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CHAPTER VII

THE PROCESS GOAL OF SELF ACTUALIZATION

Let there be light!
Let the dawn rise over heavens and earth!
There can be no glory, no splendor
Until the humanistic being exists,
The fully developed man.
Popol Vuh
 
 
 
 
 

7. SELF ACTUALIZATION: CONSCIOUSNESS AND ITS DEVELOPMENT

7.11 Self-Actualization

Self-actualization was defined by Maslow as the act of manifesting the capabilities for which one had the potentiality. The structure of our language predisposes us to think in terms of those who finally reach self-actualization, as contrasted with those who merely get to the vestibule of the mansion and wait. But like other more mathematical limits, self-actualization is better measured by the differential than the functional. Hence, a better way of conceptualizations is to look at the process, not the end product, and to distinguish those in which the process is wholly developed as self-actualized.

In discussion of the sixth (creative), seventh (psychedelic), and eighth (illuminative) cognitive stages, we are on new and insufficiently explored ground; hence, the reader must be prepared for some confusion in terms. Here the phrase "self-actualization" will be used indiscriminately to refer to operations at all three levels. Actually, the upper reach of the continuum from the stage of creativity onward is open ended, for once an individual reaches the creative stage cognitively, his conscious mind is opened and enlarged, and he gains new horizons and options. The theory of stages becomes much less significant than the study of the process, and for all we know, looking at the system as it were from below, there may be advanced stages or processes that we cannot yet conceive.

We have tried to make tentative identification of the three advanced

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stages - the sixth or creative, the seventh or psychedelic, and the eighth or illuminative. The creative stage has been well described in the literature. The psychedelic is just now being described in the literature of psychology (Tart, 1969), though it has long been known in the literature of mysticism. The eighth stage is still pretty much unknown territory. Although we can say little about the cognitive processes of the final stage, those processes which are occasional and transitory in the psychedelic period become habitual and fixed in the eighth stage, and thus the doors or barriers between the conscious and preconscious are done away with almost entirely. This stage or process may be referred to as "integral," since the person is truly "whole" or "holy".

Before passing to a detailed analysis, we need to clarify the significance of the unusual. Self-actualization is an unusual process which happens to a few human beings at certain times in their lives. Processes which do not occur to many people, but only to a few, are often considered pathological because they are not "normal." Their rarity may allow them to be considered trivial. Yet giving birth is such a process, occurring to only half or less of the population, and then only at widely spaced times; yet it is perfectly normal, and while unusual is so important as to be vital. The unusual, then, may have extremely important consequences; and self-actualization is an example.

Surprising as it may seem, even the practice of creativity may have a stultifying effect on development and hence on self-actualization if it involves stagnation in the sixth developmental period instead of the face-to-face encounter with the "not me" required from most of us as a kind of initiation into the psychedelic aspects of the seventh period. Just as many an intellectual, too successful in formal operations to the detriment of his creative or divergent thinking, is content to "shoot fish in a barrel", so a considerable number of creative people seem content to dwell in that stage, occupied with the rationality of problem-solving, and the many outlets and activities which creative production affords for avoiding confrontations with one's preconscious. This portal to psychedelia is too frightening, too alienated from a still somewhat shaky sense of identity, to risk such encounter. Such an individual, often the epitome of the Puritan Ethic, will be a real achiever who will dread "to lose control of himself" and who may foreclose psychedelic adventures and development because of this fear. It is hard indeed for humans to learn that each developmental gift is a loan, not a possession, that it is to be savored and sampled, and then traded in on the corresponding gift of the next

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stage. But a long time ago, somebody with insight about such matters told us plainly: "He that shall seek to save his life, shall lose it."

7.12 Consciousness and its Development

Let us look at what we know about consciousness, that most significant aspect of humanity:

1. Consciousness has an irresistible tendency to form; for every level of consciousness, therefore, there is a vehicle, of which the physical body is an example.

The body is the vehicle or instrument of consciousness. It follows that there may be as many kinds of bodies as there are levels or stages of consciousness. Not all bodies, therefore, need be material.

Not only is the level of consciousness produced by different bodies different, but the characteristics of that consciousness are also affected differentially. While admittedly the physical body may represent the lowest descent of vitality, it produces a consciousness which has the virtues of rationality and will, and of initiation and selection. It is objective and realistic, not subjective and autistic (as is the dream consciousness). It may be that incarnation in a physical body is necessary to develop this complete kind of objective consciousness, and that immersion in space-time and out of transcendental reality is necessary to give the developing individual the sense of free will and choice which only moving in time will produce.

2. The ordinary consciousness in the physical body tends to altered states of consciousness, and seems (as in the case of sleep) to require these for proper rest and relaxation.

Tart (1971:3) says in this regard:

One of the most persistent and unusual aspects of human behavior observable in all cultures and throughout all of history is man's dissatisfaction with the ordinary state of consciousness and the consequent development of innumerable methods of altering it. . . The belief that our ordinary state of consciousness is only of utilitarian value and not suitable for insights into basic questions about the meaning of life has been one of the most important motives.

Progoff (1969:27) adds:

 
One main characteristic of the goal of this work (the search for God) is that it cannot be attained in the ordinary condition of human consciousness.


*These five paragraphs are from pp 111-113 of The Development of the Creative Individual, by permission.

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Progoff sees the withdrawal of the mental energy devoted to the perceptual system resulting in an attrition of normal consciousness. This brings about a lowering of the perceptual level with corresponding intensification of psychic activity. He points out that Jung has called this the "collective unconscious" and indicates (1969:28):
 

. . . that a lowering of the mental level on one side of the personality results in a concentration of energy at the deep unconscious levels... Paradoxically, this troubled activity, that is beyond conscious control, leads to experiences of heightened intensity, enlarged areas of awareness, and a degree both of perceptivity and feeling far greater than the ordinary condition of consciousness would make possible.
 
3. The succession of conscious states is toward higher integration, not toward lower dissociation, toward more control of the environment, rather than less, and toward more and grander perceptions of beneficence, rather than to the opposite.

This principle is one of those facts (like the existence of the stars) which would be considered remarkable if we did not take it for granted. The process of integration in growth has the complementary virtues of being both obvious in fact and transcendental in implication. It clearly points out the direction of progression as toward the "higher", not the "lower," and implies beneficence in the universe. Another clear illustration of this same tendency is the "gentling" of the preconscious from the fearsome, uncanny "not-me" of immature development to the powerful genie-like servant of the psychedelic stage. Increased environmental control is seen at every stage in the developmental process we have sketched, and is notably summarized in Figure IV of Chapter II.

4. The successive levels of conscious states constitute a developmental process.

This statement is really the theme of this book. In it we have looked at various states of consciousness, and seen that they can indeed be ordered into a hierarchy which has characteristic and periodic properties. In particular, our psychedelic and illuminative states are recognized by many occult writers as the "fourth" and "fifth" state of consciousness (De Ropp 1968:51), deep sleep, dreaming, and waking being the first three. Our entire efforts in this volume have been toward establishing the plausibility of this idea of developmental process; which is seen both in the lifetime of the individual, and in the evolution of the species.

7.13 Maslow's Views

Since Maslow is the modern "parent" of psychological investigation of self-actualization and similar related higher states of

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consciousness, it is appropriate here to consider how he came to the present position of humanistic psychology.

