain-like principles, cre-
ating internal physical states sufficiently rich to
respond to changing sensory stimulation, and be-
ing able to evaluate these states by making asso-
ciations with memorized states, will claim to have
experiences of different qualities. The comments
of such an artilect will resemble the human stream
of consciousness. For technical reasons, it is still
very difficult to create human-like responses to
sensory stimulations, and thus to create a detailed
structure ofthe human-like mind.
Mathematical modeling is more powerful than
mere linguistic description. Verbal descriptions are
imprecise models of reality, while mathematical
models may have an arbitrary degree of precision.
Everything that can be expressed in words can
also be subject to mathematical modeling. Things
that cannot be expressed in words, continuous
changes, can be treated using the formalism of
dynamical systems. Cognitive science, aiming at
understanding how the mind works, should be
based on mathematical language. The lack of a
proper language to describe mind events is respon-
sible for fundamental problems in the cognitive
sciences. A Platonic model of the mind sketched
in Duch (1994-1997) provides such a language. In
158 The International Journal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
some respects it is similar to N alimov's probabilis-
tic semantics and program of geometrization in lin-
guistics and psychology (Nalimov, 1985). Nalimov
starts from logic and linguistics, defining the se-
mantic field and probability distributions over this
field. This brings him towards fuzzy theories of
meaning, developed by L. Zadeh (Wang, 2001). The
idea of a living world as a text, and semantics as
something given, is a serious restriction on the ap-
plicability of N alimov's approach. The Platonic
model starts from brain dynamics, defining the
space in which mental events take place.
Space-time is an arena in which physical events
take place. Cognition is dominated by vision, and
geometrical concepts of physics are therefore use-
ful metaphors. Kurt Lewin in 1938 proposed a sim-
ilar language for psychology (Lewin, 1938). Men-
tal events were taking place in a "psychological
space" under the influence of "cognitive forces."
George Kelly, in his psychology of personal con-
structs, also favored geometry instead of logics
(Kelly, 1955). Some psychologists would like to use
his ideas for a central theory in cognitive science
(Shaw & Gaines, 1992). Roger Shepard (1987,
1994) has done much to analyze the geometry of
inner space, finding invariant laws of stimulus
generalization in spaces based on nonlinear input
transformations (multidimensional scaling). The
Platonic model follows this line of reasoning, try-
ing to connect it with the brain's dynamics. The
name has been derived from a famous allegory of
Plato: Mind events of which we are conscious are
only shadows of true reality, the neurodynamics
of the brain.
The real objects of mind are not words or ab-
stract symbols but rather "chunks of experience,"
involving sensorimotoric, bodily reactions. Mind
objects are combinations of many features deter-
mined by the low-level processing of the brain cir-
cuits. In analogy to natural objects in quantum
mechanics, objects of mind are nondecomposable
and multidimensional, experienced in a unified,
nonfragmented way. Symbolic names are given to
some of the objects ofthe mind. These names facil-
itate verbal communication by pointing to mind
states. It is convenient to think about mind objects
as embedded in some multidimensional space,
called the "mind space," spanned by axes (dimen-
sions) corresponding to features of internal repre-
sentations. The Platonic world of abstract concepts
is just a small subspace of the whole mind space
filled with these multidimensional mind objects.
Mind space serves as an arena for all mind events.
Objects in the mind space are described by a
"mind function" M(X.) for all relevant features X
~ i'
playing a similar role as the probability distribu-
tion function of Nalimov (1985). Nonzero values
of the mind function define these objects as fuzzy
regions in the mind space. Topographical relations
of objects in this space are very difficult to imag-
ine because of the large number of dimensions
involved. The mind function, defined in the mind
space, represents all objects that such a system is
able to recognize (i.e., correctly discriminate us-
ing partial description or distorted input). The cog-
nitive system is able to modify the contents of the
mind space by adding more objects (learning and
remembering), modifying existing objects or learn-
ing new associations (changing topographical re-
lations between existing objects).
The creation of mind objects is elucidated by
developmental psychology (Rutkowska, 1994).
Mind arises from the brain, psyche from physics,
during interactions forming the inner represen-
tation ofthe world. Symbols, or abstract labels of
the mind objects, have no meaning without the
mind to interpret them. They are very useful for
rapid activation and structuring of the mind ob-
jects, since they are almost unique. Nonsymbolic
features of mind objects are derived from sensory
features and motor behavior. There is no reason to
believe that the whole complexity of a real mind
space could be recreated using only symbolic names.
Artificial intelligence, based on the processing of
symbols, does not lead to artificial minds based on
the multidimensional mind objects. The meaning
ofthe mind objects is grounded in the combination
of all relevant features of their representation.
Logic and reasoning are only approximations
ofthe dynamics of activations of objects in the mind
space. Expressions such as "to have in mind," "to
keep in mind," "to put in mind," "to make up one's
mind," and so on, refer directly to the mind space.
The topography of objects in the mind space, that
is, their relative distances and shared features,
determine intuitive, quick responses to questions
that do not leave time to think. Intuitive knowl-
edge is identified with the quality of inner repre-
sentations, formed in the process of unsupervised
learning, of real objects and events in the envi-
ronment in which the cognitive system develops.
At a given moment of time some objects may be
active. The probability distribution ofthese active
objects (corresponding to neurodynamical activity)
is called the mind state. In the simplest case it is a
point in the mind space, Xi(t). Changing from one
Synchronicity, Mind, and Matter 159
state of mind to another requires energy. The sys-
tem receives this energy from the environment (the
brain useS twenty percent of the total energy pro-
vided by metabolic processes). The external stim-
uli drive changes in the features of representa-
tion X/t ) leading to the recognition and learning
processes. The internal dynamics lead to activa-
tions of the entrained mind objects (trains of
thoughts or series of associations) and includes a
stochastic component influencing the momentum
of changes of mind states. The dynamics of the
whole system is a mixture of these internal and
external dynamics.
The states of mind that lead to the strongest
values of the mind function leave memory traces
and are remembered as "an experience," enabling
feedback (reflection). This experience is evaluat-
ed in light of previous experiences ("consciously
perceived") ifit is active (sustained in a short-term
memory) for a sufficiently long time. In the brain
many other processes are taking place, represent-
ing subconscious activity. The results of experiments
on processing words and pseudowords (Pulvermueller,
Preissl, Eulitz, Pantev, Lutzenberger, Elbert, &
Birbaumer, 1994) support the hypothesis that
transcortical cell assemblies are involved in the
recognition of mind objects. Cell assemblies are
large groups of neurons, with strongly reciprocal
internal connections, binding parts of the cortex
in which different sensory modalities are pro-
cessed. Transcortical cell assemblies are sufficient
to create objects ofthe mind space, binding differ-
ent sensory modalities in one experience, without
any central place in the cortex where all informa-
tion is gathered. The natural hardware realiza-
tion of this function has the form of a neural net-
work (Duch, 1996b).
There is no "mind-body problem" because from
the beginning there has been no mind-body sepa-
ration. Mind is a reflection of a part of the U n i ~
verse in the brain/body; mind space stores all
chunks of sensory and bodily experiences and the
dynamics governing changes of the mind states
recalls them. A picture of a beloved person seen from
a distance increases the heartbeat. Even abstract
thinking can involve the body. In a vital, experien-
tial sense, mind, being a reflection of Nature, has
no boundaries and is of primary importance.
The symbol grounding problem (Hamad, 1990)
(where does the sense of symbols come from) is
solved in a straightforward way, together with the
problem of qualia. An activation of a mind object
is done using a subset of its features. Since it brings
the state of mind into a specific region of the mind
space, other qualities associated with this object
are immediately accessible, and the back-projec-
tion paths to the sensors activated. The experi-
ence is repeated, with vividness dependent on the
strength ofthe back-coupling and the level of ac-
tivation of the object. What do I mean by "sweet"?
Something sweet! The brain/mind system recre-
ates the sensory experiences "dressed" in all asso-
ciations. Discussion on grounding symbols puts the
cart before the horse. Symbols are not grounded
in experiences, experiences come before symbols
and are labeled by symbols. The label "sweet"
corresponds to a projection of all sensations, all
mind objects that are associated with it. The ex-
istence of qualia has observable consequences: The
probability of the next mind state obviously de"
pends on them. "Sweet" sensation brings up mem-
ories of sweet things.
The language ofthe quantum mechanics of con-
sciousness proposed by Jahn and Dunne (1987)
may be useful to describe events in the mind space.
Other problems; such as the problem of free will,
also have a natural solution in the mind space
model (for an in-depth discussion of the free will
problem from a neuroscientific point of view, see
Libet, Freeman, Sutherland, and Sutherland,
2000). The mind model sketched here allows for
an explanation of many facts related to cognition
(Duch, 1996a), provides a language that connects
mind events to both neurophysiological events and
psychological events (Duch, 1995), and is useful
in creating computational models of cognitive sys"
tems (Duch, 1996b, 1997). What has been said
above should be sufficient to talk about mind -body
interactions in the context of anomalous experi-
ments. Intentional states of mind activate certain
parts of mind space, with objects that have active
motor components. Persistent, weak activation
does not enter short-term memory and thus is not
experienced in a conscious way.
IV. Entanglement, Mind, and
Synchronicity
I
s THERE a chance that the brain is just an
instrument ofthe spirit? This would imply that
mental functions cannot arise in artificial systems
built on similar principles. Computational cogni-
tive neurosciences (Gazzaniga, 1999) is a relatively
new branch of the neurosciences investigating
theoretical and computational models of neurons.
It is clear that even the simplest neural network
160 The Internationaljournal oJTranspersonalStudies, 2002, Vol. 21
models function more in a mindlike, than a com-
puterlike, way. For example, in neural models
memory has no location; it is distributed in the
strength of synaptic connections between neurons.
Damage to such a network leads to gradual deg-
radation of its powers, as seen in aging people,
rather than to the forgetting of specific facts. The
network memory is called associative, because it
can retrieve the most similar original episodes it
has been trained on from fragments or associated
patterns of the presented episodes. The memory
has no location but is context addressable and may
show errors based on phonological or semantic
associations. Damaged networks may hallucinate,
retrieving episodes from combination of memo-
rized fragments. The time needed to recall a fact
from a computer database is proportional to its
size, since it has to be searched for facts. In neu-
ral models the time of recall is independent ofthe
size of the database. Trying to learn too many
things in a short time may lead to confusion and
chaotic responses. The specific organization ofthe
brain explains many mysterious phenomena
known to psychiatrists and neuropsychologists
(Parks, Levine, & Long, 1998). Mental behavior
results from brainlike information processing.
Looking at the emergent properties of neural
networks, it is hard to escape the conclusion that
further development along these lines should al-
low for the creation of artificial minds. This will
be the ultimate test of cognitive science theories,
such as the mind space theory. Theories that are
more complex will be needed only when this sim-
ple, pragmatic approach fails.
This is solid science that will not go away. Why
do souls and spirits become a matter of widespread
beliefs in the first place? They were the simplest
solution to the problem of movement that ancient
philosophers worried about. Things do not move
unless they are alive, so spirits were invented to
push planets and move inert bodies. Since New-
ton, this reason for the existence of spirits has lost
its appeal. St. Thomas elaborated the Aristotelian
system of the three souls: (1) the vegetative soul
responsible for basic functions (roughly corre-
sponding to metabolic processes); (2) the sensitive
soul, present in animals and children, responsi-
ble for reflexes (these are sensorimotoric brain
functions); and (3) the rational soul responsible
for higher cognitive faculties (corresponding to
frontal lobe functions). Science has explained all
functions ascribed to souls and spirits, leaving
these concepts empty.
Ancient (mis)conceptions were never useful in
explaining anything (Lewis, 1964). In this respect
they are similar to the modern quantum approach-
es to consciousness (Stapp, 1993; Penrose, 1994).
They lead to the identification of mind and con-
sciousness with some kind of substance. The view
presented in the previous section stresses relations
between mind states. The relational theory of mind
is nonmaterialistic, although a substrate (a brain)
is needed to physically realize ("materialize") mind
states. Even if mind and consciousness were in-
dependent of the brain, they would have to work
according to neural network principles to produce
mental experiences. A "new approach" is frequent-
ly called for in view of the "crisis" in science, an
approach always based on old ideas (Duch, 1994).
Quantum mechanics teaches us not to claim more
than we really know. Observations of synchronicity
do not compel us to draw conclusions of higher
beings finding interest in our development, as
claimed by Mansfield (1995). All that is observed
are "meaningful correlations." How many strange
correlations between events may happen during
a lifetime?
This is very difficult to estimate, because the
brain searches for meaning in whatever is expe-
rienced (Freeman, 1996). After a sleepless night
or strange dreams many events may be found
meaningful, especially with the human ability to
reorganize memories to fit one's beliefs. A na'ive
estimation of such probability may be as follows.
Suppose that using m letters (e.g., of the English
alphabet) a random string of the length N is
formed. It is then almost certain that all possible
substrings of the length logmN will be found in
this string. Every few seconds a new perception
takes place; in a year about 10 million percep-
tions. Assume that attention is paid to about
3,000 distinct elements forming these percep-
tions. Then it is almost certain that a subsequence
of any two of these elements will happen. Those
that have little meaning will not be remembered,
but some will be evaluated as remarkable coinci-
dences. Many factors may increase this probabili-
ty to significantly higher values. It is impossible
to draw inferences from incidental or anecdotal
stories, although they may look very impressive.
Synchronicity may only be discovered by system-
atic observation. If such events are fairly com-
mon (like thinking about a friend who calls at
this very moment) the brain, always searching
for meaning, will have to recognize some
Synchronicity, Mind, and Matter 161
synchronicity events as meaningful, emotionally
exciting, and worth remembering.
Synchronicity in everyday events is hard to
quantifY, and thus to ascribe to pure chance, or
to some "acausal orderings." This quantification
problem is quite serious in the remote percep-
tion experiments (Jahn & Dunne, 1987). Even
though the agreement between drawings and de-
scriptions oftarget events is in some cases quite
striking, it is hard to express it in statistical
terms. REG experiments are much closer to the
reproducible experiments with synchronicity
events than anything else. There are two com-
plementary points of view here. From the para-
psychological point of view they are about
"miqopsychokinesis, remote perception, precog-
nitive perception," and so on (Jahn & Dunne,
1987). From the synchronicity point of view there
is a series of correlated events that do not seem
to be causally connected. Before two sets of data
are compared-human intentions and machine
states, operator's reports and actual events-
nothing unusual is noticed. There may be devia-
tions of a distribution of random events from ex-
pected statistics, but unless correlations with
some acausal factors in a longer series of experi-
ments are found, deviations may be random fluc-
tuations. Drawings and descriptions produced
during remote perception experiments become
interesting only when acausal correlations with
the real target events are observed.
Synchronicity correlations are sufficient to ex-
plain the anomalous experimental data. The ques-
tion is: How is it possible that intentional states
of mind are correlated with specific events in na-
ture? Nontrivial correlations of entangled systems
are possible without any interactions between
them. All that is necessary are two sets ofmeasure-
ments. Looking at a white wall for a f e ~ minutes,
the visual system, having little input, is working
on a threshold of noise. Various mind objects are
activated in an apparently random fashion and
the internal dynamics ofthe mind state evolution
prevails. One may describe this process as a measure-
ment: The mind (highest-level control processes)
measures the activity patterns of the visual cor-
tex. In the remote viewing experiments the mind
discovers in visual patterns different objects that
appear to be correlated in a nontrivial way with
external events. Some results of these measure-
ments have no correlation with later events or with
target scene objects. That should be expected since
only some results of the joint measurements are
correlated in a nontrivial, synchronicity way. The
results of these measurements are independent
of the time of the second measurement (event).
Nontrivial correlations may wash out for longer
times due to entanglement of the brain with too
many objects.
The remote perception experiences are prima-
rily visual. The precise recognition of objects
imagined or seen requires many input features.
If the visual inputs are weak, inputs from the
optic nerve are comparable to the natural fluctu-
ations of activity in the visual cortex. Quantum
entanglement correlates patterns of neural exci-
tation with some other patterns slightly chang-
ing these fluctuations. This may be sufficient for
recognition of elements of the picture; simple
mental objects that for a brief moment are acti-
vated strongly enough to be recognized. This pro-
cess takes more time than the recognition of vi-
sual scenes when inputs are strong enough to
allow quick recognition of many simple objects
and the retention of the picture ofthe whole scene
as one complex object in working memory. One
should experience flashes, short activations of
simple objects belonging to the remote scene or
event.
The dynamics of the low-level excitations in
the visual system are almost chaotic in the ab-
sence of other, stronger stimuli. In the terminol-
ogy of the previous paragraph, mind objects are
weakly and randomly activated. This activation
may be correlated, via quantum entanglement,
with many objects and events in nature. Direct
entanglement should be most effective (having
close contact with the other person). An inten-
tion to think about a person who has visited an
unknown place, or even thinking about someone
who will later compare the results of the remote
perception experiment with descriptions and
drawings that are being made, creates experi-
mental conditions making the mind more sensi-
tive to objects or processes at that place. In such
conditions certain mind objects are more often
activated strongly enough to appear as flashes
or short visions.
Experiments with Random Event Generators
(REG) are also understandable from this point
of view. In REG experiments, an intentional state
of mind is generated and subconsciously sus-
162 The Internationaljournal ofTranspersonal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
tained.An appropriate object of mind correspond-
ing to the intention of obtaining positive or nega-
tive results is created in the mind space and pe-
riodically activated. Again, this activation or rec-
ognition may be described as the measurement
process. On the other hand it may be interpreted
as "prediction."
The entanglement mechanism proposed here
allows an explanation of the strange features of
these experiments:
.. Effects should be small but statistically
significant. Correlations between only two
entangled particles involving simple pho-
ton counts are already hard to measure.
Correlations between complex patterns
involving billions of particles are measured
by the brain. Most of these correlations
are of a trivial nature, that is, they are
accidental or explainable by causal
thought processes.
<\! The brain of an operator should have a
cue to get entangled with the hardware
equipment or with the brains of other peo-
ple involved in the experiment. Avoiding
direct comparison of two sets of measure-
ments may reduce the effect. Group expe-
riences, such as media, sport, or religious
events, during which the brain is ab-
sorbed in some focused activity, should
be particularly effective to set intentional
states of the brain.
.. Effects have to be intentional: Out of all
possible correlations with natural events
one has to focus on a particular place or
on a piece of equipment. Intention is nec-
essary to start the brain process that se-
lects associations belonging to a chain
that starts with known mind objects, rep-
resenting equipment or people involved
in the experiment. Some people may be
more skilled at, or capable of, forming
such associations than others, and this
should be reflected in the results.
OJ Consciousness does not have a direct ef-
fect on results. The role of intention is
only to set the brain of the operator in a
certain state. Once set, the intentional
process goes on in the brain even if the
operator does not pay much attention to
the experiment.
II> During the experiments the brain should
be active in a normal, waking conscious-
ness, but not too much distracted by ex-
ternal stimuli. Sensory overloading or
engagement of the brain in a demand-
ing activity may destroy the intentional
process and reduce the correlations to
chance level.
.. No special assumptions about the entan-
gled systems are necessary. Since all sys-
tems are entangled to a similar degree,
correlations should not depend on the
type of noise sources in REG experiments
or targets in the remote viewing experi-
ments.
Since there is no exchange of energy, only
correlations, statistical results should
not significantly depend on the distance
between the target and the operator in-
volved or on the time delays between the
two measurements.
Local probabilities are never affected by
quantum entanglement, only the joint
probabilities of measurements are,
therefore the local data should not look
"unusual." Anomalous effects should be
seen only when two sets of data are com-
pared in a series of experiments.
The psychological effect of looking into
water or gazing at a crystal, or any oth-
er activity that does not disturb the in-
tentional states in the brain, should be
favorable for remote viewing.
Most of these effects have been observed in
the experiments quoted (Jahn & Dunne, 1987).
Synchronicity via quantum entanglement seems
to be the only mechanism that can explain the
correlation of human intentions and mental
events with the results of experiments that have
been already performed (Schmidt, 1993) or that
will be performed in the future. Interestingly,
reexamination of a large amount of experimental
data has led very recently to conclusions similar
to those presented here (Jahn & Dunne, 2001).
In particular there seems to be no direct
involvement of consciousness. It would be
extremely interesting ifthe intentional processes
in the brain could be identified and their intensity
correlated with the synchronicity effects. This
Synchronicity, Mind, and Matter 163
may require identification of the cortical cell
assemblies involved. At present such
identification is possible only for monkeys and
other animals requiring implanted electrodes.
It is very hard to use experimental physical
techniques to discover correlations between more
than a few particles. Consider a living cell, for
example, a brain cell. Many biochemical process-
es take place every second in a cell; many of them
are controlled by photon emissions and absorp-
tion providing energy for reactions. This
ultraweak radiation is very coherent (Pqpp, 1992;
Chang, Fisch, & Popp, 1998). The pattern of these
emissions and absorptions may be correlated in
a very subtle way to many processes in nature,
but it is not yet possible to measure such subtle
effects in the laboratory. On the other hand, in-
fluences on the patterns of neural excitation in
the brain should have noticeable effects on the
activation of mind objects. Microtubules are good
candidate structures for sensitive elements of
cells that may be influenced by quantum effects
(Penrose, 1994). Super-radiance and other collec-
tive quantum states should be possible in these
cytoskeletal structures. Insinna (1992) has al-
ready discussed synchronicity in connection with
quantum coherence in microtubules. Although
quantum effects may not be useful for under-
standing the mind and consciousness, they may
be the basis of synchronicity.
V. Conclusions
R
EMOTE PERCEPTION and REG experiments seem
. to challenge the scientific world view (Jahn
& Dunne, 1987). A unified view of mind and
nature, capable of elucidating these strange
phenomena, is possible. Quantum physics
provides a view of nature based on what is really
known, that is, what has been measured. Cognitive
science provides a view of mind as an emergent
property ofthe brain. Occam's razor applied to this
problem leads to the "minimum metaphysics"
solution: Synchronicity effects are found when two
sets of measurements are compared. The proof in
the Appendix shows that significant quantum
entanglement effects should always be present.
Other theoretical models that try to accommodate
the results of anomalous experiments require
either a nonlinear version of quantum mechanics,
or peculiar interpretations of the quantum
measurement process (Stapp, 1994).
It is very difficult to give up deeply ingrained
convictions, such as those related to the
separability of things, whether we think about the
objects of nature as a collection of independent
bodies, or about ourselves as separated from
Nature. In both cases separability, although
sometimes a useful approximation, is ultimately
an illusion. Many people with deep insight into
their own minds and their thinking process,
including Erwin Schrodinger, have already written
on this subject not only from the point of view of
physics, but also from their own personal point of
view. Once the idea of separability is given up, the
results of EPR experiments, REG experiments,
remote perception, and the relation between minds
and brainslbodies are understandable. Infants
learn rather early to separate their body from the
environment, distinguish "me" and "not-me," and
the idea of separability is firmly established.
Although the calculation of quantum
probabilities for such complex systems as brains
is not feasible, some suggestions and the
understanding of certain features of experiments
involving human operators are possible. Quantum
effects are not necessary to explain the cognitive
mind but seem to be indispensable to an
understanding of the subtle features of the mind
manifested in synchronicity. A detailed theory of
synchronicity should be based on the quantum
mechanics of macroscopic bodies and their
entanglements (Primas, 1981). There is no a priori
reason why there should be no acausal correlation
between brain activity and events in nature. To
prove that such correlations do not exist we would
have to compute an analog of Bell's inequality for
a very complex system, with wave functions for
parts ofthe brain on one side and various natural
objects on the other. Since it is impossible to
separate the wave functions of any physical
systems, especially macroscopic bodies, and
detailed calculations of multi particle correlations
are too difficult, one has to resort to experiments.
The results of experiments indicate that a small
but consistent effect exists. The simplest
explanation consistent with all experimental data
is based on synchronicity due to quantum
mechanical entanglement. The synchronicity
effects described here are consistent with present
theories of physics and cognitive science, and do
not require any extensions of our knowledge into
unknown territories.
164 The International Journal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
Appendix
T
HIS APPENDIX provides a technical proof showing the inseparability of subsystems in quantum
mechanics. State vectors representing objects belong to a Hilbert space. Operator P representing
an observable (that is, property that can be observed) applied to some arbitrary state vector converts
it into another state vector. Quantum mechanics is a holistic theory and does not allow for a well-
defined way of describing the separation of systems. This fact gave rise to alternative formulations of
mathematical foundations of quantum mechanics (Piron, 1985; Aerts, 1982), but so far all experi-
ments show that standard quantum mechanics is correct. The Hilbert space of antisymmetric, many
particle functions, describing the total system, cannot be decomposed into separate subspaces.
Consider two physical systems, SA and SB' withNA andN
B
particles (electrons or other fermions),
respectively. Each system is described by its own function, 'P
A
antisymmetric for permutations of all
NA particles and 'PB antisymmetric for NB particles. Assuming that both functions are normalized to
unity, it is easy to show that the product function 'P AB = 'A 'PB is always "far" from the antisymmetric
function' = A 'P AB' where A is the antisYmmetrization operator. The distance may be measured by an
overlap ('P AB I 'P) or by the norm of difference: sll'P AB-'PW s 2.
The square ofthe norm does not exceed 2 because ofthe Schwartz inequality. The second inequal-
ity is slightly more difficult to prove. The orthonormal basis {<I\A} and {<1>/} is defined for SA and SB
subsystems, and since they are separated (<1>i
A
I <1>/) =<\. The unsymmetrized, normalized product
functions are:
NA
<D A ( Xl' X2 , "X
NA
) = IT i
A
(Xi)
i=1
NB
<DB (Xp X
2
, .. X
N
J = IT / (Xi)
i=1
The idempotent antisymmetrizer does not give proper normalization. The proper antisymmetrizer
is: AN = I (-I)P P, where P is a permutation operator and (-I)Pis its parity. Therefore 'P
A
is ob-
-vN! P
tained by:
An analogous expression is true for 'P
B
The antisymmetrizer A that creates from the product
function'P AB totally antisymmetric function 'P=A ' AB is:
where N = NA + NB and P AB is either identity or it permutes particles of SA with those of SB' Since 'P
and 'II AB are normalized,
II 'F AB - 'F 112=11 'F AB W + II 'F 112 -2('F AB I A'F AB) =
(' AB t
H
)''" PAS ' AI' )?c '" 0.59
because the overlap integral ('P AB I 'P)=(' AB I A' AB) is nonzero only for P AB=I. The antisymmetric func-
tion and the product wavefunction are quite different. There is no way in quantum mechanics to go
from one to the other, that is, to describe the process of separation of systems that have once interacted.
Synchronicity, Mind, and Matter 165
In the textbook of A. Messiah (Messiah, 1976, Chapter XlV, 8) it is proven that this nonseparability
should not matter because probabilities of different states of a spatially isolated subsystem do not
depend on the antisymmetrization of the function of this subsystem with functions of all other particles
in the Universe. But what about the results of joint measurements, that is correlations between
observations? Consider the systems SA and SB and two independent measurements of observables
corresponding to the operators 0 A and 0B" The wavefunctions of these systems may be expanded in
the eigenbasis of:
a
lfB = IC:lf!; 0B
lf
! =7hlf!
b
Messiah (1976) proves that taking the total function 'II instead of the product functions 'P A 'P E does
not change the probabilities 1 CaA 12. However, he does not look at the possible correlations of joint
measurements. Assuming that the two systems are separated, the result ofthe joint measurement is:
Define now a coefficient CAB measuring the difference between this result and the result obtained
without assumption of separability, calculated with the total wave function 'P:
CAB = ((lfAlfB IOAOB I lfAlfB}-(lf I 0AOB Ilf))/(OA}(OB}
=1- (IfI 0AOB Ilf)
(0 A)(OB}
If there is no difference between these two cases this coefficient should be zero. However,
(If I 0AOE I If) = N A ~ ~ B ! ~ ( -ly' (-I)Q (P(lfAlf E) I 0 AOE I Q(lf AlfB))
= N ~ ~ B ! (0 A) (0 B )
since all matrix elements for permutations (P,Q)::j:: (I, I) vanish by virtue oflocalization of the SA and
SE subsystems. This leads to the following inequality for the correlation coefficient:
1:2 C
AB
:2 0.5
Thus there is a huge difference. Using a local description for isolated subsystems leads to correct
local results, but correlations with other systems are always large, approaching perfect correlation
for a large N. These results do not seem to depend on decoherence of large systems. For further
discussion of separability and the role of symmetry breaking see Duch (1988).
166 The International Journal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
Notes
A preliminary version of this paper was written during
the Academy of Consciousness Meeting in Princeton, New
Jersey, USA (June/July 1994). I am most grateful to the
organizers, Robert Jahn and Brenda Dunne, for the in-
vitation, and to the Fetzer Foundation for sponsoring this
inspiring meeting.
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168 The Intemationaljournal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, vol 21
Embodied Light
Chris McDonough
Honolulu, Hawai'i, USA
Chris McDonough
The movement of whose body is the world, whose speech the sum of all language,
Whose jewels are the moon and s t a r s ~ t o that pure Siva I bow!
-Abhinaya Darpat).a
Underwater photography triggers new ways of experiencing
space, time, and being. In the seemingly boundless liquid space,
the self expands and focused attention induces intense clarity of
the present moment and of our basic nakedness. This portfolio
seeks to capture the primal embodied experience of weightless
energy and the unceasing dance oflight, the creator/destroyer.
The InternationalJournal of Transpersonal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21, 169-174 169
2002 by Panigada Press
Chris McDonough
170 The InternationalJournal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
Chris McDonough
Embodied Light 171
Chris McDonough
172 The International Journal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
Chris McDonough
Embodied Light 173
Chris McDonough
174 The International Journal ofTranspersonal Studies, 2002, VOL 21
Transpersonal Psychology as a Scientific Field
Harris Friedman
Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center
San Francisco, California, USA
The importance ofthe development oftranspersonal psychology as a science is considered.
Arguments from romanticism, scientism, and constructionism that challenge this possibility
are countered. A distinction is drawn between the field of trans personal psychology as a
science and the broader area known as trans personal studies that may legitimately use
scientific or nonscientific methods. The concepts of transpersonal phenomena and
transcendent noumena are delineated, the latter being seen as outside of the purview of
science. The benefits of embracing a scientific approach are contrasted to a number of
epistemological alternatives. The scientific approach is forwarded for its potential
contribution towards providing a unifying paradigm for the discipline of psychology and for
solving crucial problems in the world. I hope that this presentation challenges the reader
to more deeply examine the role of science in trans personal psychology.
T
RANSPERSONAL PSYCHOLOGY has never
developed a coherent scientific frame of
reference, and despite numerous attempts
to adequately define it (e.g., Lajoie & Shapiro,
1992; Walsh & Vaughan, 1993), still suffers from
serious ambiguity regarding its scope and
appropriate methodology. As a result, little
progress in understanding transpersonal
psychological phenomena from a scientific
perspective has occurred since the founding of
the field. In this paper, I consider the importance
of specifying transpersonal psychology as a
scientific field and propose some strategies to
further its progress as a science.
Reasons to Restrict the Field of
Transpersonal Psychology to Science
T
HERE ARE three pragmatic reasons why the
study of trans personal psychology should be
unambiguously restricted to scientific approaches.
First, transpersonal psychology was clearly
instituted as a field that was meant to be part of
the larger discipline of scientific psychology. The
major founders of trans personal psychology were
clearly invested in extending the rigorous scientific
discipline of psychology beyond the conventional
boundaries of psychoanalytical, behavioral, and
humanistic psychology. Their purpose was not to
abandon science, as exemplified by the statement
in the first issue of the major publication which
initially launched the field: "The Journal of
Transpersonal Psychology is concerned with the
publication of theoretical and applied research,
original contributions, empirical papers, articles
and studies in ... " (Sutich, 1969, p. 16). Thereafter,
a number of diverse content areas were listed, but
clearly a scientific agenda was presented.!
Second, since the discipline of psychology is
clearly identified as a science by the majority of
psychologists and also by society as a whole, the
field of transpersonal psychology explicitly lays
The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21, 175-187 175
2002 by Panigada Press
claim through its name to be part ofthat scientific
discipline. Likewise, the rewards of scientific
status accrue to transpersonal psychology
through its association with psychology. For
example, professional psychological services are
provided in a context that is legitimized by
various governments based on the rationale that
scientific standards are being used in such
practice. Legitimization entails specific benefits
to practitioners as provided through licensing
laws. A practitioner operating outside the
scientific framework in providing applied services
offered through a professional psychology license
would be perceived as violating this implicit
contract. It is well established in law that
psychologists who use approaches that are not
scientifically justifiable can be sanctioned for
professional discipline such as loss of their
licenses to practice. There may also be civil
penalties, enforced through malpractice action,
and even criminal penalties for a licensed
professional operating in a nonscientific fashion.