Goble (1970:19) states that Maslow was led to his position by the feeling that the study of the mentally ill, and the study of animals, were necessary but not sufficient. He felt instead that much could be learned about man and his potential from a study of a few exceptionally mentally healthy people.
Goble (1970:14-16) points out that the Third Force differs from previous Freudian and Behavioral Psychologies in four aspects:

1) it does not place the same emphasis on statistical methods,
2) it de-emphasizes the importance put on animal research,
3) it assumes that human beings have unique aspects, and
4) it assumes that we can learn more about human behavior by subjective rather than by objective methods.
Maslow in the introduction (speaking of the Third Force) said (Goble, 1970):
This is precisely one aspect of this new World-View - that it is a Zeitgeist, a spirit of the age, a change in basic thinking along the total front of man's endeavors...
Goble (1970:50) points out that (to paraphrase a diagram):
After self-esteem is passed on the hierarchy, Maslow saw a series of growth needs (Being Values or B-values) as being steps on the path to self-actualization. Reminiscent of the Greek virtues they are in order:
Truth,
Goodness,
Beauty,
Aliveness,
Individuality,
Perfection,
Necessity,
Completion,
Justice,
Order,
Simplicity,
Richness,
Playfulness,
Effortlessness,
Self-Sufficiency,
Meaningfulness.
These are not part of the hierarchy but are seen as all of equal importance.*
And further Goble (1970:54) tells us that Maslow defined:
A peak experience as a moment in the life of the individual when he felt strong, sure, and in complete control. He is functioning fully, and appears to an observer as more reliable, dependable, and trustworthy.
Maslow (1971:308-9) characterized the behaviors of self-actualizing people as follows:
1. They avoid publicity, fame, glory, honors, popularity, celebrity, or at least do not seek it. It seems to be not awfully important one way or another.

2. They do not need to be loved by everyone.



*Not a quotation, but the reconstructed paraphrase of a diagram.

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3. They generally pick out their own causes, which are apt to be few in number, rather than responding to advertising or to campaigns or to other people's exhortations.

4. Their fighting is not an excuse for hostility, paranoia, grandiosity, authority, rebellion, etc., but is for the sake of getting things right. It is problem-centered.

5. They manage somehow simultaneously to love the world as it is and to try to improve it.

6. They respond to the challenge in a job. A chance to improve the situation or the operation is a big reward. They enjoy improving things.

7. They do not need or seek for or even enjoy very much flattery, applause, popularity, status, prestige, money, honors, etc.

8. Expressions of gratitude, or at least of awareness of their good fortune, are common.

9. They tend to be attracted by mystery, unsolved problems, by the unknown, and the challenging, rather than to be frightened by them.

10. They enjoy bringing about law and order in the chaotic situation, or in the messy or confused situation, or in the dirty and unclean situation.

11. They try to free themselves from illusions, to look at the facts courageously, to take away the blindfold.

12. They feel it is a pity for talent to be wasted.

13. They tend to feel that every person should have an opportunity to develop to his highest potential, to have a fair chance, to have equal opportunity.

14. They like doing things well, "doing a good job," "to do well what needs doing". Many such phrases add up to "bringing about good workmanship."

15. They get great pleasure from knowing admirable people (courageous, honest, effective, "straight", "big," creative, saintly, etc.) "My work brings me in contact with many fine people."

16. They enjoy taking on responsibilities (that they can handle well), and certainly don't fear or evade their responsibilities. They respond to responsibility.

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17. They uniformly consider their work to be worthwhile, important, even essential.

18. They enjoy greater efficiency, making an operation more neat, compact, simpler, faster, less expensive, turning out a better product, doing with less parts, a smaller number of operations, less clumsiness, less effort, more foolproof, safer, more "elegant," less laborious.
 


7.2 THE HIGHEST STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS

7.21 Illumination: The Eighth Developmental Stage

To talk about the eighth cognitive stage is a little like a small boy in the initiative period discussing the sexual problems involved in maturation and adolescence. Whatever he may have found out about them through whatever means, it is certain that he will lack the developmental status to make adequate evaluation and draw proper conclusions. Any pronouncements that a psychologist may make about this ultimate stage are as likely to be fraught with misconception like "Looking through a glass darkly." We may, however, draw on a few extrapolations for guidance.

In the first place, we feel that there is a tendency for most writers (and here we include Maslow, Bucke, and others) to mistake "Illumination" with the psychedelic stage. The dramatic openings of psychedelia are enough to awe anyone. When the mind suddenly finds itself master in an enlarged domain, it may easily suffer "delusions of grandeur." But majestic though this experience must be, it is not illumination. By whatever name the eighth stage is called, its primary characteristic must be that those processes which are spasmodic, occasional, and irruptive in the seventh stage must become steady, constant, and habitual in the eighth. Illumination means a steady light, not the flickering of a candle or the blinding of the off-again, on-again lighthouse beam. For those of us in lower stages, one can compare the difference between the psychedelic and illuminative states to be somewhat like the difference between the ups and downs of romance, the presence and absence of the beloved before marriage with the steady satisfaction, companionship, and contentment of the state of married love.

It is perhaps a mistake even to regard illumination as a stage. Mendeleev, in an early work on his periodic table of the chemical elements, left the table open ended. He could not foresee that the very heavy elements were mostly radioactive and generally disintegrated into other elements lower on the table. Process is certainly likely to be more important than state in this ultimate stage. While

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ideally the state is a steady one, in practice it is approached by developing individuals in whom the spasmodic and occasional enlightenment of the psychedelic stage tends to become more habitual, although perhaps not completely so.

We gain a bit from the koans of Zen Buddhism here - those mystic sayings and questions which seem to have no logical answer but whose interpretation requires a higher understanding. The Irishman who said: "If you don't go to other people's funerals, they won't come to yours" uttered a statement literally illogical but full of truth on a higher plane. In the illuminative stage, there is likely to be taking over of the psyche by the preconscious which deemphasizes the rational processes of the conscious mind in favor of intuition, precognitions, and an enlarged understanding of the Zen koan type, which throws a diffused floodlight on the world of experience rather than the concentrated spotlight of the rational mind.

There is also a change in ego structure in which the ego loses some of its "I-ness" and becomes, in Rogers' phrase, more "The subjective awareness of experience" - in which there is less of the Hobbes "loose and separate" aspect and more unity and connection with all mankind and nature. There is (because of the periodic position of this stage in the identity column) a new identity crisis which arises, but now it is released from its corporate bonding (which is its chrysalis) and is free to become one with others and with the world. Having become sure of who I am, I am now free to merge myself in love and freedom with others and all of life.*

Bucke is quoted (White 1972:83) as conceding that there are different levels of self-actualization:
 

The range of cosmic consciousness is greater than that of self consciousness, both in kind and degree; that is to say, in a world peopled with men having cosmic consciousness they would vary both in the way of greater and lesser intellectual ability, and greater and lesser moral and spiritual elevation.


Bucke (1929:136) also tells us that "neither fear nor shame can exist along with the cosmic sense."

Underhill (1960) traces the development of the mystic-saint through several stages:

1) A period of quiet,
2) a period of what is called "illumination," and which we should call psychedelia,
3) the "Dark Night of the Soul" - a period of agony, and abandonment, and
4) the "unitive life," a period which we should call the illuminative.


*The five previous paragraphs are from pp 118-119 of The Development of the Creative Individual, © 1972 by R. Knapp Publishers, used by permission.

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If periods two and four are taken as our seventh and eighth stages, which they most appear to resemble, then periods one and three may be thought of as transitional stages, much as the transitional stage of oedipal resolution marks the break between the initiative stage and the industry stage in children.

Perhaps psychologically related to "unstressing," the Dark Night of the Soul, (Underhill 1960:380ff), is a period of great trial and negation separating the Psychedelic Life from the Unitive Life. Here, says Underhill (1960:383):
 

We part from the 'nature mystics', the mystic poets, and all who shared in and were contented with the illuminated vision of reality. Those who go on are the great and strong spirits, who do not seek to knowbut are driven to be (i.o.).
 
With the weight of both Western and Eastern mysticism on the side that man should hasten this process in a single lifetime against all odds, and at the sacrifice of everything else, it is a bit difficult to disagree. But something refractory makes us point out that in this process there is evidence of developmental forcing, and that Maslow, Hesse, and the Maharishi appear to counsel a more serene and gradual ascent. It is also possible that Seth, Robert's control, is right in suggesting that there may be multidimensional stages of advancement, only one room of which, in the mansion of reality, has been explored by the classical mystics.