Furthermore, if nonscientific approaches were to
be allowed as a legitimate part of professional
practice by applied transpersonal psychologists,
a situation of inequity would be created that
would discriminate against other practitioners,
such as religious healers, who might use similar
nonscientific methods yet not be allowed a
comparable professional license and its privileges.
(Even in academic and scholarly arenas,
transpersonal psychologists enjoy benefits due to
their attributed scientific status, such as in
receiving greater public acceptance as
authoritative experts.) Consequently, I argue that
to allow practices that are not scientifically based
within the field of transpersonal psychology is
neither legally nor ethically defensible.
Third, and most importantly, I consider the
development of a scientific transpersonal
psychology crucial for human survival and the
betterment of life. Relegating the field to the
collection and reportage of unscientific folk
traditions presented in a journalistic fashion
would at best be superfluous since such sources
are abundant and have little likelihood of
helping humanity in any progressive way. If the
field is used to promulgate any specific religious
or spiritual folk traditions, under a falsely
assumed scientific label, the deception could be
damaging in many ways, including the possibility
of undermining further scientific development of
the field. I believe that the best hope for lasting
solutions to many ofthe grave problems faced by
humans, and the earth itself, at this time lies in
psychological rather than technical progress. For
example, although pressures of escalating
overpopulation in third world nations could be
eased through further attempts toward
increasing agricultural output, as through
genetically enhanced crops, this type of solution
is likely not to prove sustainable but only to
postpone overpopulation breaking points.
Psychological solutions, such as changing core
attitudes toward reproduction that are currently
embedded in religious belief systems, are likely
to be more effective than technical solutions to
these human-based problems. Furthermore, the
type of psychological solutions required for these
crucial problems of contemporary adaptation,
both human and planetary, cannot be adequately
addressed solely through the limited
conceptualizations offered by mainstream
psychology but require, instead, transpersonal
considerations. Only transpersonal psychology
allows for innovative avenues in which scientific
approaches can address many of the most
pressing problems that threaten our very survival
as a species and the survival of our planet. And,
beyond mere deficit motivations, a scientific
transpersonal psychology is required for the
optimum development of our human potential.
To throwaway the unique promise offered by
transpersonal psychology through rejecting the
proper role of science in the field would be not
only irresponsible but tragic.
In summary, based on the historic roots of the
field, the ethical and legal implications of its
connection with the discipline of scientific
psychology, and the importance of the field for
human survival and betterment, transpersonal
psychology should be bound to a scientific
commitment. Those who wish to abandon scientific
approaches to pursue their transpersonal work
should be unfettered as long as they use a broader
term, such as transpersonal studies, to describe
their work. But those who elect to associate their
work with the field of transpersonal psychology
need to be aware of the implications of their
choice. In particular, those who disseminate their
own religious or spiritual beliefs through their
professional work should not present themselves
as transpersonal psychologists.
176 The International Journal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
Objections from Romanticism,
Scientism, and Constructionism
H
AVING ADVOCATED that transpersonal
psychology be restricted to the realm of
science, I will focus the discussion now on directly
confronting the positions of those who are hostile
to the possibility of a scientific transpersonal
psychology. For simplicity, three opposing
positions that I label as romanticism, scientism,
and constructionism will be explored.
The view identified with romanticism poses the
greatest current threat to the development of a
scientific transpersonal psychology since so many
people ofthis persuasion are attracted to the field.
The romantic movement has long opposed the
scientific approach in all spheres. Most advocates
of romanticism seem to cast doubt upon both the
value and possibility of a scientifically based
transpersonal psychology by offering broad
critiques such as that science is inherently
reductionistic or deterministic. To be fair, some
who are less extreme argue cogently that the
approach of romanticism provides initial ways to
explore important realms that are not yet
amenable to scientific approaches, such as "poetic,
intuitive, and visionary states" (Schneider, 1998,
p. 284) but do not fully disregard the utility of
science. I accept that, while these methods of
romanticism may not meet the criteria of science,
they may still be legitimate and worthwhile
scholarly efforts within what could be called
transpersonal studies; however, they should not
be viewed as trans personal psychology. The
positions of romanticists thus range from those
who outrightly dismiss any applicability of science
to the field to those who posit a more moderate
view that science may one day be useful to
investigate the transpersonal realm but currently
is inadequate for the task.
The former type of romanticism poses a
severe challenge to the field. There are those, for
example, who take such romanticism as a license
to naively accept, and promulgate, questionable
beliefs and practices that have not been critically
evaluated from a scientific perspective. Such a
stance provides a variety of benefits: Clinical
practitioners with this attitude, for example, may
rely on whatever happens in a psychotherapy
session without having to tax their skills by using
rational treatment strategies or taking
responsibility for outcomes. Thus they may
comfortably serve, or exploit, their clients without
any accountability, at least until the regulators
and litigators arrive. In addition, romanticism
can lucratively be used to sell questionable
transpersonal works-witness the numerous
ludicrous books and seminars marketed to a naive
public. It seems that including the terms spirit
or soul in such work increases its marketability.
Responsible transpersonal psychologists need
to consistently and rigorously examine the
appropriateness of including extreme romanticism
within the field: For example, should astrology be
included in transpersonal psychology? Even
though systems of astrology are filled with
nonscientific assumptions and fail to demonstrate
any consistent evidence of validity, numerous so-
called professionals openly promote this folk
system in their teachings, writings, and even
professional practice. I strongly advocate that
scientific studies on astrology, such as exploring
the antecedents and consequences of belief in
astrology, are appropriate material for a scientific
transpersonal psychology. Likewise, it is
appropriate to continue to scientifically explore the
validity of systems of astrology, although I think
that the lack of evidence thus far is such that
serious investigators would likely not want to
invest their time further in this direction. But it
is deplorable to write or teach about astrology in
any way other than as an unsubstantiated folk
tradition and especially to use astrology as part of
a licensed psychological practice. This abuse
exemplifies one practice steeped in romanticism
that is unfortunately tolerated within transpersonal
psychology. Astrology and similar, nonscientific
practices should not be sanctioned as a legitimate
part of the field. The myriad of other pseudoscientific
approaches used by those who embrace extreme
romanticism within the field of transpersonal
psychology should also be held up to scientific
standards or be excluded from the field.
A difficult issue that should be addressed in
this discussion is the way in which traditional
religions are handled. For example, many
Western transpersonal psychologists seem to
have rejected their own religious traditions and
have become enamored of seemingly more
exotic traditions. It can even be claimed that at
present the field. oftranspersonal psychology can
be largely characterized as the Western practice
of Eastern religions in a pseudoscientific guise.
But why should traditional beliefs or practices
Transpersonal Psychology as a Scientific Field 177
from some other culture with little or no
supporting empirical evidence be given any special
credence? The same can be said for pastoral
counseling in the predominantly Judeo-Christian
tradition in the West. This argument is not meant
to deny the importance of belief systems and their
cultural relevance in effective psychological
practice. The point is that science, including its
applications in professional practice, should not
be tied to any particular religious or spiritual
tradition although it can clearly be used
appropriately within the context of such a
tradition. In addition, traditions might be sources
of fruitful hypotheses for beginning to scientifically
explore within transpersonal psychology, but a
skeptical scientific attitude should prevail unless
support is evidenced. Finally, I intend no disrespect
for those in any religious or spiritual tradition as
long as they do not try to characterize their
tradition as science and do not try to stop scientific
inquiry, as exemplified by a recent challenge by
advocates of creationism to the teaching of
evolution in Kansas, USA.
A romanticism that lacks discrimination in
regard to numerous prevailing folk beliefs and
unsubstantiated claims has unfortunately
proliferated within transpersonal psychology. This
has encouraged a perspective in which rational
scrutiny has been placed in abeyance to the degree
that there is no difference perceived between,
metaphorically speaking, gold and pyrite, not to
mention denying that feet may be of mere clay.
Thus many trans personal psychologists have
unfortunately taken the position of affirming that
everything claiming to be spiritual, particularly if
it is from an Eastern tradition, is gold. But I believe
strongly we can and must distinguish gold from
baser metals and, even more importantly, simple
clay. The Sufi aphorism that there would not be
counterfeiters if there were not real gold applies
to the huge number of romantic approaches in the
field that suggest at least the possibility of value
in the transpersonal area. Excesses of romanticism
may have some role in the larger scheme ofthings,
but only scientific discrimination can allow us to
reliably and validly distinguish what is of value
from what is not. Likewise, romanticists who
dogmatically embrace only one specific tradition,
seeing gold only within that tradition, need to
consider that other traditions may also contain
gold and even that their own tradition may also
contain baser elements.
In dramatic contrast to the rejection of the field
by advocates of extreme romanticism, there is
also a strong rejection by those who advocate a
position of scientism which is characterized by
an attitude that outwardly appears similar to the
attitude of science but is actually dominated by
a rigid and closed-minded view. Scientism is not
a legitimate aspect ofthe scientific approach per
se, since openness is a core scientific value that
is complementary to skepticism; instead
scientism is a perversion of science that has been
corrupted into a parochial ideology. Science
should never be an ideology but an approach to
knowledge grounded in respect for understanding
experience. It is unfortunate that some adherents
to scientism have dismissed the entire field of
transpersonal psychology as fundamentally
irrational and therefore not amenable to scientific
approaches. Ellis (1989) has written the best
expression of this misguided rejection of
transpersonal psychology through engaging in
catastrophic thinking, a type of cognitive error
he made famous. In his book, he regards the
transpersonal perspective as having no value for
scientific psychology and he views transpersonal
psychology as thoroughly dangerous. Those who
embrace scientism and reject the field in this way,
however, err through confusing the lack of critical
discrimination and the excesses among those
embracing extreme romanticism that is endemic
in transpersonal psychology with what the field
could actually achieve. Their conclusion is not
realistically based on any limitation inherent in
transpersonal psychology as a science per se, only
on fear of the consequences of unbridled
romanticism (not totally unwarranted given the
problems rampant in the field).
I find it fascinating that both romanticism and
scientism, appearing antithetical on the surface,
fundamentally agree in prematurely rejecting the
possibility that transpersonal psychology can be
a science. The romanticists need to consider the
futility of romantic speculation not based on
empirical observation. They should ponder the
prospects of their efforts helping to bring in an
unfortunate New Age-a New Dark Age. And
those who embrace scientism need to consider the
narrowness of their approach in the light of the
scientific value of openness as opposed to an
overly closed-minded skepticism. Neither ofthese
protests against the applicability of science to the
field can be substantiated and, therefore, a
178 The InternationalJournal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol 21
science of trans personal psychology cannot be so
easily dismissed.
Another threat to transpersonal psychology's
becoming established as a science stems from the
postmodern movement known as constructionism,
a term frequently prefaced with adjectives such
as social or cognitive (e.g., Gergen, 1994). This
approach emphasizes that human knowledge is
always constructed in some fashion by "knowers"
who bring along personal baggage. Thus all
knowledge, including scientific knowledge, is
perceived as an artifact having no real
independent existence. Furthermore, this
construction always is seen in a context limited
not only by material constraints but mediated by
culture, that is, those who control social power
also control the way in which knowledge is
constructed. Therefore, knowledge is always
relative; there is never an absolute truth, only
limited, constructed viewpoints that are
necessarily equivocal.
The assumptions of constructionism are, in
themselves, useful observations about the
limitations inherent in all claims to knowledge.
However, one unfortunate result of constructionism
is that all viewpoints are held to be equally valid.
This eliminates science as the defining method
for pursuing knowledge and even the value of any
knowledge.
As applied to the field of transpersonal
psychology, assumptions from constructionism
may be exaggerated in a particularly problematic
way. For example, the recognition of limitations
to knowledge widely accepted in the physical
sciences (e.g., the Heisenberg uncertainty
principle) has eroded the unquestioned authority
of the scientific method in general. Constructs
such as consciousness and free will that are
assumed relevant to all human sciences have
further undermined the legitimacy oftraditional
approaches to science as applied to the discipline
of psychology. It is argued that the limitations of
science in the material world are eclipsed by the
magnitude of the additional limitations science
faces in dealing with the greater complexity
inherent in the human world. Finally, in the field
of trans personal psychology, science is often
blatantly dismissed as irrelevant, particularly in
relation to arguments based on transpersonal
concepts that openly defy basic scientific
assumptions. For example, one such scientific
assumption is the presumed requirement of the
independence of subject and object in any valid
observation or experiment. This assumption is
brought into question, however, by constructs
such as transpersonal self-expansiveness
(MacDonald, Gagnier, & Friedman, 2000;
Friedman, 1983) in which the individual is
conceptualized as possibly surpassing limitations
that allow for any absolute subject-object
dichotomy. Thus the uncertainty recognized
through the Heisenberg principle in all of science
is magnified by the unique concerns of human,
as opposed to natural, science and then is further
increased in the transpersonal field, bringing
doubt as to the ultimate worth of science in
trans personal psychology. Constructionism,
bolstered by these types of legitimate concerns
about scientific limitations, provides an especially
potent challenge to the hegemony of science in
transpersonal psychology, as well as a challenge
to science in general.
Several alternative positions to constructionism
can contribute to this discussion. One is to clearly
posit that aspects of reality can be known, at least
to some degree, in ways that are not just
cognitively or socially constructed. For example,
there may be differences among language users
from different cultures as to how they might
discuss the ways to climb a mountain.
Nevertheless, the mountain appears to solidly
exist as an independent reality regardless of how
it is described linguistically: Thus significant
relativism from the perspective of constructionism
might primarily involve the meanings of
associated reality, not the reality itself.
Remember the Zen saying, "First the mountains
are just mountains; then, they are no longer
mountains; and in the end they are mountains
again." One interpretation of this is that after
completing a mystical journey in which reality is
deconstructed, reality should once more be
reconstructed and realized in both levels ofthat
word. One might argue further, from a realist
position, that to deny the fundamental reality of
the mountain, and its dangers, would be
foolhardy and tantamount to death if one were
called upon to climb the mountain. Despite the
current popularity of constructionism in the
humanities and among some in the social
sciences, realism is not only viable but still is the
main philosophical underpinning of most of
contemporary science. Nevertheless, it has been
aptly pointed out that, "As we enter the twenty-
Transpersonal Psychology as a Scientific Field 179
first century, we psychologists are having trouble
with reality" (Martin & Sugarman, 1999, p. 177),
particularly in the attempt to reconcile modern
with postmodern perspectives.
Another alternative to the constructionist
argument is the kind of positivism that
approaches science as a language game of
theory building which mayor may not relate to
any ultimate reality. Sometimes this is called
postpositivism when there are specific efforts to
distance science from veridical ties to any
external reality. From this perspective, science
should avoid claims about truth and, instead,
should only offer theories that progressively
become more elegant and closely related to
empirical data through their refinement over
time. Truth, at least in relationship to any
underlying reality, is irrelevant to purists from
such a perspective. What is relevant is the ability
of a model to be useful in the game of science.
This strategy is illustrated by the classic scientific
use ofthe null hypothesis, a clever ploy in which
scientists construct hypothetical alternative
explanations to challenge their theoretical
formulations. The scientific method then proceeds
by attempting to nullify or disprove these
alternative hypotheses. This method does not
allow for directly trying to prove the validity of
hypotheses that support the theory being
would be attempting to affirm
something as true: Instead attempts are made to
whittle down alternative explanations so that the
theory offered becomes either increasingly more
compelling or is found to have problems and is
rejected. The absolute truth of any theory is thus
irrelevant and never proven through this
approach to the scientific method: Instead, the
systematic rejections of null hypotheses provide
increasing circumstantial evidence to enable
more confidence to be had in the potential
usefulness of a theory. Furthermore, the
expectation is that a theory is always a work in
progress and will be revised as more becomes
known. All theory is therefore relative, a version
of our best understanding at the moment.
In spite of the current popularity of
constructionism in some circles, science based on
such versions of positivism is still viable.
Unfortunately, it is easy for those who read
transpersonal literature and are not conversant
with modern science exc;ept through transpersonal
"pop" science to misconstrue the importance 'of
postmodernism in general and constructionism in
particular. Science clearly remains the dominant
worldview and is not about to be replaced by a
constructionist revolution that would immobilize
it. In addition, most scientists do not engage in
much philosophical reflection as they proceed in
doing science, since the scientific method provides
such obvious results. The process of most science
is basically oblivious to the implications of
constructionism; most scientists implicitly
embrace traditional scientific perspectives and
avoid the nihilistic quandary of constructionism.
That so many transpersonal psychologists have
jumped on the constructionist bandwagon as
justification for abandoning science is truly
counterproductive. In my opinion, the extreme
nihilistic implications of constructionism will
eventually be seen as an intellectual dead end
similar to the sophist paradoxes offered by the
ancient Greeks that alleged to demonstrate the
impossibility of change. At the same time,
constructionism has been useful in further
sensitizing us to potential bias issues, such as
power and position differences among scientists.
Study in the field of transpersonal psychology
does involve some specific philosophical difficulties
from a scientific perspective but, of course, all
sciences struggle with their unique disciplinary
problems. Even though constructionism provides
some clear insight into scientific limitations, it
does not demonstrate that science is irrelevant
to transpersonal psychology-and arguments
from extreme romanticism and scientism should
be outrightly rejected. I conclude that, in spite of
the challenges, finding ways to proceed with a
science of trans personal psychology should be
ardently pursued.
Important Distinctions to
Facilitate Scientific Progress in
Transpersonal Psychology
T
o FURTHER this discussion, an important
distinction alluded to earlier needs to be
formally established, namely, that transpersonal
studies and transpersonal psychology are not
equivalent. The former is a broadly defined
domain of inquiry that can legitimately include
a diversity of methods ranging from those ofthe
humanities to those of a variety of scientific
endeavors. Psychology, on the other hand, is
defined by most psychologists as a scientific
180 The Internationaljournal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol 21
discipline; except for a few humanistic and
transpersonal adherents who insist that including
alternative, that is, nonscientific, approaches is
important for the discipline, science is widely
accepted as the mainstay of the discipline. A
preliminary conceptualization of transpersonal
psychology that I see as useful is to place it as a
field of study and applied practice positioned at
the intersection between the broader domain of
inquiry known as trans personal studies and the
scientific discipline of psychology. Furthermore, I
see transpersonal psychology foremost as a field
within the discipline of scientific psychology that
focuses on those aspects of trans personal studies
that involve the individual, including thoughts,
feelings, and behaviors as found in the individual's
biological, cultural, social, and wider contexts.
In studies or applications related to such
transpersonal phenomena, transpersonal
psychology can draw upon content common to
diverse fields of transpersonal studies. As a field
of psychology, however, it requires responsible use
of the scientific approach, such as submitting
transpersonal folk beliefs to rigorous scientific
examination. I consider all nonscientific
approaches to transpersonal material better
viewed as distinct from transpersonal psychology
and classified, instead, within the broader domain
of trans personal studies. Likewise, transpersonal
approaches that are not focused on the individual,
regardless of whether scientific or not, are best
viewEld as residing in other transpersonal fields.
Unfortunately, the domain of transpersonal
studies is often confounded with the field of
transpersonal psychology. This has led to much
confusion, which I hope the distinction I have drawn
clarifies. The present argument is not intended to
delimit the methods used by transpersonal studies
in anyway; further, it explicitly acknowledges that
methods from that domain could be either
scientific or representative of other approaches of
knowing (e.g., hermeneutics) that are legitimate
but not within the realm of science. Nor is the
argument intended to limit spiritual or religious
beliefs or expressions, whether traditional or New
Age. All of these pursuits can, of course, inform and
be informed by transpersonal psychology in a
variety of creative ways.
Another way to facilitate scientific progress in
transpersonal psychology would be to overtly
recognize specific areas in which science might
be irrelevant and bracket them from scientific
inquiry. For example, areas resisting scientific
efforts since they are not yet amenable to
empirical exploration, as previously mentioned,
could be appropriately explored by nonscientific
methods that are openly recognized as such. This
type of exploration would then be seen as
prescientific in the sense that it does not preclude
the possibility that scientific approaches may
later prove possible.
An extremely important area that has been
immensely problematic to transpersonal
psychology is the transcendent. The transcendent
is intertwined with most conceptualizations ofthe
field, yet I see it as outside of the purview of all
scientific approaches, now and in the future. I
consider it to be the ultimate holistic concept that
can only be experienced, if at all, in a direct and
unmediated fashion unhampered by any specific
limitation. Since all concepts are inherently
limited, they are inadequate vehicles for
comprehending the transcendent. All discussions
of any attributes of transcendence, for example,
through using terms such as "ultimate
transcendence" in contrast to "nonultimate
transcendence," break down as meaningless. The
transcendent is beyond all conventional thought
that involves symbolic mediation by words or any
limiting symbolic system and beyond all public
discourse including science. Thus any direct
experience of the transcendent, such as unity
consciousness, would be accompanied by an over-
ride or shut-down of conventional thought during
the time of the experience of transcendence. In
this mode, a merger of subject with object would
likely occur such that the knower would cease,
in any ordinary meaningful way, to be a separate
individual. Since unmediated knowledge would
be, by definition, experienced directly and, when
the experience was over, forgotten or vaguely
coded in some system of symbols, one who
disappeared as a separate being in transcendence
would, upon reentry into the world of ordinary
thought and discourse, have to rely on
symbolically mediated memory ofthat experience
after the transcendence. Even if one were to
remain connected with transcendent experience
while using a symbolic system such as language,
as an enlightened being might possibly be, that
use would necessarily be filtered through the
limitations ofthe symbolic system and would thus
also be limited. Thus I conclude that science is
required to be mute about the ultimate issue of
Transpersonal Psychology as a Scientific Field 181
the transcendent since it transcends the symbolic
process itselfthat is the sole vehicle of science. A
major difficulty preventing scientific progress in
transpersonal psychology therefore can be
avoided through making a clear delineation
between the concept ofthe transpersonal and that
of the transcendent, a distinction which I hope
will lead to a productive reframing of many
transpersonal questions.
This important distinction between the
trans personal and the transcendent is not original.
Valle (1998), for example, contrasted transpersonal
with transcendent awareness. He described
transcendent awareness as prerefiective, or the
ground of consciousness without a subject-object
split, whereas he described transpersonal
awareness as referring to experiences deeper or
beyond our ordinary ego sense but not necessarily
transcendent. Transpersonal awareness still
contains the content of self as a separate knower,
in contrast to the transcendent which is radically
beyond any limiting content, including rational
description, and thus defies direct scientific
exploration.
However, the transpersonal realm (excluding
the transcendent) remains open to scientific study,
as does the indirect relationship between
indicators of the transcendent and more
conventional concepts. Thus asking questions
about the transcendent may be still within the
realm of science as long as we recognize it is
always "about" the transcendent and not directly
addressing it (e.g., "How does having transcendent
experiences [or at least experiences people are
willing to label in such a way] change aspects of
a person's life?" or "How do different religious
conceptions ofthe transcendent relate to objective
cultural or environmental sources of
variability?").
The distinction between phenomena and
noumena, found throughout the history of
Western philosophy, is applicable here in that
science can directly study phenomena but not
underlying noumena. In this regard, some
transpersonal theorists might argue that
noumena should be approached only through a
higher-level understanding than science can
provide (e.g., the "eye of spirit" proposed by
Wilber, 1997). Alternatively, I advocate that we
exclude the transcendent from direct discourse
since we cannot make meaningful statements
about it. This position is also congruent with the
beliefs of many Eastern and Western spiritual
traditions, such as the Judaic emphasis on the
essential mystery of God's unknowability and the
Taoist emphasis in the Tao Te Ching that those
who speak about the Tao do not know of what
they speak. There is also a long history of this
type of perspective in Western philosophy, going
back at least to Plato's famous cave metaphor,
that similarly points out limits to what can be
directly known.
It is therefore imperative for a viable science
of transpersonal psychology to clearly delineate
the trans personal domain into two areas that
have been implicitly confounded by the field. For
clarity, I am labeling these as transcendent
noumena which are beyond the scope of scientific
study, and transpersonal phenomena which are
amenable to scientific study. Juxtaposing the
term transpersonal with the term phenomena
is meant to establish reference to a
nontranscendent and non-noumenal area of the
transpersonal domain. This distinction provides
the important advantage of pointing to the
possibility of rigorous scientific examination of
transpersonal phenomena while bracketing the
metaphysical morass ofthe direct role of science,
or rather lack of role, in regard to the
transcendent. The transcendent no longer
remains confounded with transpersonal
phenomena and thus the questions beyond
science regarding the transcendent can be
fruitfully ignored by a scientific trans personal
psychology. It should be explicitly restated,
however, that phenomena related to the
transcendent, like all phenomena, can be studied
by science while the transcendent itself can only
be scientifically studied indirectly through
secondary indicators. Thus, approaches toward
developing a science of trans personal psychology
that explicitly excludes the direct study of
transcendent noumena provides a firmer basis
for scientific progress. Of course, transcendent
noumena can still be the focus of transpersonal
studies that utilize nonscientific methods, such
as comparing poetic depictions of transcendent
states.
It should be noted, however, that there is a
way for science to provide an indirect comment
on the transcendent. Even if something cannot
be directly shown, it may be delineated through
a process of pointing out what it is not. Since all
that materially exists may be seen as existing
182 The InternationalJournal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
within time and space, the realm of the
nontranscendent can be symbolically placed on
a map of space-time such as used in the
construct of transpersonal self-expansiveness
(Friedman, 1983). That which transcends this
map may be implied by its absence. This type of
residual approach to the transcendent can be
heuristic and is a core feature of the construct
of self-expansiveness. This strategy toward
approaching, but never fully grasping,
transcendence is similar to that in which some
meditative traditions stress disidentifying the
self with all limitations, resulting in what is left
being that with which one cannot disidentify, the
residual of the transcendent. From a more
conventional perspective, as calculus can be
used to make successive approximations to
approach the true measure of the area under a
curve, so can a transpersonal approach
gradually be like an asymptote and move toward
the transcendent while never quite achieving
that goal. In my opinion, though, to grasp the
transcendent in any meaningful way would
require abandoning science and directly
experiencing transcendence. Thus a science of
transpersonal psychology, though not dealing
directly with transcendence, can elucidate the
relationship of the transcendent to the world of
space-time in which humans typically dwell
and about which humans can meaningfully
discourse. Furthermore, a transpersonal
psychology limited to the domain oftranspersonal
phenomena, while excluding transcendent
noumena, can be potentially amenable to scientific
study and capable of yielding beneficial
applications. Transpersonal psychology sorely
needs a revolution in perspective, one that allows
for transpersonal psychology to be responsibly
grounded in scientific approaches. I hope the
explicit delineation offered here moves the field
in such a direction.
Finally, I think it wise, from a scientific
perspective, to remain agnostic about the
transcendent, even as to whether it can be
meaningfully said to exist since it is beyond any
categories, even the most fundamental ones of
existence and nonexistence. Abandoning all direct
speculation about the transcendent would be a
productive scientific strategy. Those who operate
under the banner of transpersonal psychology
while engaging in speculation about the
transcendent or, worse, endorsing one system or
another that allegedly develops transcendent
qualities as part of their professional practice,
should be regarded as outside the domain ofthe
field. Of course, no religious or spiritual
approaches to the transcendent need to be
questioned as long as they are not promoted as
part of the field of trans personal psychology.
Epistemological Considerations
T
o GRASP more deeply the need for a scientific
perspective in the field of transpersonal
psychology, it is helpful to attend to how we know
anything-the field of epistemology. Transpersonal
psychologists who reject science as useful in the
discipline are implicitly relying on other strategies
for obtaining knowledge. These other strategies,
including their benefits and limitations, need to
be made explicit. Science, as one way of knowing,
is characterized by its emphasis on empiricism,
that is, relying on information from our experience
as a criterion for affirming knowledge. Our
experience may be based upon external sensory
input, as is usually emphasized in science, but also
can be based on internal sources of experience such
as proprioception. Our experience can also be
extended through communication with others and
through technology, including simple technology
such as standardized self-report procedures used
in conventional psychometric instruments.
However, there are other ways of knowing that
mayor may not be more useful than the
empiricism of science, depending upon
circumstances. For example, following an
authority such as a wise guru can be an
expedient means to obtain valuable transpersonal
knowledge. This may be especially useful if it
involves knowledge that may not yet be
scientifically available.
Science itself has sometimes been criticicized
as authoritarian because those who have not
been initiated into the fold really cannot evaluate
the veracity of its claims. However, at least
potentially, individuals can replicate or
empirically observe for themselves any process
of science and draw their own conclusions,
although it might take years oftraining to do so.
Of course if the observation requires an
enormously expensive piece of equipment, it is
an option open only to the scientifically elite.
Fortunately, science is competitive, and those who
assert any claim typically have an ample supply
Transpersonal Psychology as a Scientific Field 183
of competitors to try to disprove their assertion,
thus providing a vital check and balance to the
system. In this way, science strives to be highly
antiauthoritarian, challenging any claims that
are not backed up by evidence.
Another approach to gaining knowledge is
through tradition exemplified by the common
platitude as to why something is done a certain
way, "because it has always been done that way
around here." Traditions are formed in interesting
ways; sometimes they are useful, oftentimes they
are not. Many religious traditions may provide
valuable transpersonal knowledge that may not
yet be scientifically available. Science itself has
sometimes been criticized for blindly following
traditions. Some ofthese scientific traditions may
or may not turn out to be useful. The self-corrective
nature of science, however, openly encourages
growth that can expose what traditions are useful
and what are not.
Another way of knowing is through intuition.
Examples include a felt body sense such as
"knowing in the bones" or through a directly
revealed inner symbolic system such as dreams.
Many transpersonal psychologists seem to
especially honor intuition as having a power
beyond other ways of knowing. Intuition is a very
personal way to know and can seem very
compelling. Intuition by itself is based only on
one person's insight and is therefore not subject
to social testing or capable of being clearly
articulated and passed on to others (though it can
be translated into a consensual symbolic system
and thereby studied scientifically). Furthermore,
intuition can be as misleading as any tyrannical
system of authority or tradition, especially
considering the many biases in human judgment
that can alter how intuition becomes interpreted
into belief or action. To be able to tell the
difference between accurate and inaccurate
intuition cannot be resolved at the level of
intuition. I am a strong believer, for example, in
the meaningfulness of dreams in my personal and
professional life. How to accurately interpret
these dreams, which I believe are deep intuitive
revelations from my unconscious (and/or perhaps
superconscious?) is the rub. I know how easy it is
for me to arbitrarily flip-flop from one
interpretation to another for the same dream as
my mood or mindset changes.
I would also like to draw a parallel between
intuition and emotional knowing. Emotions can
be seen as a more primitive way of knowing, based
on body arousals that are preverbal and not
cognitively mediated. They may arise from
simpler brain structures such as our so-called
reptilian brain. Thus intuition may have a
powerful biological basis in emotion and indeed
be accurate at times, but this is not a way of
knowing that I would exalt as more accurate than
cognitive approaches based on higher brain
functions. Ideally I advocate for congruence
between what we cognitively know in our higher
(mammalian) brain and what we might intuit in
our reptilian brain or in our bodies. When there
is mismatch, much more deliberation is
warranted.
Science also draws upon intuition and some of
the greatest scientific advances have stemmed
from intuitive insight. However science specifically
attempts to bring these into the realm of
consensual methods that are empirically available.
It should be noted, too, that as ambiguity
increases in a situation, we tend to rely on others
through a process called social comparison. In
the transpersonal arena, ambiguity is often
maximized since we are looking for that which
is customarily unseen, although it is all around
us and, indeed, we are it. Thus transpersonal
psychology is particularly vulnerable to the
infirmities of both misguided tradition and
authority in which we tend to rely on others
without question. As an example, just as
research subjects can be hypnotized into
believing false memories, even conscientious
meditators who are sincerely looking for a deep
truth can unwittingly be led through subtle
suggestion to believe in phenomena (and
concepts about transcendent noumena) that are
not valid. Such socially constructed meanings
mayor may not be valid despite an illustrious
history of transmission and regardless of
whether underlying motives might be
benevolent or otherwise. In addition, when
phenomena do not easily make cognitive sense,
individuals may overvalue intuition. Since at
present, transpersonal phenomena are not
understood well cognitively, overvaluation of
intuition is rampant in the area.
The scientific method provides a way of
knowing through which blind reliance on
tradition, authority, and intuition can be avoided.