Speaking of "The Dark Night of the Soul," Brunton (1972:355) says:
 

He will be unable to remain in the ecstatic state. . . and this reaction will bring him to the terrible and melancholy experience which nearly all advanced mystics have known. St. John of the Cross called it "The Dark Night of the Soul", St. Teresa called it "The Great Dereliction." The medieval Indian mystics like Dadu called it: The phase of separation" ... But it is most important to notice that the "dark night" is an experience which happens only to advanced mystics. For it is the automatic effort of Nature to secure balance; it is a finger pointing at the mystic who has finished his mystical path, to take the ultimate path and thus bring the world, which he has disdained or neglected, once again within his purview.


Another most interesting possibility in regard to altered states of consciousness is given by Seth, Robert's control (1972:322ff). Marking A as the normal state of consciousness, he speaks of:
 

A-1: "In A-1 your consciousness can enter the body of another and heal it. You can in the same manner perceive the state of your own image. You can, according to your abilities,
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manipulate matter from inside, consciously, with lucidity and alertness."
 
"A-1 is a side-step away, therefore, and yet an important one." Note that this state can be used as the start of a series of steps leading to deeper states. These are characterized as A-1-a, and A-l-b, and so on, each with slightly different properties.
 
A-2: "Directly beneath A-1 is A-2 which is a slightly deeper state and less physically oriented. You still have excellent lucidity and awareness. This state can be used to explore the past. . . Reincarnational pasts are known to you here. . . This state is distinguished by a slower breathing pattern, and... a somewhat lowered temperature, and longer alpha waves."

A-3: "Directly beneath this is A-3. You have an extension again, here dealing with mass issues, movements of land, history of your planet, knowledge of the races that inhabited it. . .


Each of these levels, and there are more, has other states branching out from it. It is obvious, if such a statement can be believed, that there are many rooms in the mansion of consciousness, and that the path of exploration of them may not be the same for all explorers.

Our seventh and eighth stages of psychedelia and illumination are often called by yogis the fourth and fifth state of consciousness. The rapture which is spasmodic and infrequent during psychedelia becomes steady and under the control of the conscious will during illumination. Goleman (1971) says:
 

"The fifth state seems to occur naturally, but its occurrence, like the birth of quadruplets or a large meteor striking the earth, is a statistically rare event and so not easily studied. But there are reports of people who seem to be experiencing the fifth state. Bucke's Cosmic Consciousness is one such. Yogananda (1946) describes the transition from fourth state to fifth, which he calls "sabikalpa samadhi" and "nirbikalpa samadhi" respectively:

In sabikalpa samadhi the devotee attains temporary realization of his oneness with Spirit but cannot maintain his cosmic consciousness except in the immobile trance state. By continuous meditation he reaches the higher state of nirbikalpa samadhi, in which he moves freely in the world and performs his outward duties without any loss of God-perception.

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"This transition can occur rapidly or may take many years, as a function of the state of the nervous system of the individual, though the fourth state is experienced in TM in the first meditation. During this process the composition of meditation sessions changes from an initial stage of preponderant unstressing (thoughts, sensations, autokinesthesia, etc.) and momentary or extended pure awareness, to a final stage of momentary unstressing and preponderant or even unbroken fourth state pure restful awareness. This transition marks the purification necessary to maintain the fifth state. Over the next few years a large enough sample should emerge from among those practicing TM to allow experimental studies of the fifth state of consciousness.

"One attribute of the fifth state, according to Maharishi (1969) is that pure awareness infuses not only the waking state, but also the dreaming and sleep states. With all the first three states of consciousness infused with the fourth, one can witness himself going through the sleeping and even the dreaming processes, just as one can witness thought process in meditation. This aspect of the mind is called "the Witness" in the Gurdjieffian system (see Ouspensky, 1938). Witnessing of the dream state has been reported by Ouspensky using a method of holding in mind a definite image or thought while falling asleep. Other writers have described the same phenomenon when naturally occurring and called it the "lucid" dream. Charles Tart (1970:170) has had lucid dreams about three times in his life, and characterizes them this way: ". . The dreamer 'wakes' from an ordinary dream in that he feels he is suddenly in possession of his normal waking consciousness and knows that he is actually lying in bed asleep but, the dream he is in remains perfectly real." This aptly describes the fifth state experience of dreaming save that the person would not have to "wake" but rather would go into a dream while already fully aware, observing the whole process from beginning to end while experiencing the "reality" of the dream. This dual process also characterizes the fifth state experience of both the sleep and waking states: both realities are fully experienced simultaneous with pure awareness.

"Because of the beneficial side-effects of meditation already discussed, a person who had achieved the fifth state via this path would be a fully integrated personality by the time he arrived. In undergoing the process of deep relaxation, unstressing, and consequent purification of the nervous system, he would undergo on a profound, nonverbal level those major changes which psychotherapies aim for. W. W. Harman (1969:131) proposes as the central concept for a unified view of the processes of personal change that "personality and behavior patterns change consequent upon a change in self-image, a modification of the person's emotionally felt perception of himself

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and his relationship to his environment." Meditation provides this in the form of what Harman calls "the subjective experiencing of a 'higher self' and the development of a self-image congruent with this experience." The first access into the full mind-expansion of the psychedelic state is much like the nature-mystic-peak experiences which poets have made so well known. Concerning this happy period (which for the Christian mystics corresponded to the "betrothal" of the spiritual marriage) Goleman (1972:11) writes:
 

This state is comparable to a child not yet able to stand steady but always trying to do so. The factors of mind characteristic of full absorption are not strong at the access level; their emergence is precarious, and the mind fluctuates between them and "inner speech" the usual ruminations and wandering thoughts. The meditator is still receptive to sensory input and remains aware of environmental noises and body states. The primary object is a dominant thought, but it does not yet fully occupy the mind. At this stage there may emerge (though not always) any of the following: strong feelings of zest or rapture, happiness and pleasure, equanimity, initial application to the primary object as though striking at it, or sustained application to the primary object as though repeatedly noting it. Sometimes there are luminous shapes or flashes of bright light, especially if the meditation subject is a kasina or respiration. Visionary experiences associated with meditational states of consciousness occur at this level, where mind is purified but can still be occupied with name and form. There may also be a sensation of bodily lightness, as though floating on air. . .


Tracing the Buddhic teachings, Goleman (1972:12) tells us that the access period is superseded by the first 'jhana" (a substage in the occultist's "fourth state", or our psychedelic stage) in which "hindering thoughts, sensory perception, and awareness of painful bodily states all cease." There is unbroken attention to the primary object, with bliss and rapture.

The second, third, and fourth jhanas then ensue in which respectively:

thought of primary object ceases (or is transcended),
rapture ceases, and finally
all feelings of bodily pleasure and pain cease.
Presumably these jhanic sub-stages are all part of the highest level of the psychedelic stage.

According to Buddhic tradition, there is no intervening "Dark Night of the Soul," an arid period found in Christian mysticism. There then follows immediately our eighth cognitive stage (called illumination), which is divided into at least four jhanas:

the fifth (conscious of infinite space),
the sixth (objectless infinite consciousness),
the seventh (awareness of no-thing-ness),
and the eighth (neither perception nor non-perception).
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These very high states are successively attained by passing all perception of form, While Goleman (1972) enters into a discussion of these levels, they are so far removed from most of us as to be a subject of only academic interest, even presuming that we can understand what is being said about them. It is probable that process is more important than position at these levels, and that no great good is served by the discussion of matters which we are really not ready for.

(White 1972:15) Gurdjieff describes two advanced states of consciousness: 1) the state of "true Self-awareness" (the psychedelic state), and 2) the "highest level of Cosmic Consciousness" (illumination).

Wapnak (White 1972:156ff) describes some of the risers on the staircase of the 7/8 stages. In mystic literature this would be described as the path to sainthood.
 

1. The awakening of the Self is a sudden period of quiet and calm carrying awareness of higher levels. James referred to it as the possession of an active subliminal self.