These other ways of knowing may still be sources
184 The InternationalJournal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
of inspiration for scientific exploration: for
example, they can be scientifically used to
produce potential hypotheses for empirical
testing through science. To be able to rely on
concepts based on experience, regardless of any
authority figure or long-held tradition or
individual intuitions, provides a unique openness
characteristic of science. And because science
benefits from cumulative knowledge and is
inherently self-correcting, the Con tin uous
discovery of new knowledge mayor may not alter
what was previously believed.
2
As previously discussed, some transpersonal
psychologists are strong adherents to
romanticism and blatantly reject the scientific
approach as too narrow to be useful to
transpersonal inquiry. However, James (18901
1950), one of the pioneers of psychology, argued
for a broad, open approach to science that can
answer this concern. He called his approach
radical empiricism and, over a hundred years ago,
clearly addressed much of the contemporary
criticism that rejects the applicability of the
scientific method to the field. I share his view of
the need for a radical empiricism that can allow
research into a broad range of experience.
Specifically, science may appropriately include
innovative approaches that allow for exploring
deeply private experiences or even those that
require placing an observer in an altered state of
consciousness. In this regard, even aspects of
certain states of meditation that can be entered
only through years of following an esoteric path
can be brought into the objective and consensual
domain of scientific scrutiny through the use of
appropriate methodologies. For example, Tart's
(1975) state-specific theory of science allows for
a broad view of scientific approaches that includes
such techniques as gathering data during altered
states of consciousness. His state theory approach
to science is an excellent example of how
innovative yet rigorous approaches to science can
fruitfully be used to explore transpersonal
phenomena that were previously thought to be
unamenable to scientific research. Although this
type of scientific approach might require
researchers to devote years toward mastering a
meditation technique in order to research a type
of transpersonal phenomenon, it is not so
dissimilar to the years of mastery required by
researchers in areas of conventional science.
Conclusions
I
T IS important to consider some ofthe beneficial
implications that could come with success in
developing a scientific transpersonal psychology.
The discipline of scientific psychology as a whole
has been struggling throughout its short history
to develop a unifying paradigm (Yanchar & Slife,
1997). I believe that the transpersonal
perspective is the most comprehensive
perspective possible for psychology and could
provide such a paradigm. Similarly, Cortright
(1997) wrote, "Transpersonal psychology is in the
unique position of being the only psychological
approach to human experience that can be more
than just integrative but fully inclusive ... " (p.
242). Ifthe field oftranspersonal psychology could
abandon its current posture of ambivalence, if not
overt rejection, toward science, it could progress
beyond being an isolated and narrow endeavor
to having a real impact on the larger discipline
of psychology. Transpersonal psychology should
therefore be actively concerned with contributing
to the development of mainstream, conventional
psychology and not remain content with its
marginalized status within the larger discipline.
More crucially, a scientific transpersonal
psychology could have major consequences in
productively addressing the massive crises
rampant in our contemporary world. Krippner
(1998) expressed this theme well: "There is an
urgent need in today's fractious world for
integrative transpersonal perspectives, especially
if presented in ways that are self-critical and able
to be linked in contemporary scientific and
practical concerns" (pp. x-xi). Returning to its
scientific roots is the only path for transpersonal
psychology to take in order to make such needed
contributions. Furthermore, accelerating advances
within science, such as sophisticated new
neurotechnologies applicable to studying
consciousness, are increasingly opening innovative
and exciting scientific avenues for exploring
trans personal psychology. A redirection back to
science would both allow transpersonal psychology
to gain acceptance as a legitimate enterprise
within the larger community of scientific efforts,
including the discipline of psychology, and allow
for its responsible application toward human
betterment.
Perhaps no field identified with the discipline
of psychology has openly accepted so many
Transpersonal Psychology as a Scientific Field 185
nonscientific approaches as has transpersonal
psychology. Wilber (1998) has aptly expressed the
current state of the field, as follows: "There are
many who see all too clearly the sad shape our
field is in. They tell me about it all the time. They
are truly alarmed by the reactionary,
antiprogressive, and regressive fog thickly
creeping over the entire field" (p. 336). Without a
rededication to science, the field is unlikely to
progress or earn acceptance by the scientific and
professional communities and, accordingly, it is
likely to eventually stagnate and disappear, its
ultimate impact on humankind being slight.
Transpersonal psychology could be either totally
forgotten or remembered only as an obscure
footnote in a few ofthe more comprehensive history
of psychology books. Sadly, this is generally its
status now in mainstream psychology. If
trans personal psychology, however, were to return
to its original vision and fully embrace a renewed
commitment to science, it could become not only
scientifically and professionally viable but also one
of the most important assets to the survival of
humankind and its continued evolution.
Simply stated, the path transpersonal
psychology will follow will be determined by
whether its scientific proponents actively
demonstrate renewed commitment toward
creating a responsible science or, instead, allow
the field to lapse into the default status of merely
being another superfluous New Age movement or
worse, a sham promulgating Eastern religious
traditions under the false pretenses of being part
of the discipline of psychology. We are at a
choicepoint: if transpersonal psychology fails to
more fully embrace science and thereby ceases to
exist as a field, its disappearance would create an
unfortunate void since no other field is so well
oriented toward forging the necessary scientific
perspectives to directly address pressing global
problems. In contrast, if a renewed commitment
to science were to occur, competent theorists and
researchers would be attracted to the challenges
abundant in this field. I do not know of any field
more worthy, nor in need, of intense scientific
efforts. I am also convinced that, if concerted
scientific efforts were to be made in transpersonal
psychology, the resulting advances could have
great potential for improving the human condition,
even for preserving our planet from destruction.
As we go about destroying our own planet with
our material success (excess), the roots of any
salvation for our species and our world can be
found only in the firm realization of the
interconnectedness of ourselves and all
humankind to our ultimate ground of being.
Transpersonal psychology can provide such a focus
for this realization. I hope that transpersonal
psychologists will become involved in a deeper and
more systematic examination about what the field
promotes and where it is heading in order to
provide an additional impetus for its redirection
to science. Ultimately, I believe that scientific
progress in the field will lead not only to increased
transpersonal understanding but may even lay the
groundwork for larger numbers of us to directly
experience transcendence-which, indeed, goes
beyond what science can directly grasp, but toward
which science can possibly point.
Notes
This article is partially based on the following: Friedman,
H. (2000). Toward developing transpersonal psychology
as a scientific field. Paper presented at the Old Saybrook
2 Conference, State University of West Georgia,
Carrolton, Georgia, USA.
l. The complete statement of purpose reads as follows:
The Journal of Trans personal Psychology is concerned
with the publication of theoretical and applied research,
original contributions, empirical papers, articles and
studies in meta-needs, ultimate values, unitive
consciousness, peak experience, ecstasy, mystical
experience, B-values, essence, bliss, awe, wonder, self-
actualization, ultimate meaning, transcendence ofthe
self, spirit, sacralization of everyday life, oneness,
cosmic awareness, cosmic play, individual and species
wide synergy, maximal interpersonal encounter,
transcendental phenomena; maximal sensory
awareness, responsiveness and expression; compassion;
and related concepts, experiences and activities. As a
statement of purpose, this formulation is to be
understood as subject to optional individual or group
interpretations, either wholly or in part, with regard
to the acceptance of its content as essentially
naturalistic, theistic, supernaturalistic, or any other
designated classification.
2. As an aside, it is undeniable that many have
intentionally defrauded others for monetary or other
advantages in the transpersonal arena, not to speak of
the dogmatic intolerance in this area which has caused
much human suffering. I therefore maintain strongly that
science, as an open system with built-in checks and
balances, is sorely needed in transpersonal psychology
to protect consumers of both knowledge and services from
exploitation. In fact, I think it is needed more in
trans personal psychology than in any other field.
186 The International Journal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
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Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House.
Yanchar, S., & Slife, B. (1997). Pursuing unity in a fragmented
psychology: Problems and prospects. Review of General
Psychology, 1, 235-255.
Transpersonal Psychology as a Scientific Field 187
Michael G. Mitchell
188 The Internationaljournal ofTranspersonal Studies, 2002, VOL 21
LumiGnosis
Michael G. Mitchell
Washington DC, USA
P
HOTOGRAPHY CAN compress what moves through eternity into the appearance of a single moment.
Eternity is always willing to participate; light is its favorite son. Light is always ready to befriend
the sensitive photographer and to induce metacomprehensive wonder. I have sometimes wondered
whether light might actually be alive; or perhaps something alive is breathing through it. In either case,
I am a prostrated moth.
I was twenty-four when light introduced itself one night. It was not just a handshake. In the throes of
great despair, I had been trying to photographically diagram my own internal wiring when I
photographically discovered the current running through it. It was a spontaneous initiation: a young
ego looking through a lens and meeting the Self Light was not the current flowing through my wires,
but the two mysteriously conspired in successive synchronicities.
The experience began when I walked out onto a pier at night. It was late; the sky shouldn't have been as
bright as it was. I was surrounded by a fast-moving, vaporous luminance that seemed more infinite than
a sky full of stars. Offshore I noticed a cluster of rocks. They
seemed to hang suspended in a perplexing penumbral glow.
My eyes could fix upon nothing else. The light was spaceless
motion in which I too was suspended and an almost
mathematical equation formed between man and rock.
As the clouds suddenly lifted like a theater curtain going up,
an enormous full moon at center stage beckoned me to join it.
The plot then unfolded within a multidimensional polygon
formed of things seen and unseen, things known and
unknowable. A love of immeasurable density reached out to
me, embraced me, invited me to dwell within it. The whole
experience, enacted in a poetic geometry, both empyrean and
intimate, was what British author Charles Williams must have
meant when he said that love is "the pure mathematics of the
spirit."
When the drama was over, the image on the opposite page was
left on stage-"a footprint left at the passing ofjoy"-as C. S.
Lewis once said. Everything in my life became reordered around
a new center.
Truth has always come to me through my eyes. What I call
"greater truth" comes as poetry sung by the voice of light.
Michael G. Mitchell
The Internationaljournal of Transpersonal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21, 188-194 189
2002 by Panigada Press
Michael G. Mitchell
190 The International Journal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
Michael G. Mitchell
LumiGnosis 191
Michael G. Mitchell
192 The International Journal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
Michael G. Mitchell
LumiGnosis 193
Michael G. Mitchell
194 The InternationalJournal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol 21
Dinomor
Evoking Memories of Dino's Dreams and Death
Tonu R. Soidla
Institute of Cytology
St. Petersburg, Russia
This is a transpersonal fantasy about the last days of the dinosaurs ca., sixty-five million
years ago. I suppose that communication with the Timeless (or if one prefers to put it-
with Another) in one's mind precedes intraspecies communication and that one of the first
recognizable acts of mystical life is surrender. A more specific and of course more far-out
and irreverent hypothesis underlying this fantasy is that-unlike the bulk of individual
memory records-Timeless memory "seeds" of unspecified origin are transmittable by a
[retrolenterovirus. This leads to the possibility of horizontal transmission of this type of
memory. In the new host, the Timeless memory virus persists until one day, after a possibly
quite long genetical adjustment process, it will be inserted into DNA coding for
synchronization signals of the memory recording machinery of this organism. Within the
synchronization signals Timeless memory seeds will further adjust to the new host and
then become active in a cycle of reciprocal editing of individual memory records (that is
often quite adaptive for the host organism) and as a result will often multiply to very high
titers (copy numbers).
NEVER SAY THIS DIRTY WORD TRANSPERSONAL AGAIN.
MORMORANDO
A
CREATOR OF even a primitive plot can easily
(albeit most likely rather idiosyncratically)
visualize the global difference between
"below-transpersonal" and "transpersonal"
worlds. Below-transpersonal can have to do with
the psychology of heroes, with ethical or aesthetic
problems one has in one's mind when writing.
Transpersonal exists on a quite different level, that
can be present or absent in a given literary product
as an important component of its quality. Of
course, it can appear, not as some mystical
overtones of the story, rather as some "authentity"
("an entity of authentic," "a demon of authentic"),
as an energy animating the dramatis personae.
I have a dream of being a writer. I fancy I have
managed to borrow some really living stuff from
the famous fate-forming sisters.
It is the kitchen of the Moiras where one comes
to borrow some living water (that volens nolens
comes together with a good bottle of the dead one).
I imagine that I am (or: Mind is) in possession of
programs to tackle such a task. What one needs
to do is to learn to activate them-and then not to
interfere (active personal free will spoils the
operation). To write a novel is a long story and
one must have enough time to fall in love with
"one's own creatures" (they are not something one
can own, but we are prone to forgetting this kind
of "mystical knowledge"). One easily forgets the
teachings from the Moiras' kitchen. One feels one
can help one's heroes along a bit. (Why not? One
does the writing, one seems to be the creator of the
magical world.) One can even try to concoct a
happy ending. But it doesn't work. With one's
heightened responsibility one feels that the life
energy leaves one's heroes and one is left with dead
dolls-good for nothing. One is forced to conclude
The lnternationaljournal of Transpersonal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21, 195-202 195
2002 by Panigada Press
that, intending to help one's own heroes, one has
confronted a powerful adversary. One of course
learns to cheat this force one is opposing: with
mixed results. After a long series of attempts, after
discovering a lot of long-term adverse effects, one
grows to understand that only, say, God's help will
really overcome this force. One has to invite a God
into one's own dollhouse. But one cannot obtain
God's (as well as gods') help for nothing, and
inviting this ultimate force into a dollhouse, one
has to borrow a version of one's own life story, a
version which one possibly does not quite like.
Or-and for me this is also a difficult
decision-one has to accept the rules of the Moiras,
of the fate-forming forces. To give life to one's
heroes one has to invite Death and a lot of other
dreadful archetypes to their cradles. To cultivate
life in one's glass box one must accept the rights
of forces that seem to be hostile to life or that
transcend the very meaning of life. And so it is:
life and death, love and hate, heaven and earth-
the powerful machinery that one may find difficult
to accept, but at the same time is clearly unable
to ignore.
Getting intimate with this shocking world does
not bring happiness, but it can bring
understanding. Forms rise and disappear.
Something that seems to be a power-laden-
nothing-or nonsense-remains.-This is still a
below-transpersonal world.
And then one day, one just surrenders.
CHILDREN OF /(RONOS
B
ACK IN the black and white below-
transpersonal world I am writing this very
text. The twin towers of the WTC lie in ruins,
antiterror is fighting terror in the mountains of
Afghanistan.
Alas. A lot of awful things have already
happened in the very beginning of the new
millennium; even worse things seem quite likely
to surface one day in the future. Maybe this is the
way our world is (it just happens-in a stochastic
manner); maybe this is a part of an even greater
plan of the awe-inspiring great consciousness.
(Personally, I feel inclined to believe in the last
version, but this is something that one can never
prove. Dualistically speaking, I still believe that
we can be clever, very clever. On the practical level,
we can corner some most dangerous terrorists and
even bomb some threatening asteroids. On the
metaphysical level, we can find refuge in
transforming ourselves either to atheists or to
religious fundamentalists. We can have impressive
local success along all these lines. But there
remains something in the Great Mind that
transcends our best intentions and clever tricks,
that-dancing like Shiva-a trivial thing to say,
an awful event to perceive-blows away its own
safeguarding devices and challenges us at the
highest level. And this is the way any limited
world ends one fine day.)
Anyway, it is obviously not difficult to imagine
catastrophes of any scale in these last days of the
year 2001. These famous catastrophes in planet
Earth's history ... Quite ironically, the sad thoughts
about the world's end have led us to the beginning
of our story.
INTRODUCING DINO
M
ANY MILLIONS of years ago there lived
dinosaur Dino. At least I would like to call
him this way. A rather small guy-if one has in
mind all the other-huge-dinosaurs of the
popular books written sixty-five million years
later: seven or eight feet high or so. (I hope you
would not make an attempt to measure his
massive tail. The tail does not count, ... at least in
an empathy and identity game like this-and
then Dino would never allow anyone to touch his
tail. He is not a lizard! No, sir! Don't touch it!)
Dino's time was evenly divided between
hunger, fear, and hate. He had to fear all the
massive creatures, and there were so many of
them around. There were not enough small
animals to catch and devour, and not enough
corpses killed by larger dinosaurs, not enough
eggs left unguarded ... and so he was hungry
almost all day. Also, there were many, possibly
thirty or so dinosaurs of his own kind searching
for the same edible stuff. Hateful creatures.
Sssshh-Aarrh! They had to be kept away, when
he was eating. (Or one had to attempt to scare
them away when they were eating and Dino was
hungry. This happened only too often.)