2. Dissatisfaction with former patterns of living is produced by the dissonance between the former and newer concepts and is followed by austerities and purgation of the older forms.

3. Underhill calls the third state the "illumination of the Self", which finds joyous apprehension of the Absolute, including ecstasy and rapture.

4. The death of the old ego, or in the words of St. John of the Cross, "The Dark Night of the Soul;" this is the purgation of the senses of self.

5. Absorption in the unitive life, consisting of obliteration of the senses, including the sense of self, results in a state of pure consciousness and an emotional feeling of tranquility and peace.

6. The return of the mystic from the experience of personal salvation to the world of experience as a saint with an avowed purpose of helping others.


Wilhelm (1962:50-1) describes three confirmatory evidences of progress towards enlightenment in meditation:
 

1) the sound of men talking at a distance, like a muffled echo,
2) light in the eyes so that everything before one becomes bright,
3) levitation, a feeling of being drawn upward.


If all the foregoing does not clinch the argument that illumination is part of a developmental process, and that the whole procedure of self-actualization may be best understood by developmental stage analysis, consider the following by Masters and Houston (1966:267) in talking about peak- experiences:

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Specifically, the subject tends to feel that his encounter with Being has in some way led to the erasure of behavioral patterns blocking his development, and at the same time provides him with a new orientation complete with insight and energy sufficient to effect a dramatic and positive self-transformation.

Huxley (White 1972:47ff) reports on characteristics of the experience:
 

the perception of light, undifferentiated
ditto differentiated into luminous objects
the feeling of gratitude
visionary figures
transfigurations
glass and gems
visionary art


White (1972:xv) says:
 

In the highest state of consciousness there is no difference between the content of consciousness and consciousness itself. Integration or unity is the characteristic of that state both literally and figuratively. In the highest state what you are aware of is the vital force, the universal condition which issues forth as intelligence, awareness having your own name. It amounts to the eye seeing itself.
 
White (1972:viii) gives names used for the highest state as:
 
Zen: satori or kensho
Taoism: the absolute Tao
Thomas Merton: transcendental unconscious
Maslow: peak experience
Sufi: fana
Gurdjieff: objective consciousness
Troward: subjective mind
Quakers: inner light
Jung: individuation
Buber: I-thou relationship
Emerson: The Oversoul
Arthur Clark: (Childhood's End) The Overmind
Jesus: The Kingdom of God
Paul: Christ
Mohammed: Gabriel
Dante: Beatrice
Balzac: Specialism
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He also says (1972:vii):
 

In that redefinition of self I equals all mankind, all life, and the universe. The usual ego boundaries break down, and the ego passes beyond the limits of the body. . . Self becomes selfless, the ego is seen to be an illusion, and the ego game ends.
Masters and Houston (1966-302) quote W. T. Stace (1960:111) as to the characteristics of introvertive mysticism:
 
1. The Unitary Consciousness, from which all the multiplicity of sensuous or conceptual or other empirical content has been excluded, so that there remains only a void and empty unity. This is the one basic, essential, nuclear characteristic, from which most of the others inevitably follow.
2. Being nonspatial and nontemporal. This of course follows from the nuclear characteristic listed above.
3. Sense of objectivity or reality.
4. Feelings of blessedness, joy, peace, happiness, etc.
5. Feeling that what is apprehended is holy, sacred, or divine.
6. Paradoxicality.
7. Alleged by mystics to be ineffable.


Extrovertive mysticism differs from the introvertive variety in only the first two characteristics. In extrovertive mysticism, according to Stace's typology, there is no Unitary Consciousness but only a unifying vision "expressed abstractly by the formula 'All is One.' The One is, in extrovertive mysticism, perceived through the physical senses, in or through the multiplicity of objects." The nonspatial and nontemporal character of introvertive mysticism has no place in the extrovertive variety in which there is a "concrete apprehension of the One as being an inner subjectivity in all things, described variously as life, or consciousness, or a living Presence. The discovery that nothing is really dead," is also a crucial revelation for the extrovertive mystic.

Masters and Houston (1966:267) restate the Van Rhijn hypothesis, and the Sullivanian formulation of prototaxic, parataxic, and syntaxic experience in different form when they point out with regard to illuminative experience:
 

Our major criteria for establishing the validity of these most profound religious and mystical experiences are three: Encounter with the Other on the integral level; transformation of the self; and, in most cases, a process of phenomenological progression through the sensory, recollective-analytic and symbolic levels before passing into the integral. In the case of these
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authentic experiences this progression has been at the same time a rich and varied exploration of the contents of these levels providing a cumulative expansion of insight and association until, at the threshold of the integral, the subject has experienced a comprehensive familiarity with the complex network of his being such as he had never known before. This process is greatly intensified and approaches culmination during the subject's passage through the symbolic level.
Comparative studies in the history of religion demonstrate the tendency in the life of a given religion or culture for the myth and ritual complex to exist as a stage prior to the development of the individuated religious or mystical quest. Indeed, it is a matter of cultural and psychological necessity that the myth and ritual pattern should dominate and precede the emergence of the mystic way for the one serves a more comprehensive role in the organic ordering and revitalizing of society and psyche, while the other involves a movement away from the social complex to a region of radical individuation.

It is significant then that in the levels of phenomenological progression revealed in the psychedelic experience, the symbolic realm with its abundance of myth and ritual material is, in most cases, experienced as preceding the level of integral and mystical reality.


Wayman (Prince 1968:168) discusses three mystic stages of increasing primitiveness (or retreat from our normal discursive consciousness). Analogous to the prototaxic, parataxic, and syntaxic modes he reports that yogins reach a non-discursive ecstasy from "sound, form, or the tangible". "It would be the difference between hearing the Lord (commonest), seeing the Lord (much rarer), and touching the Lord (rarest of all)"

7.22 High Levelsof Arrest

Self-actualization as used by Maslow refers rather generally to development which leaves people in any of the last three cognitive stages of creativity, psychedelia, or illumination, for Maslow is much more concerned with whether one is on the way to becoming actualized than whether one has reached that point. Process here becomes more important than product. This concept leads us into an interesting speculation about levels of arrest in one of the lesser of these high states.

It is conceivable that either a surfeit of creativity (which might cause stasis in that stage), or a surfeit of psychedelic power (which might entrance the likes of a Prospero) may "shut the individual

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from heaven with a dome more vast" by producing such optimum and happy conditions in this life that he aspires to no other. The rewards of both creativity and psychedelia are large, and the intuitive control of the preconscious (environment) in the lower stage, and the actual control of these inverses of nature in the higher stage, may pose such a heaven-on-earth, and such temptation for the wise use of power, that the traveler decides to tarry longer and longer. As most of us are stuck in the much lower 7-5 dysplasias of formal operations in the workaday world, we find it hard to visualize these enchanted delights, but they are there to distract the pilgrim. And because they provide health, happiness, wealth, good fortune, and either creative or psychedelic power, they are intensely attractive. The real danger of not renouncing the world until after one has gained the power to control it, is that one will never want to renounce it at all.
 

7.23 Higher Entities


Benjamin Franklin was not alone in believing that "there are as many states above man as there are below him in creation." While we know little about these higher states, all major religions have developed paradigms about them. Of course entities in these stages may be thought of as progressed individuals who were once like ourselves.

 However, another concept of the relation of entity to individuality is sometimes seen. An entity represents the envelope of a number of individual incarnations.

Roberts (1970:55) talking about this entity/ individual relationship says:
 

Individual life or rather the life of any individual could legitimately be compared to the dream of an entity. While the individual enjoys his given number of years, these are but a flash to the entity. The entity is concerned in these years somewhat in the same manner as you are concerned with your dreams. As you give inner purpose and organization to your dreams, and obtain insight and satisfaction from them though they involve only a part of your life, so the entity to some extent directs and gives purpose and organization to his personalities.
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7.3  SUGGESTIONS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF PSYCHEDELIC FUNCTION



7.31 Meditation

While there are many specific techniques of meditation, they all appear to have some common elements. The key factors facilitating meditation appear to be:

1) relaxing the body, and rendering the mind insensible to it by
    a) sitting upright in a relaxed posture,
    b) shutting the eyes,
    c) being undisturbed in a quiet, shuttered room,
    d) controlling the breath so that one breathes more slowly and shallowly;

2) relaxing the mind, and bringing it to an altered state of consciousness by:
    a) use of a mantra (or repetition of the same words, sound or tone),
    b) exclusion of distracting thoughts from the mind,
    c) developing a simple "awareness" without being consciously attracted to any particular idea or wish.


The aim is a "relaxed awareness," but in the words of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, one should perform meditation "without expectation of any results," not in the anticipation of a psychedelic experience. Or as another teacher has put it, "We don't evaluate the results of meditation by our subjective experience, but in the happiness and efficiency of our lives." The benefits of meditation are stressed as relaxation and rest, rather than as an indubitable pathway to the nature-mystic peak experience, (although such experiences may occur).

Aldous Huxley (1945:283) talks about a very similar technique of the Christian mystics in which prayer begins with mental concentration on Christ's passion, and then passes from it to the formless substratum. He notes a similar experience from the Tibetian Book of the Dead:
 

Whosoever thy tutelary deity may be, meditate upon the form for much time - as being apparent, yet non-existent in reality, like a form produced by a magician. . . . Then let the visualization of the tutelary deity melt away from the extremities, till nothing at all remaineth visible of it; and put thyself in the state of the Clearness and the Voidness - which thou canst not conceive as something - and abide in that state for a little while. Again meditate upon the tutelary deity; again meditate upon the Clear Light; do this alternately. Afterwards allow thine own intellect to melt away gradually, beginning from the extremities.


Huxley (1945:290) also quotes Ashvaghosha on the Way of Tranquillity as follows:
 

The purpose of this discipline is twofold: to bring to a standstill all disturbing thoughts; to quiet all engrossing moods and emotions, so that it will be possible to concentrate the mind for the
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purpose of meditation and realization. Secondly, when the mind is tranquilized by stopping all discursive thinking, to practise 'reflection' or meditation, not in a discriminating, analytical way, but in a more intellectual way, by realizing the meaning and significances of one's thoughts and experiences. By this twofold practice of 'stopping and realizing' one's faith, which has already been awakened, will be developed, and gradually the two aspects of this practice will merge into one another - the mind perfectly tranquil, but most active in realization. In the past one naturally had confidence in one's faculty of discrimination (analytical thinking), but this is now to be eradicated and ended.
"Those who are practising 'stopping' should retire to some quiet place and there, sitting erect, earnestly seek to tranquillize and concentrate the mind. While one may at first think of one's breathing, it is not wise to continue this practice very long, nor to let the mind rest on any particular appearances, or sights, or conceptions, arising from the senses, nor to let it rest on any of the mind's perceptions, particularizations, discriminations, moods or emotions, All kinds of ideation are to be discarded as fast as they arise; even the notions of controlling and discarding are to be got rid of. One's mind should become like a mirror reflecting things, but not judging them or retaining them. Conceptions of themselves have no substance; let them arise and pass away unheeded. Conceptions arising from the senses and lower mind will not take form of themselves, unless they are grasped by the attention; if they are ignored, there will be no appearing and no disappearing. The same is true of conditions outside the mind; they should not be allowed to engross one's attention and so to hinder one's practice. The mind cannot be absolutely vacant, and as the thoughts arising from the senses and the lower mind are discarded and ignored, one must supply their place by right mentation. The question then arises: what is right mentation? The reply is: right mentation is the realization of mind itself, of its pure undifferentiated Essence. When the mind is fixed on its pure Essence, there should be no lingering notions of the self, even of the self in the act of realizing, nor of realization as a phenomenon. . . ."
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7.32 Alpha Wave Training and Its Implications*

Meditative states have long been known to produce altered psychological states. Two of the most popular forms of meditation are Yoga and Zen. Yoga means "union" and is usually defined as a higher consciousness achieved through a fully rested and relaxed body and a fully awake and relaxed mind. It may be achieved through strenuous physical exercise, focusing on one particular function, i.e. respiration, or by focusing on mental processes. Zen is basically sitting meditation which is a kind of religious exercise.

There is some evidence that an increase in alpha production is generally found in meditative states. Kasamatsu and Hirai (1969) in studies with subjects who had varied experience in Zen training found EEG changes with the appearance of alpha waves without regard to opened eyes. The alpha waves increase in amplitude and decrease in frequency as the meditation progresses. In the later stage of meditation, theta waves also appear. The results seem to indicate that the degree of the subject's Zen state and the number of years spent in Zen training influence the appearance of the waves.

The investigators identified four stages which were characterized by changes in the EEG (1969:493):
 

Stage I-a slight change which is characterized by the appearance of alpha waves in spite of opened eyes.
Stage II-the increase in amplitude of persistent alpha waves.
Stage III-the decrease of alpha frequency.
Stage IV-the appearance of the rhythmical theta train, which is the final change of EEG during Zen meditation but does not always occur.


In comparisons of the EEG's recorded during meditation with those of hypnotic trance and sleep, the changes of Stages I, II, and III could not be clearly differentiated from those seen in hypnogogic state or hypnotic sleep. The changes were more persistent during meditation and the deeper sleep pattern did not appear.

Anand, et al. (1961) found similar results in Yogis.

Both their normal and resting EEG records showed predominant alpha activity.
There was increased alpha amplitude modulation during meditation.
The subjects also had the ability to maintain high alpha even if presented by various sensory stimuli during meditation.


The research that has been conducted on biofeedback training has mainly recorded alpha waves from the occipital areas of the cortex. The high amplitude low frequency alpha patterns have been found to



*This section is due to graduate student, Nancy Donaldson.

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shift from the occipital region at the rear of the head to central and frontal regions. Little biofeedback training has been attempted in the central and frontal areas. Usually it is more difficult to develop alpha in these areas while it occurs naturally in most individuals in the occipital area. Even so, it may be possible with biofeedback training to achieve in a few months, what it often takes years of disciplined meditative practice to achieve. Both meditation and alpha control require passive attention, physical relaxation and a feeling of flowing with the inner and outer world.

Wallace and Benson (1972) in a study of subjects who practice "transcendental meditation" found physiological changes as well as increased alpha waves. This type of meditation was taught by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and does not require great periods of training. In this meditative state, Wallace and Benson found that their subjects manifested the physiological signs of a "wakeful, hypometabolic state." There were reductions in oxygen consumption, carbon dioxide elimination, and the rate and volume of respiration. There was a slight increase in the acidity of the arterial blood, a marked decrease in the blood lactate level. The heart rate slowed, the skin resistance increased and the EEG pattern showed intensification of slow alpha waves with occasional theta wave activity. All of these findings are similar to those found in experts in Yoga and Zen monks who have had fifteen to twenty years of experience in meditation. Perhaps alpha wave training may lead to the ability to produce these physiological changes in a short time span.

Kaiwn-Toomin (1972) says in this regard: (personal communication)
 

The possibility of using alpha control to reach "altered states of consciousness" is an exciting one. . . To manipulate alpha is only to alter the occurrence of a natural state. This, apparently, is one of the things meditators do after years of training. . . . It is tempting. . . to think that. . . training such patterns by the quicker, easier biofeedback methods will provide the same total subjective experience.
She also notes the bond which has been repeatedly established in these pages between self-actualization and the direction of psychotherapy:
 
Alpha feedback is a powerful tool for the psychotherapist. The possibility of training subjects at will to experience the deep reverie and increased ability to visualize as in "awake dreaming", often found in low frequency alpha and theta brain activity, is a valuable tool for psychotherapists who use these experiences with their clients.
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It appears to us that the claims of alpha wave biofeedback to facilitate the mastery of meditation through operant conditioning techniques is an assertion which needs to be examined very seriously. After all, alpha wave training is a technique which may be used with any meditational approach. In this day of instant everything, it may even be possible to speed up the process of self-actualization by such a means. At least the contingency deserves a careful exploration. From what has been said previously, it is obvious that the facilitation of the alpha state may not only bring one to the terminal of the "great computer", but that it will promote increased concentration, learning, and recall on the cognitive side, and pleasure and relaxation on the affective. There is not space, here in this discussion on meditation, to document these possibilities more fully, but there are good grounds for such speculation. We should not conclude, however, without at least one paragraph devoted to the relation between biofeedback and creativity.