When Dino grew older and stronger his life
felt more orderly and comfortable. He had
mastered most of the necessary minidinosaurian
arts of hide-and -seek, and strangely enough, he
seemed to get even less and less dependent on
196 The International Journal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
having a supply of his traditional food. He was
better at finding something to eat, he had
broadened his menu to include insect larvae and
even some plants, and he seemed to simply need
less food. Overeating sometimes even gave him
stomach pains.
More and more time passed just roaming about
and looking around together with his mate d'O.
(This is not a love story, so she will not be
mentioned further in this treatise, but I would
like to suppose that she was an important figure
in Dino's life.)
Occasionally Dino met small furry creatures:
most unpleasant, worthless, eating dinosaurs'
eggs and also almost anything else on their way.
They displayed extreme cowardice, and at the
same time, cunning guerrilla tactics in getting
to eggs. They were the scum of life, decadent,
revolting new-age figures, too gregarious, a visible
negation of the dinosaurian way of life, always
present around, under some bush, quick in
running away (never in a straight line), and in
some not quite clear way, dangerous. In his older
age Dino hated these perverse creatures no less
than in his youth-but now he avoided killing
them. For some mysterious reason these hideous
creatures had to be respected. As an old dinosaur
he was generally more cautious now, listening to
subtle inner warnings. Sometimes he had to use
all his inner power to block-with noisy
breathing-his fits of rage. Rrrshh! And then
after a few minutes he was his basic melancholic,
old age, everyday self again. Even the furry
decadents felt quite funny now.
He had gotten a strange feeling that in roaming
this way he was saying farewell, an endless
farewell to some invisible relatives of his. So every
day he went higher and higher into the hills, where
the overbearing heat gave way to a comfortable
coolness. And the surrounding scenery of the
uplands induced a feeling of pleasant inner silence
that seemed to replace much of his hunger. One
very hot summer day, he managed to climb beyond
a snowy, usually inaccessible mountain pass. He
reached a large high valley-a place of practically
no food competition, of no natural enemies. Dino
was not a very effective dinosaur, and this place
oflow competition and a scarce but constant food
supply was a blessing.
The huge trees ofthis valley gave him a special
feeling, leading his mind to a state of deep
comfort. Recalling this comfort, he got a strange
intuition that, in its totality, his own life of
making guesses and decisions was in a way like
a tree, or maybe a small branch of a huge world
tree.-With Dino, the form of this intuitive
knowledge was of course quite different from what
is written here (something on white paper with
black, computer-generated letters and concepts
like "totality of his life" and "world"). But in some
basic dimension these differences are possibly not
so important.
Dino experienced long silent exchanges of
feelings with certain trees. (No fellow dinosaurs
had ever induced him to attempt such
"conversations." Speaking with gods comes into
being before the emerging-development-of any
"formal" or "normal" language.)
DINO'S DREAMS, GUESSES, SURRENDER
O
THER NEW things occurring were dreams that
he now often remembered after waking. (The
technique that he developed in his refugee valley
was to recall dreams within the very first moments
after waking. This opened to him a whole new
source of creative feedback, a world loaded with
protorefiection.) Some of these dreams were
nightmarish-like the very first dreams he
memorized-but during the last few years a lot of
his "new" dreams were most rewarding: hills and
forests more inviting than he had ever seen;
sometimes he saw them from a strange point of
view, as iffiying over them. He wanted to reenter
some of his dreams, but he noted that exerting his
own will usually spoiled his efforts. Shapes could
be recalled, but they were gray; their behavior was
a train of lifeless actions. Dino learned to be
passive to reenter the real dream world. His simple
but powerful metaphysics slowly created a notion
of Another that was hidden in his Mind. This
Another was behind the forms oftrees, creeks, and
the countless living creatures he was prone to meet
in dreams. He had to surrender to this Another to
reach the living world of dreams. Without his
surrender, this world was lifeless. Being alone, now
he often started humming to thank this life-giving
Another. In some way, it meant, among other
things, the realization that only surrender could
lead to the comfort and insights of the dream
world.
Dinomor 197
Dreamlike states now began coming to him
during the daytime. There were not so many
enemies in the upland and so Dino could allow
himself to be carried away by these daydreams.
In the pauses between different images, he
sometimes found something even more
important: a feeling of some great presence that
made everything else seem insignificant;
something preceding everything that he
perceived around him. And it gave him a feeling
of certainty. Of course, Dino was not able to ask:
Who am I? But at least he was able to hum and
to feel a foretaste of some future total surrender.
All dinosaurs were a bit preadapted for
surrender, and maybe this is why they became
extinct. It started with egg shells growing thicker
than those of other reptiles, which necessitated
mothers biting their eggs to release the baby
dinosaurs when they were hatched by the sun. As
a result, their standard perinatal experiences
included the immediate experience of their
mothers' teeth, linking birth and life to danger
and death. And it made dinosaurs more prone to
surrender to death, not to fight, invent, or adapt,
just surrender-when the catastrophe came.
(Excuse me, Prof Grof! )
Pondering on my friend (maybe even alter ego)
Dino-sixty-five million years away-I would risk
saying that if dinosaurs were monsters, then
certainly, they were also metaphysical monsters,
ready for a major blast of consciousness. In the
case of Dino, metaphysical discoveries started
flooding his small brain like a newborn landslide.
Timeless parts of his memory were creating
more and more hybrid structures with his
individual memory at an ever-increasing pace.
And there were other dinosaurs of his kind in
countless isolated valleys of Mother Gaia. It was
like a repeating epidemic-this virus infectionlike
growth of a great Another-of timeless repetitive
parts of memory, once inserted into inherited
synchronization signals (see Soidla, 1993, 1995,
1996, 1997, 2001).
Would Dino's descendants have been on the
way toward stealing a seed oflanguage from the
Timeless, towards building rational thinking,
culture, and civilization? Would they have
created moral discrimination (judgment) and
metaphysics and physics? Would they have
invented something even more powerful?
We know their fate was otherwise.
THE ECHO OF THE FUTURE BANG. THE WORLD ENDS.
BASTA
C
URIOUSLY, DINO in a way was warned, but
couldn't understand or make any use of this
warning. And what could he do? Like an average
human being in such a situation, he was just
scared. The first sign of some approaching major
events was that things started to follow each
other in new patterns-first in dreams and then
in a wakeful state. (Dino had a keen intuitive eye
for patterns.)
Soon Dino's anxiety was building up. He
noticed that at times, although the air was quiet,
some branches started hectic movements as if
trying to get his attention. No one was in these
trees. One day Dino found that a huge stone had
fallen and half-closed the entrance to the cave
where he used to take his afternoon nap. Strange
new ailments made him feel bad. And the dreams!
This was not a precognition of the coming
catastrophe, nothing as clear as this, but some
distant roar of approaching global changes, a
shattering of the familiar way of constellations
linking his life events.
In this world of new patterns he learned more
about surrender. A dream turns into a nightmare:
Some giant dark shape resembling a fat pig-like
mammal, but huge and impossibly dark,
approached him. Instead of his usual reaction of
a scared hiss and scream-this time, somehow,
he had an intuition to surrender to this danger:
Momentarily he was transferred to a strange very
peaceful landscape of primary colors that made
him feel happy beyond measure. He woke up
having learned his lesson.
Then, something very major, very basic, very
bad indeed, happened. Dino could not understand
it-he just felt something more awful than the
worst nightmare. One afternoon, fire appeared
at the barely visible Twin Peaks, and mists grew
around them. Dino's valley was shaken by
thunder and then by a roar of stormy God's winds.
The following days were ones of darkness, endless
rains, and torrents in valleys, carrying away
whole parts of forests. The air was deadly cold.
Was it this asteroid? Or was it something else,
leading to a local catastrophe only? In the last
case, the dinosaurs in other localities had 1,000
or 10,000 or maybe 100,000 years of further
evolution. This makes a very small difference on
198 The Internationaljournal ofTranspersonal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
the cosmic time scale. (We know, that for
mammalians, even the huge asteroid of sixty-five
million years ago was not the final event.) But let
us honor Dino, supposing that he perished in the
famous global catastrophe.
Dino was deathly scared. He did not yet know
that he was doomed and that after a few weeks,
his corpse-due to his crest and tail curiously
looking like a three-meter-Iong ADM sign on the
fresh snow-would be devoured by a small group
of scared but determined mammalians. But in a
way his experience of surrender in his dreamlife
helped him to accept his own weakness, and the
surrounding new cold and darkness as a part of
something more powerful than himself-
something that could possibly restore him to an
ecstatic life again, if only he could surrender
appropriately as he usually did upon reentering
the dream world. What surrounded him now just
could not be a real world. It was so different from
everything he had ever experienced. Surrender,
surrender. Death means Life. Only to be able to
surrender. You must not hope for any sophisticated
thoughts from this little scavenger, a tiny relative
of Tyrannosaurus rex. But these protothoughts
were the greatest breakthrough of his world,
something that no one could surpass for millions
of years.
DINO'S PERI-HOLOCAUST DREAMS. CADENZA
D
REAMS WERE by far the most important part
of his life during the few special weeks before
the asteroid fall and in some warmer days after
the catastrophe.
Dino saw his own valley, then a white dinosaur
with a huge wound on his side near a stream.
Dino had to cross the nearby stream to reach this
dying Dinosaur. The water, that closed in for a
moment above his head, made his thoughts very
silent, almost crystal clear. Dino had a strange
feeling that this dying dinosaur was in a way
inviting him to eat its flesh. Drawing closer, he
noticed that this was really quite a fancy
dinosaur; his head was different, unlike
everything he had ever seen. His scavenger
instincts revolted. He was attracted to this feast
and at the same time was frightened by this
dinosaur, or possibly of something that would
happen if he ate its flesh. Slowly he began to
recognize that this was a dream. Then he was
restored to a chilly morning in his valley.
A train of impressions came with this dream-
as if to Dino-or maybe to the mind that recreated
this scene. But who knows the limits of an
Awakened dinosaurian mind? Dino seemed to have
revived a seed of a story about something that
happened a long time ago, when Dina had not yet
quite the same personality. All this opened a door
to a mirrored passageway of minds, from pro-Dinos
to Dina to me, trying to come to an understanding
together of something that had once happened and
possibly was to happen again and again. Dino-
or one of the not-quite Dinos-seemed to remember
that something new had entered his consciousness,
as if starting from the moment when he tasted the
flesh of this dying dinosaur. Something had entered
his consciousness / memory, something like an
illness that was to last for a long time, but an
illness, that in a way was dear to his very I, to his
heart, that was melting away. It was as if a timeless
dialogue had begun that was to expand his very
nature and make it more complex. (And to open
him rather soon to some gifts of the Timeless.) He
entered into this complexity, that turned out to be
a state of great peace and silence.
Dino saw an unlimited tree of countless leaves,
branches, flowers, and fruits in semidarkness, and
then a pitch-black darkness where dead branches
were sleeping with hollows full of insects. He
surrendered to this dark plane of horror, and
suddenly butterflies flying over branches bathing
in sunshine surrounded him. Still it was the same
tree. Moreover, the tree itself, the butterflies, and
Dino were the same tree. And it seemed as though
this was the only tree in the world. Suddenly Dino
(who was the tree) felt that the tree was larger
than the world itself and that there were small
worlds-countless worlds-like dewdrops on the
leaves of the tree. This dream sent him whirling
into a deep inviting silence. He awoke happy and
full of energy.
Dino saw soil rising, and under the earth the
giant head of a dinosaur started emerging. Before
he could recognize his panic he surfaced into the
gray world of a chilly winter morning. He fell
asleep again. He awoke, being somehow called
to the entrance of his den. He saw the back of a
dark, giant dinosaur with a rather small head
covered with something soiled. He noticed the
lack of a tail and black fur. Yes, something was
very, very wrong with this shape. Dino screamed
and screamed, and then he really awoke.
Dinomor 199
It was a clear world of black sky, brilliant stars,
and four large, cold, shining moons. Dino felt a
strange thought he could not quite comprehend.
The thought took the form of a dark huge mountain
crystal of incredible complexity behind its shining
facets. But he was aware that this polyhedron was
nothing else than the thought that he had to
comprehend. It made him dizzy, and then he
almost got what the crystal wanted him to know.
Still separate from this new knowledge, he grew
happy about having almost understood. The
crystal changed to a rainbow-colored-bubble full
of almost imperceptible, very quick movement.
Complex interwoven patterns of pure sounds-
that he seemed never in his life to have
encountered-were filling the space around the
bubble. The complexity he had felt was now
infinitely enhanced and was clearly related to the
bubble and to the attached music. He looked and
looked. Time seemed to have stopped. Dino awoke
into the darkness of night.
When Dino continued his dream something
had changed. The great rainbow bubble he knew
must have been nearby could not be seen any
more: only darkness with countless stars. After
a period of time he was not able to estimate, a
luminous white dinosaur passed Dino, radiating
silence and peace. Dino knew this dinosaur but
was not able to recall any details oftheir meeting.
Suddenly everything changed and now a different
dinosaur glided into place behind Dino. A strange
dinosaur it was-with a multicolored fur coat and
two lines of gleaming mammalian-like breast
nipples that made Dino shudder. The dinosaur's
face exuded fury. A low-pitched, growing roar
shook the space around Dino, but it did not scare
him: as if all this did not quite reach him, was
behind some screen, some dividing line. The
dinosaur's body was glowing, his giant, enlarged
tail filling almost all the space. Legions of smaller,
fire-tailed dinosaurs followed the giant one. Dino
perceived their anguish. He felt that this was an
end of something important. From the depths of
his consciousness arose a wave of desire to smash
into something warm and fun oflife, to destroy it
and to destroy himself as well. No, there was an
important point to keep in mind. He had to leap
into the dark water of death, but in some
mysterious but obvious way he also had to merge
with the mirror image on its surface, and then
victoriously reemerge in some airless, but
animated, comfortless, but highly energy-laden
state, oflife-in-death. It was unbearable! Nothing
could be more alien to Dino's profound but simple
Jurassic Self. A fit of panic enveloped him; and
then he managed to surrender. It was so easy, so
natural. He was back in his valley and
dandelionlike seeds were flying all around. The
sun warmed Dino who was lying in deep grass.
The sky above him was cloudless and peaceful.
The image slowly faded, and Dino awoke into cold
morning mist.
A giant red dinosaur, who turned out to be
constituted of many tongues of fire, was
dancing-facing Dino. For us-who are looking
back from the distance of millions of years-this
dance was hilarious and cosmic, ceremonious and
mocking. Dino perceived only something
"impossible," something related to extreme fear.
Not only the mysterious aspects of red dinosaur
behavior scared him. The fire itselfwas what he
feared most. Dino attempted to surrender and
thus dissolve this frightening image but was
unable to do so. This panicked him even more,
but then, as he instinctively changed his body
position, the images blurred and disappeared in
a whirl of fire, growing dimmer and dimmer and
finally disappearing in the darkness of sleep.
The very last night of his life once again Dino
saw blue sky, a bit distorted, and seen from the
strange perspective of someone lying below the
ground level. Colored boughs framed the lower
part ofthis scene. There were no signs of any life;
only the feeling of a presence of some benign,
endless serenity. This day Dino woke up happy.
SUMMA AND CODA
D
INO HAD learned to navigate the dream world,
that in turn had taught him to be a good
witness. Dreams-together with jolts of his inner
world due to memory lapses-had taught Dino
about a great tree of alternative worlds
penetrating all layers of reality. As a by-product,
this gave him a certain affinity toward trees,
almost leading to the power of communicating.
What is more important, Dino had learned about
a Source giving life and reality to his images. He
had learned that in the blank silence between
images there is a direct way to a supportive
Source. (Somehow he was sure it was the same
Source in both cases.) He had learned about the
200 The International Journal of Trans per sonal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
changing patterns of his own life story and his
world. But behind the surface of his happiness or
panic, the Source remained steady, luminous in
the coming dark. In his fleeting connection with
inner silence he sensed a direct way to this Source.
In his own intuitive, wordless way he had come
very close to a nondual realization. It is the
dualistic world where the Timeless is an object
of worship, a Lord, and also an ideal servant; a
cosmic manipulator, and also an object of
metaphysical manipulation; an embodiment of
love and grace and also an ultimate divider and
destroyer. In the nondualistic world, the Self and
the Timeless are one.
Dino did not feel our compassionate and
understanding eyes focused on him. No pathos.
No self-pity. He just felt that Great Mind was
returning to its oceanlike silence. Somehow his
consciousness just leaped towards this great
silence. Dino surrendered.
He disappeared into the smoky mists of the
after-asteroid world like Hans Castorp. Ahead lay
several weeks of his body trying to adjust to the
new environment. Body was acting, Self was
witnessing. The entity Dino had left the scene.
RELATING TO THE WORLD THAT ENDED. GRAVE
D
INO HAD felt the riverlike great flow of
timeless consciousness. He had been a tiny
but not unimportant part of it. But he was never
aware that this powerful torrent was on the verge
of disappearance-like a river vanishing
underground-for sixty-five million years or so.
Is this missing time really so important? In
the timeless world of the Source (of the Great
Mind behind the world, etc.) it is just one more
factoid concerning the path of consciousness on
our planet.
The Timeless had come to us as a heavenly
virus, a message of Silence, a generative text of
the Source. (Are we able to delete an unrelated
item on the above list? Words are misleading,
understanding blinks.) After the great dinosaur
catastrophe, the Timeless continued its existence-
like a dark, conservative, and at the same time
all-powerful force, lacking focused self-
awareness-within synchronization signals of the
inherited protomemory (Soidla, 1993, 1995, 1996,
1997,2001) of countless surviving creatures who
were to inherit the Globe. The Timeless slept-
(but who can ever measure its countless in-sleep
activities)-to resume, one day, the great dialogue
of the Timeless and the personal.
The Timeless will reemerge, yet something-
a will-o'-the-wisp of individual self-awareness
above the dark waters of memory-had vanished,
a small spark that enlightened one mind (maybe
a few separated dinosaurian minds). There was
no one to be sad about it.
MEMENTO DINO. MEMORIES THROUGH MEMORIES
THROUGH MEMORIES. CON DOLORE
A
SMALL FACT? For a Great Mind it may be so, it
is for us humans that the "plus/minus
humankind" part of the great consciousness
equation makes a difference, feels personal. It is
our humanness that allows us to feel emotionally
the "plus/minus dinosaurs" part of the same
equation. Our mind is reaching for missing
overtones, for a missing resonance of the music
of our consciousness, for missing relatives to be
added to a family photo. Children busily collect
dinosaurs' pictures-so in a way Dino has already
entered our family archives.
What I write about Dino is of course an
exercise of a multimillion-years' empathic leap:
for most of my readers more or less a play of
fantasy. I will not argue this point. Still, I would
propose that we-inhabiting the great field of
consciousness many millions of years after these
events-erect a monument to Dino and his
contemporaries: a monument to change our mind.
A monument of any material. Of course it starts
in a subtle realm of our limited consciousness and
memory. Then it transmutes the memory to some
gross matter. Eternity is in love with the
productions of time. And I suppose that the
Timeless enjoyed Dino's time. (The dreams and
intuitions I have guessed at here are not a major
argument on this point: Our children intuit it
directly.)
Yes, the Timeless is in love with the productions
oftime. But at the same time we, timelings, are in
love with the subtle Timeless. Possibly this passion
for the Timeless leads us to create artifacts that
are more stable than our transient bodies. Artifacts
that allow us to make whole, to "totalize" our love,
to come closer to the Timeless in the "objective"
physical world, before transcending it.
Dinomor 201
Also important is that we may feel how near
we have come to our own destruction these days.
If Dino could be miraculously transferred to our
world he would be scared by a subtle, holistic,
pericatastrophic deja vu experience ... (Still I hope
we can proceed by a different bough of the many-
worlds tree.)
Who will remember us when we humans
disappear? Erecting a monument to Dino, inconnu,
we build a monument to the inhabitants of the
other mansions of our father, to other beings
sharing with us the great field of consciousness;
to our own vulnerable existence. For many of us
this will be an important step forward to openly
facing the field of Great Mind and Great Memory.
Brother Dino, countless other beings, we are
all together. In the great silence of our common
Source.
SONG OF A SMALL RAINBOW BUBBLE
A dreaming Dino
Of the elusive ensemble of Timeless
Drafting first
Drumming
Memory
Nursery
Rhymes
Within Timeless
Within Drumming
Stumbling Blocks
Thundering Boulders
Trumpeting Alleluias
Countless
Stars Serpents
Dragons Birds Sharks
Whole Singing Holy Kingdom
Horos Sunlike Countenance
That Self Void Formless Source
Thou Comforter Passionate Messenger
New Bond
Within Timeless
The boy
of the Chorus of Horos
Reciting
Trumpeting
Memory
Nursery
Rhymes
References
Soidla, T. R. (1993). Some preliminary notes for a RNA-edit-
ing based model of memory. Folia Baeriana, 6, 261-268.
Soidla, T. R. (1995). Open mouth, open mind: An impression-
istic attempt at a transpersonal autobiography. Part 2.
Living and losing with high energies [With Appendix-
The basic hypothesis: An editing model of memory]. Inter-
national Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 14(Supple-
ment),43-59.
Soidla, T. R. (1996). A constant rate synthesis/editing model
of memory coding. In Consciousness Research Abstracts.
Toward a Science of Consciousness, 1996, "Tucson II," p.
66.
Soidla, T. R. (1997). Biological texts, spiritual values. In T. R.
Soidla & S. 1. Shapiro. (Eds.), Everything is according to
the Way: Voices of Russian Transpersonalism. Brisbane,
Australia: Bolda-Lok Publishing, pp. 109-112. A prelimi-
nary version of this paper was published in 1993 as "Bio-
logical Texts and Spiritual Values." (In Revival of Rus-
sian Religious-Philosophical Thought, Proceedings of the
International Conference, March 22-24,1993. Glagol: St.
Petersburg, pp. 25-29)
Soidla, T. R. (2001). Dreams and reflections under a hill: Frag-
ments of a triviographic description ofthe Umbra vale by
a XXth-century ex-Soviet transrational traveler. Interna-
tional Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 20,5-18.
T. R. Saidla, Magic Island, Honolulu, 1999
202 The International Journal ofTranspersonal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
WooflWoofl
Philippe L. Gross
Editor, The International Journal of Trans personal Studies
Honolulu, Hawai'i, USAIPrihourg, Switzerland
Peeking Dog, Honolulu, 1998
Philippe L. Gross
The InternationalJournal of Transpersonal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21, 203-210 203
2002 by Panigada Press
Doggy Bag, Honolulu, 1999 Philippe L. Gross
204 The International Journal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, VOL 21
Guard Dog, Xico, Mexico, 2001 Philippe L. Gross
Woof Woof 205
Hat Vendor, Papantla, Mexico, 2002 Philippe 1. Gross
206 The International Journal ofTranspersonal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
Keeping Pace, San Francisco, 1998 Philippe L. Gross
Woof! Woof! 207
Merger, Honolulu, 1999
Philippe L. Gross
208 The Internationaljournal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
Two Dogs, Vevey, Switzerland, 1995 Philippe L. Gross
Woof! Woof! 209
Dog & Bull, Mexico, 2001
Philippe 1. Gross
210 The International Journal of Trans persona I Studies, 2002, VoL 21
About OUf Contributors
Ralph Augsburger was born in 1932 in La Chaux-
de-Fonds, Switzerland. After completing his studies
at L'Ecole des Beaux-Arts of La Chaux-de-Fonds, he
dedicated himselfto engraving and painting. He has
been honored with many awards-including the First
Prize of the city of Geneva for watchmaking, jewelry
design, and diamond-setting (1961); the First Prize
ofla Palette Carougeoise (1977); and the 1st prize of
Aart's Masters Paris Monaco (1996). In 1996 he be-
came Associate Academician in Art at the
International Academia Greci Marino. Augsburger's
life has been sculpted by a constant drive to travel
the world, which has filled him with humorous and
poetic anecdotes; including that of a departure from
Kenya when he had to pay a tax on his own paint-
ings because, as the custom official declared, ''You
are taking with you the colors of my country." He
has also painted several murals abroad, at home,
and on a boat: Mauritius Island, Tahiti, La Chaux-
de-Fonds, Basel, and the transoceanique boat "Le
Rousseau." His paintings have been exhibited world-
wide in galleries and museums in Basel, Bern,
Geneva, Los Angeles, Monaco, New York, Paris,
Sidney, Tahiti, Tokyo, and Zurich. Most recently, he
contributed to the Pax 2000 event for the United Na-
tions in Geneva. His work can be sampled on the Web
at: http://www.ralphaugsburger.com
Author's address: Rue Liotard 11, 1202 Geneva,
Switzerland.
E-mail: maraja@freesurf.ch
John Balaban is the author of eleven books of poetry
and prose, including four volumes which together
have won The Academy of American Poets' Lamont
prize, a National Poetry Series Selection, and two
nominations for the National Book Award. His
Locusts at the Edge of Summer: New and Selected
Poems won the 1998 William Carlos Williams Award
from the Poetry Society of America. During the
Vietnam War, Balaban volunteered as a civilian
conscientious objector, first as a teacher of descriptive
linguistics at a Vietnamese university and then, after
the university was bombed in the Tet Offensive and
he was wounded, as the Field Representative for a
group of Americans who funded the treatment of war-
injured children. Later, in 1971-1972, he returned
to travel the countryside collecting on tape the oral
poetry known as ca dao. His experiences as a
conscientious objector and his translations of
Vietnamese oral poetry will appear in 2002 as Ca
Dao Vietnam: A Bilingual Anthology of Vietnamese
Folk Poetry (Copper Canyon Press) and Remembering
Heaven's Face (University of Georgia) after being out-
of-print for many years. Balaban is Poet-in-Residence
and Professor of English at North Carolina State
University in Raleigh.
Author's address: Department of English, North
Carolina State University-Raleigh, Raleigh, North
Carolina 27695, USA.
E-mail: jbalaba@Unity.ncsu.edu
Jean-Jacques Dicker was born in 1944 in Geneva,
Switzerland. He later moved to Honolulu where he
received a B.A. in French from the University of
Hawai'i in 1967. Since 1972 Dicker has been
featured in more than 100 publications, including
Nikon News and Hebdo (Switzerland), Photo
(France), Stern and Die Zeit (Germany), Photo
Japon and Target (Japan), and Popular Photography,
Hustler, Shutterbug, DoubleTake, and LensWork
(USA). His photographs have been exhibited in
France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Romania,
Switzerland, and the USA. Dicker has received
many awards for his work (including several grants
from the Swiss Federal Government) and his works
have been acquired by private collectors and major
institutions including the Kunsthaus (Zurich), the
State Foundation on Culture and the Arts
(Honolulu), the Cabinet des Estampes of the Musee
d'Art et d'Histoire (Geneva), the Musee d'Art et
d'Histoire (Fribourg, Switzerland), the Bibliotheque
National des Arts Contemportains (Paris), the
Foundation Nationale des Arts Contemporains
(Paris), and the Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris).
His first monograph, titled Chambres-Empty
Rooms, was published in 1996 by Michele Auer's
Photoarchives. His forthcoming book on Africa
about three years of exploration on the continent
The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21, 211-216 211
2002 by Panigada Press
features 290 photographs. Additional biographical
information on Dicker is contained in the introduction
to his portfolio in this issue of IJTS.
Author's address: 465 Kekauluohi Street, Honolulu,
Hawai'i 96825, USA.
Wlodzislaw Duch, Ph.D., heads the Department
of Informatics at Nicholas Copernicus University,
Torun, Poland. His formal education and degrees
are in theoretical physics, computational sciences
and quantum chemistry. He has held various aca-
demic positions at universities and scientific insti-
tutions around the world. These include: the Uni-
versity of Southern California and the University
of Florida (USA); the University of Alberta
(Canada); Meiji University, the Kyushu Institute
of Technology, and Rikkyo University (Japan); Louis
Pasteur Universite (Strasbourg, France); Max-
Planck-Institut fUr Astrophysik (Munich); and
King's College (London). Duch has been an editor
of a number of professional journals, including IEEE
Transactions on Neural Networks and Computer
Physics Communications, and has been a head of
the Scientific Committee of the Polish Cognitive
Science journal. He worked as an expert for the
European Union 5th Framework Science Program,
and for the Polish Committee of Scientific Research
and the Ministry of Education. He has published
four books and over 250 scientific and popular ar-
ticles in various journals. Since 1975, he has been
a member of several Zen groups in Europe and the
USA. A full curriculum vita can be found at:
www.phys.uni.torun.pll-duch
Author's address: Department of Informatics, Nicolas
Copernicus University, ul. Grudziad 5, 87-100 Torun,
Poland.
E-mail: duch@phys.uni.torun.pl
Harris Friedman, Ph.D., is a member of the
Executive Faculty at Saybrook Graduate School and
Research Center in San Francisco where he
currently serves as Professor of Psychology and
Organizational Studies and where he was formerly
Academic Dean and Vice President for Academic
Affairs. He is also a licensed psychologist,
organizational consultant, and teacher of Aikido.
He has retired from the practice of clinical
psychology in which he specialized in Gestalt and
bioenergetic approaches to psychotherapy and
hypnotherapy. His current research interests focus
primarily on the assessment of transpersonal and
spiritual constructs, including the relationship of
these constructs to various psychological,
sociological, and health variables. He constructed
and validated the Self-Expansiveness Level Form,
a measure of transpersonal self-concept, which he
is further researching and developing. He is also
interested in the assessment of organizational
culture and change, as well as in epistemological
issues in empirical research methodology. He
received his doctorate in Personality-Clinical
Psychology from Georgia State University in
Atlanta, Georgia, with a major in transpersonal
psychology, possibly the first such doctorate in
transpersonal psychology from an accredited school
in the USA. He is active in human rights and
environmental causes on both a local and global
level. He lives on a wilderness preserve near the
Everglades region of Florida where he considers
communing with nature to be a spiritual practice.
Author's address: 1255 Tom Coker Road SW, LaBelle,
Florida 33935, USA.
E-mail: hfriedman@saybrook.edu
Philippe L. Gross, Ph.D., is the Editor in Chief
and Publisher of The International Journal of
Transpersonal Studies and a research psychologist
with the State of Hawai'i Department of Health
where he studies severe and persistent mental ill-
nesses. He is also interested in aesthetics, creative
seeing, and the study of knowledge and wisdom
across cultures. Gross has taught and written about
Taoist themes, photography, and transpersonal psy-
chology for many years. He has also taught a variety
of other courses, including: humanistic and exis-
tential psychology; philosophy; general psychology;
personality; developmental psychology; psychology
of emotion; and cross-cultural psychology. As a pho-
tographer, Gross has given workshops, received
several awards, exhibited injuried exhibits in Swit-
zerland, Mexico, and the USA, and published
photographs in a variety of professional journals.
He was recently honored with an exhibit during the
Festival of Light in Xalapa, Mexico. His new, coau-
thored book, The Tao of Photography: Seeing Beyond
Seeing (2001)-published by Ten Speed Press-is a
work that celebrates a decade-long exploration of
ancient Taoist wisdom, artistic creativity, and the
art ofliving.
Author's address: Manoa Innovation Center,
University of Hawai'i Psychosocial Rehabilitation
Center, 2800 Woodlawn Drive, Suite 120, Honolulu,
Hawai'i 96822, USA.
E-mail: grossphi@hawaii.edu
212 The International Journal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
Herbert Guenther, Ph.D., D.Litt., was born in
Bremen, Germany. He received his Ph.D. in Indian
Languages, Philosophy, and Literature from Munich
University in 1939, and his Dr. phil.habil. from
Vienna University. (This degree was necessary for
being allowed to teach at German and Austrian uni-
versities: the so-called venia legendi.) In 1950 he
moved to India to teach at the University of Lucknow
and at the Varanaseya Sanskrit Vishvavidyala at
VaranasilBenares, where the medium of instruction
was Sanskrit. There he also was instrumental in in-
troducing Tibetan studies on a nonsectarian basis.
In 1964 Guenther was invited to Canada to chair
the newly established (now defunct) Department of
Far Eastern Studies at the University of
Saskatchewan in Saskatoon. In 1966 he was visit-
ing professor at Yale University. In 1983 he was the
first scholar to be awarded the degree ofD.Litt. from
the University of Saskatchewan, from which he re-
tired in 1984 as Professor Emeritus of Far Eastern
Studies. In 1987 Guenther became the only non-In-
dian to receive a citation and a silver plaque and
ceremonial scarf from the Anantajyoti-Vidyapith
Academy at Lucknow for outstanding contributions
to Indian culture. In 1999 he was selected as "Inter-
national Man of the Millennium" by the International
Biographical Centre of Cambridge, England, in rec-
ognition of his services to education. He is also listed
in Outstanding People of the 20th Century. Guenther
is currently Distinguished Consultant Professor at
Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center. He
continues research in his chosen field of interest. He
is married, has two married daughters, one grand-
son, and two granddaughters, and lives with his wife
in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Author's address: 1320 13th Street East, Saskatoon,
Saskatchewan S7H OC6, Canada.