There is perhaps some correlation between alpha-theta output and creativity. A state of reverie which is described by Green, Green, and Walters (1970) as a state of inward-turned abstract attention or internal scanning may be related to theta and low-frequency alpha. In this state there seems to be an increase of hypnagogic and dreamlike images, pictures or words which just seem to spring into the mind. Many creative people such as writer Aldous Huxley, mathematician Poincare, and poet A. E. Housman, report that it is through a reverie state that their creative inspirations have come. Some researchers believe that creative persons have stumbled upon and then developed to a high degree the ability to visualize in the area in which they are creative.

7.33 Programming the Preconscious

A third way of developing psychedelic control of the numinous element in addition to meditation and biofeedback is programming the preconscious. Troward (1909:85) believed that it was perfectly possible to program the preconscious (which he called "subjective mind") from a completely rational state of consciousness without need of dissociation or any altered state. Since he conceived the preconscious to be impersonal, and existing in a subjective hypnotic state, it had no desire of its own, and consequently it waited for us to make up its mind for it. He postulated that:
 

1. There is emotion in the conscious mind which gives rise to
2. Desire;
3. Judgment determines if we shall externalize this desire, if approved,
4. The will directs the imagination to form the necessary prototype;
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5. The clutch of the conscious mind is allayed by sleep, hypnotism, satori, or some altered state of consciousness, during which the prototype is transferred from the individual to the general mind (from the personal to the impersonal), (from the conscious to the preconscious); the imagination thus centered now in the preconscious creates the mental (spiritual) nucleus;
6. This prototype in the preconscious is a fact of reality, and, hence, acts as a center around which the forces of attraction begins to work so that
7. An inward and spiritual fact becomes manifested in outward and perceptible form.
We conceive this process to take place much as a master print in xeroxing has its image transferred via a light beam to a succession of copies of which it is the prototype. The key aspect is the juncture of the conscious desire with the collective preconscious. While it is evident that such a juncture can more easily take place during an altered state of consciousness (such as a hypnopompic state) Troward seems to feel that it can also be affected at least by some in the ordinary state.

Such a rationale would go a long way toward explaining such diverse phenomena as the miracles of the Bible, faith healing, fire walking, the effects of hypnotism, yoga, Zen, and other esoteric schools, the activities of Edgar Cayce, shamanism, etc. But the really significant point is that once the process is understood psychologically, it is not necessary to embrace any of these (or other) religious doctrines, in order to get results.

The question may be asked whether altered states of consciousness are necessary in all cases to get in touch with the preconscious and use its awesome power. The answer to this question is found in a reverse use of Van Rhijn's hypothesis (1960). It is possible to do this at the lowest (enactive) level by dissociation and externalization of body processes, such as fasting, mortification, etc. It is again possible to do this at a parataxic level of sign, myth, and image in a kind of ritual magic, in which one enters a somewhat altered state of consciousness. Finally, it is also possible to contact the preconscious while in the full symbolic state; such a method is the least easy of the three and hence the most advanced, but it offers advantages over the first two. Because the preconscious is his ground of being, man has always been able to commune with it; the method by which he communes (and the degree of control), depends upon his choice which, in turn, depends upon his state of development.

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7.34 Sensory Deprivation

Modern sensory deprivation experiments have also shown that this kind of reduction in perceptual intake can induce altered states of consciousness. Masters and Houston (1966) describe their altered states of consciousness induction device (ASCID) which is a metal swing in which the subject stands upright wearing blindfold goggles and supported by canvas bands. The device is then agitated to and fro, sidewise, and rotationally. In from a few to twenty minutes an ASC usually results. They also have an audio-visual environment consisting of rear view dual projection of slides plus accompanying sound effects, which also usually induces the ASC state.

The ASCID reminds one of the "witches cradle" in use during the Middle Ages by witches for inducing dissociation. It consisted of a set of straps, set in a swing-like contraption, which induced a feeling of disorientation.

One of the most common methods of sensory deprivation is to immerse the patient in warm water, thus inducing weightlessness and the sensation of floating. Mark Kammerman, a student of the author's working at USIU in San Diego, has placed patients in a warm saline solution and obtained results.

7.35 Other Methods

Other ways of attaining altered states of consciousness are discussed by White (1972:xiii) as follows: Classic Ways: dance, fasting, self-torture, electric shock, sensory isolation, sensory overload, psychotic episodes, trauma and birth by ordeal, extreme fatigue, sexual relations, gazing on natural scenery; Systematic approaches: prayer, yoga, Zen, tantra, Transcendental Meditation, psychedelic drugs, hypnosis, occult methods, light shows, biofeedback, Rolfing, uncompromising introspection.

It may be well at the end of this section to take a minute to keep in perspective the endeavors in this area. We can best do so by eliminating the elation of "going to the moon" aspect through the mechanism of making a homely comparison with the tasks of a previous stage - the intimacy-creativity period. Sexual intimacy is the glory of this period, as psychedelic ecstasy is the glory of the generativity-psychedelic period. As much fun as it is to indulge in sex, and as natural as it is to overindulge in sex on first falling in love, no mature adult would advocate that sex (while admittedly an important means) is the end-all and be-all of existence. In the same way, maturity would compel us to look upon psychedelic experience (like sexual ecstacy) as important epiphenomena, but not as "central" in our development. It is like the sweet taste of honey, an inducement, but not the

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principal value (which is nourishment). Life includes having our kicks, but it includes more.

The psychic or psychedelic is a realm to be discovered and controlled by man, not one which represents his final destination. Its strange manifestations are early seen as menacing, later as a garden of powers and delights. Each view is equally unfortunate if it distracts man from his goal of self-actualization.
 

7.4 SUMMARY and CONCLUSIONS

7.41 The Search for Compatible Constructs

What kind of a philosophy is most compatible with the phenomena which we have been exploring and discussing thus far? Before attempting to answer this question, we may take a minute to recapitulate the central facts to emerge. They appear to be:
 

1. Man's concept of the world of nature needs expansion to take account of psychic and psychedelic events. The "collective preconscious" is the most single helpful construct to explain these phenomena.

2. Developmental process holds the key in understanding man's progression through a series of developmental stages, in which creativity, psychedelia, and illumination are the (heretofore unrecognized) cognitive aspects of the last three stages.

3. Man is essentially a developing spirit, not a physical body. Consciousness, of which his is a part, can survive death, and can be involved in further life.

4. The essence of altered states of consciousness is the union of the conscious ego and the collective preconscious. The continuum goes from loss of control in schizophrenia and trance to full cognitive control in advanced psychedelic states. Tests purporting to measure creativity, psychedelic or illumination (all aspects of self-actualization) in reality measure this development.

5. Developmental dysplasia, creating personal problems and social ills, is widespread; improved educational methods may prevent it.

6. Developmental forcing, or the artificial introduction of an individual into a stage higher than he can function effectively in, may create trauma, as contrasted with developmental escalation, which results in healthy progress.

7. Self-actualization is a potential in every man, although he is generally unaware of its motivating force; it is also a potential with enormous benefits toward personal and social growth.

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8. Consciousness has an irresistible tendency to form; for every level of consciousness, therefore, there is a vehicle, of which the physical body is but one example.

9. Consciousness tends to be manifested in different forms or states. Some of these altered states of consciousness, such as sleep, seem required for rest and relaxation.