Shoshin Ichishima is Abbot of Senzoji Temple,
Inzai City, Japan. He was Vice Abbot of the Tendai
Buddhist Temple of Hawai'i thirty years ago. While
in Honolulu he translated and edited Buddhist texts
in English: A Chinese text of the T'ien t'ai fourfold
teachings (with David Chappell), and a Sanskrit text,
the third process of meditative actualization by
Kamalashila (with Robert Olson). Currently,
Ichishima is a professor of Indology, director of the
Library, and chief of the International Programs
Center ofTaisho University in Tokyo. From Tibetan
and Sanskrit sources, he identified the author ofthe
"Sutra Samuccaya" compiled in the Taisho Tripitaka,
Volume 32, as N agarjuna ("The Author of the Sutra
Samuccaya," Journal of Indian and Buddhist
Studies, Vol. 37, No.2, 1968). His special area of
studies is Buddhism in India in the eighth to twelfth
centuries. He has correctly identified the donor of
an important Bodhisattva statue in the Tokyo
National Museum as the Hungarian Buddhist
scholar Csoma Shandor. Ichishima is a member of
the Translation Committee of the BDK English
Tripitaka publishing project of the Numata Center
for Buddhist Translation and Research.
Author's address: 971 Izumi, Inzai-City, Chiba-
Prefecture 2701351, Japan.
Marc L. Joslyn, Ph.D., (Zen name Shozan), is an
ordained Osho (priest/teacher) of Rinzai Zen who,
together with his wife, cares for the sangha at a little
Zendo on an island across from Seattle (USA). Since
retiring as a Gestalt therapist several years ago, he
has been concerned with writing about sparks of Zen
to be found in the literature of countries outside the
realm of traditional Buddhism. It will not be easy
for Zen to get rooted in the United States, for
example, because there is a lack of a Buddhist
subculture to nourish it. But bringing attention to
the interrelationship of Zen-like perceptions latently
present in the West may foster a network of social
awareness, which can support individual efforts to
become free of idolatry of the pseudo-immortality
promised by gods like Technology and Money in our
present-day Pantheon.
Author's address: 8842 Mandus Olson Road NE,
Bainbridge Island, Washington 98110, USA.
E-mail: MarcJoslyn@aol.com
Stanley Krippner, Ph.D., Alan W. Watts Professor
of Psychology at Saybrook Graduate School, San
Francisco, is the former director of the Kent State
University Child Study Center (Kent, Ohio) and the
Maimonides Medical Center Dream Research
Laboratory (Brooklyn, New York). He is coauthor
of Extraordinary Dreams (State University of New
York Press, 2002) and coeditor of Varieties of
Anomalous Experience: Examining the Scientific
Evidence (American Psychological Association,
2000) and Civilian Victims of War Trauma: An
International Perspective (Greenwood Press, 2003).
Krippner is a member of the editorial board for the
Journal of Indian Psychology and Revista Argentina
de Psicologia Paranormal, and holds faculty
appointments at the Universidade Holistica
Internacional (Brasilia) and the Instituto de
Medicina y Tecnologia Avanzada de la Conducta
About Our Contributors 213
(Ciudad Juarez). He is a member of the Association
for Transpersonal Psychology and a former president
of both the Association for Humanistic Psychology
and the Parapsychological Association.
Author's address: Saybrook Graduate School and
Research Center, 450 Pacific Avenue, San Francisco,
California 94133, USA.
E-mail: skrippner@saybrook.edu
Grace W. Lee, M.A., is completing work on her
doctoral dissertation in psychology (The Subjective
Well-Being of Meditators and Non-Meditators) at
the University of Hawai'i. Her interest in
transpersonal psychology includes the study and
practice of yoga, and she is a hatha yoga instructor
at the university. Lee has also taught various
undergraduate courses, including transpersonal
psychology, social psychology, the psychology of
personality, and the psychology of human sexuality.
Her clinical experience includes working with
individuals with serious mental illnesses both in
the community and at the Hawai'i State Hospital.
Hiking Hawai'i's beautiful mountain trails is a
beloved pastime, to be a good gardener is her goal,
and reading great fiction makes her happy.
Author's address: Department of Psychology,
University of Hawai'i, 2430 Campus Road, Honolulu,
Hawai'i 96822, USA.
E-mail: gwlee@hawaii.edu
Chris McDonough, B.F.A., is an independent
professional photographer in advertising and fine art.
He received his art degree from the School for Visual
Arts in New York and later became an apprentice of
Life photographer Pete Peterson. McDonough
describes himself as "primarily self-taught, finding
inspiration in literature and psychology." His work
has been published internationally, primarily in the
USA and Japan. He has received several awards for
both his color and black and white photographs and
his work has been included in more than twenty
juried shows.
Author's address: 4329 Papu Circle, Honolulu, Hawai'i
96816, USA.
E-mail: Cjmacphoto@aol.com
Michael G. Mitchell was a published photographer
at the age of thirteen in 1958, and ten years later
had become one of the most visible magazine
photographers in Washington, DC. He had his first
one-man show of fine art photography in New York
in 1971. Although his gallery and museum shows
continued into the 1980s, he became increasingly
frustrated by the art world. Mitchell comments:
When my commercial work expanded into doing
corporate annual reports and advertising, I let
myself be dominated by its demands. But I never
stopped the self-tutorial in much deeper matters
that had begun as a result of my experience of
"LumiGnosis" in 1969. Mter I took a couple of
workshops with Ira Progoff in the 1970s, I
started to record the many incidents of
synchronicity that have transfused my life and
have often given birth to my photographs. I'm
currently working on a memoir that reflects
upon these influences.
Author's address: 1756 T Street NW, Washington,
DC 20009, USA.
E-mail: mmaluna@mindspring.com
VassilyVassilievich Nalimov (1910-1997), D.Sc.,
Professor, a self-made person, Ugro-Finn by origin,
managed not only to survive the gruelling regime
of the Gulag (1936-1954)-when hell pursued
people-but to oppose it by his "courage to be," his
way of mind, and his devotion to the meanings
which created his anarchistic personality: love for
freedom and nonviolence. He insisted upon being a
"free thinker" and proved it by the pioneer character
of his works, both in science and philosophy. It was
N alimov who, by probabilistic inspiration, shifted
the paradigm of cause-and-effect, revealing the
continuity of meanings and the voice of eternity.
He created a national school of mathematical
methods of experimental design; formulated the
conception of Scientometrics, including coining the
very term; elaborated a probabilistically oriented
model of language, consciousness, and evolution
viewed as a self-organization process; and
elaborated the integrated world outlook based on
Plato's philosophy. He made a critical analysis of
modern science, raising the issue of what "scientific"
means in modern science-which contains both
rational and irrational elements within it. N alimov's
books were translated into several European
languages; five ofthem were published in the USA,
and two more were translated and kept on microfilm
in the Library of Congress (USA). His name was in
the list of "Citation Classics," due to his contribution
to the application of mathematical statistics.
Mathematics and philosophy for him were closely
combined: Since his youth he had been convinced
that philosophic comprehension of the world was
only possible by means of mathematical language.
He loved "thought as it is," and he worked until the
last day of his life. His last words addressed the
214 The InternationalJournal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21
Universe: "I wanted to look through the open
window, behind the window ofthe whole Universe,
and that very Universe to grasp."
Edward M. Podvoll, M.D., received his medical
degree from New York University-Bellevue College
of Medicine. He is a graduate and former faculty
member of the Washington Psychoanalytic
Institute. For nine years he was a staff psychiatrist
and one of the directors of Chestnut Lodge Hospital.
He was a senior psychiatrist and the Director of
Education and Training at the Austen Riggs Center
(Stockbridge, Massachussetts). In 1977 Podvoll
moved to Boulder, Colorado. There he founded and
directed the Department of Contemplative
Psychotherapy at N aropa Institute; was the
founding Medical Director of Maitri Psychological
Services, a "Windhorse" treatment center; and
established the Friendship House (a treatment
residence). Podvoll thoroughly elucidated these
experiences in his groundbreaking book The
Seduction of Madness: Revolutionary Insights Into
the World of Psychosis and a Compassionate
Approach to Recovery at Home (HarperCollins,
1990). Over the past twenty years Podvoll and his
associates have established treatment centers in
Northampton, Massachusetts and Boulder,
Colorado in the USA, and in Vienna and Zurich,
based on the principles outlined in his book. In 1991
Podvoll entered a longterm meditation/study retreat
in a Buddhist monastery, Mahamudra Ling, in
France. He plans to complete this retreat in 2003
and then resume his teaching, writing, and
consulting activities.
Author's address: c/o Jeffrey Fortuna, Windhorse
Community Services, 1501 Yarmouth Avenue, Boulder,
Colorado 80304, USA.
Duane Preble, M.F.A., has devoted much of his
life to art education and is now Professor Emeritus
of Art at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. He
holds an undergraduate degree in painting,
graphics, and sculpture from the University of
California-Los Angeles and the M.F.A. from the
University of Hawai'i. Preble has exhibited
paintings, photographs, and sculpture in solo and
group shows since the early 1960s and has taught
a wide variety of courses, including introduction to
the visual arts, art history, photography, drawing,
color, and design. In 1969 he was selected by his
university for an Excellence in Teaching Award, and
in 1975 he was included in Outstanding Educators
of America. In 1972 he authored, and has since
coauthored, the college art textbook Artforms, an
introduction to the visual arts, now in its seventh
full edition. Extensive travel has given him a global
perspective. He has taught in the World Semester-
at-Sea Voyages Program with the Institute for
Shipboard Education, and has led university study
tours in the United States, Europe, and Japan. Mter
thirty years, Preble retired from the University of
Hawai'i to further his own art and to work with
Hawai'i's elementary school teachers in integrating
the visual arts into the curriculum. He has served
on the boards of numerous educational, governmental,
art, and environmental organizations.
Author's address: Department of Art, 2535 McCarthy
Mall, University ofHawai'i, Honolulu, Hawai'i 96822,
USA.
E-mail: preble@lava.net
S. I. Shapiro, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychology at
the University of Hawai'i and a member ofthe Bud-
dhist Studies Program and of the Center on Aging.
He teaches a wide range of topics in the psychology
of knowledge and wisdom, including classical Asian
psychologies of the mind, transpersonal studies,
consciousness and the arts, and conscious living and
dying. Shapiro is Executive Editor of The Interna-
tional Journal of Trans personal Studies and was the
founder and coeditor of the journal's subseries Voices
of Russian Transpersonalism. He has published
some one hundred articles and reviews and three
books.
Author's address: Department of Psychology, 2430
Campus Road, University of Hawai'i, Honolulu,
Hawai'i 96822, USA.
Mario Simoes, Ph.D., M.D., is a psychiatrist and
psychotherapist working in Lisbon. After his
medical training, he also graduated in Anthropology
and Ethnology at the Technical University of
Lisbon. His undergraduate work was at several
universities and clinics, including university
psychiatric clinics in Lisbon, Zurich, Vienna, and
Madrid. This transcultural approach to psychiatry
included the most classical as well as other
representative schools of psychiatry, which brought
him a broad spectrum of influences for daily practice
and teaching. During the time he was in Vienna, he
entered into contact with the late Viktor Frankl,
attending his classes at the university. In Zurich, he
learned how to develop experimental settings for
research in altered states of consciousness, which he
pursued upon returning to Portugal. Later, Simoes
About Our Contributors 215
also became interested in parapsychology and worked
with the late Hans Bender at the Parapsychological
Institute of Freiburg. Having obtained Master of
Psychiatry and Ph.D. degrees in Medicine (Psychiatry)
at the University of Lisbon, Simoes is now Professor
of Psychiatry at the Faculty of Medicine of Lisbon.
His main scientific interests include research in
different aspects of Altered States of Consciousness,
hypnosis, religious experience, and alternative forms
of psychotherapy, and he has published several articles
on these topics. Simoes was a cofounder of the
Portuguese Brazilian TranspersonalAssociation, and
he currently serves as president of the organization.
Author's address: Praceta Bernardo Santareno, 1-6-
Esq., 1900-098 Lisbon, Portugal.
E-mail: psicopraxis@maiLtelepac.pt
Tonu R. Soidla, Ph.D., D.Sc., was born in Estonia.
Since 1965 he has lived in St. Petersburg, Russia,
where he works in the field of genetics together with
his wife Olga. He has published about eighty papers
on different problems in genetics, and during the last
ten years, also fifteen rather marginal essays on
transpersonal topics. Sometimes he feels that he is a
natural dualist (even protofundamentalist) in search
of an attainable but elusive nondual realization.
Author's address: Institute of Cytology, Tikhoretsky
Avenue 4, St. Petersburg 194064, Russia.
E-mail: tsoidla@link.cytspb.rssi.ru
Kuang-ming Wu, Ph.D., received his degree from
Yale University in Philosophy. At present, he teaches
Japanese culture/language and Chinese philosophy
at the University of Missouri-Columbia. He has been
a professor of history at the National Chung-cheng
University (Taiwan), John McN. Rosebush
University Professor at the University of Wisconsin-
Oshkosh (USA), and a visiting professor at the
National Taiwan University, the University of South
Mrica (Pretoria),Aarhus University (Denmark), and
the University ofTexas-El Paso (USA). He is working
on his eleventh volume, Nonsense: Cultural
Meditations on the Beyond, from which this essay is
derived. Other volumes of his include: Chuang Tzu:
World Philosopher at Play (Crossroad/Scholars,
1982); The Butterfly as Companion (State University
of New York Press, 1990); History, Thinking, and
Literature in Chinese Philosophy (Academia Sinica,
1991); On Chinese Body Thinking (Brill, 1997;
National Science Council Distinguished Award,
Taiwan); On the "Logic" of Togetherness (Brill, 1998);
On Metaphoring (Brill, 2001); and Chinese Culture
and Its World Significance Today (University of Hong
Kong Press, forthcoming), among other works. He
has chapters in Time and Space in Chinese Culture
(Brill, 1995), Norms and the State in China (Brill,
1993), Understanding the Chinese Mind (Oxford,
1989), and other edited works. At home in Japanese,
English, Chinese, and Taiwanese, he is interested
in comparative culture/philosophy, philosophy of
religion, phenomenology, and aesthetics. The author
adds the following comments:
Of the two ways of thinking, decent and goofy,
goofy thinking fascinates me because it is so
slippery, defying efforts to make sense of it. Such
is life, however, as well as Chinese thinking, that
follows life and lacks tangible systems.
Instinctively reacting against Western logical
thinking during my Yale-philosophy years, I
have been trying to make sense of goofy Chinese
thinking and living itself. My reflections resulted
in volumes on Chuang Tzu, the goofY stunning
poet-thinker, on what Chinese thinking as
philosophy means, and on intercultural
communication. Finally, I am fascinated with the
Beyond that contests, embraces, and enables all
our thinking life, goofiness included. My
partiality for religion (without organized
religion) continues to this day.
Author's address: P. O. Box 30791, Columbia, Missouri
65205, USA.
E-mail: kuang_wu@hotmail.com
Atsumi Yamamoto, M.F.A., was born in Fukui
Prefecture in Japan where she studied calligraphy
for ten years and had her work frequently
recognized. In 1988 she moved to Colorado, USA,
where she studied drawing and painting. Two years
later she moved to Honolulu and studied art at the
University of Hawai'i at Manoa, where in 1995 she
received her B.F.A., and in 2000, her M.F.A. in
painting. In addition to her studio work in Makiki,
Honolulu, since 1998 she has been the art and
design director for The International Journal of
Transpersonal Studies. Yamamoto's paintings have
been exhibited in a variety ofjuried and joint shows.
Her latest exhibit, co-produced, was entitled "Dogs
and Beaches." In addition to private collections, her
work has been acquired by the Hawai'i State
Foundation on Culture and the Arts.
Author's address: 1001 Wilder Avenue #1004, Honolulu,
Hawai'i 96822, USA.
E-mail: atsumiY@Yahoo.com
216 The InternationalJournal of Trans personal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21