10. The sequence of conscious states is toward higher integration, not towards lower dissociation, toward increased control of the environment, rather than less, and toward more and grander perceptions of beneficence rather than the opposite.

11. The successive levels of consciousness constitute both a developmental and an evolutionary process.

12. The Van Rhijn-Sullivanian hypothesis, that:
 

a) prototaxic experiences are reflected on the body or environment,

b) parataxic experiences are expressed through archetype, dream, myth, ritual and art, and that

c) syntaxic experiences are fully cognized symbolically, appears to be an extremely useful construct. In particular, the name of the continuum thus illustrated is dissociation-association.


13. The continuum of dissociation-association involving schizophrenia and trance, and creativity, psychedelic control, and self-actualization as the polar opposites is one of increasing cognitive consciousness and control in relation to the numinous element. This continuum is also the pathway of development and the trace of psychotherapy.

14. The Erikson (affective) and the Piagetian (cognitive) developmental stages can be combined into an affective-cognitive developmental chart having a periodicity of three: the higher cognitive stages in this chart are respectively: creativity, psychedelia, and illumination.

15. Developmental stages are characterized by escalation, which is composed of five separate but interrelated aspects known as succession, discontinuity, emergence, differentiation, and integration. Developmental dysplasia is a concept describing failure to escalate.

16. Creativity is developmentally oriented, and is, in fact, a characteristic of the third (initiative-intuitive) or the sixth (intimacy-creativity) stages.

17. The stabilization and health of the preconscious is the key factor in creative production and developmental progress.

18. The laws of the physical world reflect the boundaries of man's ordinary consciousness. In a particular state of consciousness, man perceives and cognizes a particular state of nature. When consciousness is expanded or contracted, nature is perceived differently, for

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the mind reacts to new and different aspects. Nature is hence the inverse of the state of consciousness.

19. Creativity is the intuitive form of psychedelia. Since creativity is the junior cognitive state, creative production results from leaks between the preconscious and the conscious (as if by osmosis through a permeable membrane). In psychedelic production the doors between the two swing open, and the conscious mind is awed by suddenly finding itself in a new and vastly enlarged domain.

20. In relative dysplasias, cognitive development generally lags behind affective; because of the periodic aspect, the lag is never more than two stages; furthermore dysplasias are generally irreversible.


It appears that two philosophical systems are about equally compatible with the phenomena described. They are:
 
1. The Hindu-Buddhist view, sometimes known in the West as Vedanta or "The Perennial Philosophy", also sensed by some Christian mystics;

2. The concept of the generalized preconscious or universal subjective mind.
 

Assuming that the union of the individual ego and the universal mind is the heart of the matter, one can develop two constructs about their relationship. The first, the classical Perennial Philosophy, taught by all higher mysticism, is that an Almighty Spirit gives our individual egos the freedom to choose in hopes we will choose union. The second, and newer idea, discussed in these pages, holds that we are the prelude rather than the aftermath of creation, and that our conscious minds are the clerestory windows whereby a hypnotized and impersonal spirit seeks to achieve consciousness, One is reminded of the essential dichotomy and partiality involved in all constructs which by nature cannot explain more than a part of ultimate reality, for as products of our minds, constructs too are mortal and less than infinite.

Huxley (1945:29) puts it "Alternatively he might be an emergent God, starting unspiritually at Alpha, and gradually becoming more divine . . . "

From the conscious side we look upon a psychedelic experience as an episode where the doors of the preconscious swing open, and the
conscious mind finds itself master in an enlarged domain, together with awe and exaltation resulting from increased control over nature. From the preconscious side, this phenomenon can be viewed as a breaking-through into consciousness, a correspondence(in the French sense) which has previously eluded the individual. If we find the preconscious a difficult and formidable entity to accommodate from the

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conscious side, it finds us at best, torn with the tender passions of the intimacy period, equally fitful and disconcerned. So the glow and fire of the psychedelic state arises from a grander passion of the seventh stage, superseding the lesser affective passion of the earlier period, and fusing conscious and preconscious into one.

All higher religions deal with the relationship of the individual ego to the non-individual mind. The process of life may be viewed as a development of the self from an ego-centric view of the world to a merging with the noumenon of experience in psychedelia. Cogitation (literally a "shaking-up") explains the changing discontinuity of developmental stages in which the ego is reoriented by being permuted in its relationship to the world of experience, to itself, and to the beloved other.

These continual cycles of differential emphasis force the ego to different experiences, and break it loose from its initial ego-centricity. They direct it on a developmental path which will finally give it the full ability to understand its nature and function. Such development gives increased cognitive access to the psychedelic realm which gradually allows the self to partake more and more of the numinous aspects of the preconscious, and in turn supplying the impersonal mind with the flavor of individuality and the clerestory of conscious thought and will.

It is important to note that the idea of a generalized preconscious or universal subjective mind is a construct, not a theology. Like the Rutherford atom, it is a primitive hypothesis, useful mainly in interpreting natural phenomena. Such a construct does not rest on revelation as theology might, and like other scientific guesses, is subject to correction, emendation and enlargement. It represents a minimum empirical hypothesis tailored to suit today's experience, and flexible enough to be altered by tomorrow's discoveries. It fits well with Roger's statement (1973:385) that the evidence for non-ordinary reality "grows more and more impressive", or the views of LeShan (1969).

We have no quarrel with those (like the Hindus and Buddhists) who posit a Pantheon to a similar superstructure. Chacun a son gout. But this theory does have certain scientific characteristics:
 

1) A humanistically-oriented, impersonal divinity is concentrated in a species mind instead of in an external Deity.
2) Man's existence is seen as a prelude to creation rather than an aftermath of it.
3) Instead of man as a reactive creature, the human spirit is seen as the precursor of the divine.
4) Numinous aspects of experience heretofore not encompassed in psychological theory are now annexed to behavioral science.
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7.42 Intimations

Some concepts remain in the parataxic mode and do not come through completely to symbolic representation. In these we cannot give final answers, but set down some persistent clues and intimations which should be recorded in this imperfect form as hints for future investigators about needed research.
 

1) Ultimate reality is somehow associated with radiant light. Fire, radiance, warmth, glow, - all these words are used over and over again when mystics attempt to describe their experiences.

2) The ultimate nature of the universe is beneficent. In the higher reaches of experience, bad elements are seldom found. Frightening appearances seem generally to be designated as hallucinations.

3) Ultimate reality is encountered only outside the usual state of consciousness. Man has a tendency to attain altered states of consciousness where many surprising effects are possible.

4) The electromagnetic spectrum, even beyond the "light" aspect of the visible octave, has some important connection with supernature. It represents some kind of conduit or communications channel.

5) Man is a bioplasmic complex of which the visible and ponderable body is only one aspect. There are electromagnetic and other types of activity connected with the aura and other psychic aspects of the human being.

6) Breathing and its regulation promise access to altered states of consciousness. Brain wave rhythms also seem to be connected.

7) Inventions, such as television, the electronic computer, etc., are in reality better constructs of the operations of man's mind. (Television represents a scanning model of the mind; the electronic computer represents a model of the collective preconscious).

8) The importance of gaining information and insight through the parataxic level, when we are not advanced enough to cognize it fully through the symbolic level, needs to be emphasized. This parataxic level is seen in archetype, myth, ritual, and all forms of art. These intimations are even an example of it in verbal form.

9) The correspondences and columnar similarities of the EriksonPiaget-Gowan Periodic Developmental Stage Table have the capacity to reveal further discoveries about the nature of higher stages. Likewise for developmental dysplasia theory.

10) Mathematical models, like ideal numbers (for example), may be useful in explaining the n-1 correspondence between individual lives and the enduring identities of which they may be only the incarnations.

11) We should expect the nature of ultimate reality to be very orderly but very complex.

12) The human ego is a transient thing; the game "lila" of life is the play of the development and diffusion of this illusion.

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13) We agree with Wilson that serotonin is somehow mixed up with "faculty X", and is, therefore, somehow geared into cognitive developmental process.

14) There may be psychomotor developmental stages to correspond to the affective and cognitive ones.

15) The circumstances in which the individual conscious ego can contact the generalized preconscious (and so affect nature) are still unclear. While we know this must take place in altered states of consciousness, we are not clear as to how this junction can be transformed from a parataxic state involving some dissociation to a syntaxic state involving full rational control.

16) The accurate diagnosis of development would be greatly furthered by scales of cognitive and affective minitasks connecting (like risers) the different developmental levels. Such analysis will lead to the construction of more accurate cognitive and affective developmental tests.

17) Despite our initial efforts in Chapter V, the causes of rare instances of cognitive rather than affective acceleration are not clear. Further study of these, and their relation to measured intelligence may yield procedures for preventing dysplasias.

18) Longitudinal studies of developmental stages, similar to the one described in Chapter V section 2 are needed. It is significant that both this study and Maslow's study on self-actualizing people used very intelligent subjects. Replications might involve both sexes and more average subjects.

19) Too little is known (despite Maslow's early work) about the commonalities of self-actualizing people. More research including longitudinal studies, normative sampling at different ages, subjects controlled by sex, age, class, occupation, and ethnic origin is indicated.

20) If dysplasias create cognitive stasis which in turn has been hypothesized (in Chapter V) to result in psychological difficulty and dis-ease, we should be able to explore this hypothesis in a census of counseling and psychotherapy cases.

21) There is more to Table III in Chapter II than meets the eye. Erikson glimpsed the complex process at work here, and there are hints of it in Childhood and Society (1963:273-4). We hazard the guess that the reason it takes five stages for full development has something to do with the three-phase periodicity of the Periodic Developmental Stage Table. The full explication of this matter awaits research.

22) We suspect that there are more developmental stages than the eight postulated by Erikson - one hunch is that the "eight-fold" way might become a "twelve-fold" way.

23) The Van Rhijn-Sullivan formulation of prototaxic, parataxic,

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and syntaxic modes of cognizing is very useful, but we suspect that there exists a meta-syntaxic mode which has the property of not just knowing something intellectually, and being able to verbalize it, but of fully understanding and realizing it.

24) The principles glimpsed in this book, to be further explicated and enlarged by future research, will develop man's control over his inner self and over nature to an enormous extent, producing a "science of Man" which will become the psycho-religious legacy of the Western World, as Toynbee declared Christianity to be the religious legacy of the Roman Empire.
 

Epilogue

Suppose it is determined that the best way for the Spirit of Man (which is a Life Spirit appearing in a present state of hypnotized and unindividualized subjective preconsciousness) to gain rational consciousness is to project a series of nascent individualized egos into time/space experience. There, hopefully, they develop, effloresce, and eventually return to the undifferentiated spirit fortified with the jeweled experience of initiation and selection in will and consciousness. (At least this is one way of looking at it for us in the dream.) This, then, is the experience which we call life.

Our egos are ephemeral, transitory events, which develop (like waves), effloresce, and diffuse, carrying back with them to the Spirit which originated them the precious experience of rational consciousness. This individualized process is carried out in eight stages of development, discovered by Erikson.

In stage I the ego is absent;
in stage 2 it rises and differentiates;
in stage 3 it explores love of self and parents;
in stage 4 it stops trying to make people and starts trying to make things;
in stage 5 it reaches its zenith of separatism in the adolescent identity-crisis;
in stage 6 it begins diffusion in love of the beloved and in creativity;
in stage 7 it further diffuses in parental succorance, and psychedelic experiences;
in stage 8 it sets in illumination, knowing that its density is to transcend self;
in stage 9 it is again absent, having returned to the universal.


The central issue in the development of man is the relationship between the generalized impersonal mind (which we call the preconscious) and the particularized conscious manifestation of it (which we call our individual consciousness). Each of these aspects of intelligence brings to their psychedelic union its own peculiar and characteristic powers, and each needs the support of the other. The generalized mind, which exists in a hypnotized impersonal state has genie-like powers over the environment including ourselves, but lacks conscious will and personality. The particular conscious mind has the regnancy of individual will, consciousness, and rational thought,

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but lacks the generalized powers, which can only be wisely and usefully released in a union of the two (which we call the psychedelic state).

In the unitive state, whether by trance, meditation, peak experience, or other psychedelic methods, these two aspects are joined; and as in a closed electrical circuit, the current flows, empowering the human consciousness with quasi-divine authority, and humanizing the impersonal preconscious with the rationalizing of human conscious evaluation in place of the dark archetypes of the collective subconscious. To be sure, not all these methods are of equal value, for some allow for much more rational control than others, and it is this rational control of the process which is the continuum on which they should be evaluated.

The concept that the numinous element, (the collective preconscious), needs help from the rational consciousness in perfecting its manifestation in the world of experience may seem strange to many people, but this view of reality, which makes man a co-creator, may actually be nearer the truth than the superseded idea that he is a reactive creature in a universe already created. For such an explanation contains a plausible hypothesis for the existence of evil as a lack of complete manifestation of the good, brought on not by a captious or wrathful deity, but by the omission of psychedelic control and co-creation by man himself. The relationship between this transcendental union of the individual and general minds, and psychic healing is beautifully stated by Green et al. (1971b):
 

As a final word, it seems increasingly certain that healing and creativity are different pieces of a single picture. Both Swami Rama and Jack Schwarz, a Western Sufi whom we recently had a chance to work with, maintain that self healing can be performed in a state of deep reverie. Images for giving the body instructions are manipulated in a manner very similar to that used by Assagioli for personality and transpersonal integration, as in his Psychosynthesis. But this "manner" of manipulation of images is also the same as that in which we find ideas being handled creatively (by two pilot subjects) for the solution of intellectual problems. What an interesting finding! Creativity in terms of physiological processes means then physical healing, physical regeneration. Creativity in emotional terms consists then of establishing, or creating, attitude changes through the practice of healthful emotions, that is, emotions whose neural correlates are those that establish harmony in the visceral brain, or to put it another way, emotions that establish in the visceral brain those neurological patterns whose reflection in the viscera is one that physicians approve of as stress resistant. Creativity in the mental domain involves the emergence of
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a new and valid synthesis of ideas,not by deduction, but springing by "intuition" from unconscious sources.

The entrance, or key, to all these inner processes we are beginning to believe, is a particular state of consciousness to which we have given the undifferentiated name "reverie". This reverie can be approached by means of theta brainwave training in which the gap between conscious and unconscious processes is voluntarily narrowed, and temporarily eliminated when useful. When that self-regulated reverie is established, the body can apparently be programmed at will and the instructions given will be carried out, emotional states can be dispassionately examined, accepted or rejected, or totally supplanted by others deemed more useful, and problems insoluable in the normal state of consciousness can be elegantly resolved.

Perhaps now, because of the resurgence of interest in self exploration and in self realization, it will be possible to develop a synthesis of old and new, East and West, prescience and science, using both yoga and biofeedback training as tools for the study of consciousness. It is also interesting to hypothesize that useful parapsychological talents can perhaps be developed by use of these reverie-generating processes of yoga and biofeedback. Much remains to be researched, and tried in application, but there is little doubt that in the lives of many people a penetration of consciousness into previously unconscious realms (of mind and brain) is making understandable and functional much that was previously obscure and inoperable.


To the extent that each individual human mind shares in the generalized preconscious, it becomes a creator, just as the generalized preconscious is. Therefore, every human has the potentiality of creation, not just of ideas but of actual reality; and from this it follows that whatever people believe in, becomes real in an existential sense. The enormous implications of this concept, (which among other things solves the problem of the origin of evil) are extremely important for each of us to understand, so that we do not, by negative thoughts, add to the sum total of evil in the world, but instead contribute to its opposite - the good.

The Spirit of Man appears in the process of becoming, in the process of manifesting, in the process of building, toward what is to us a future event of perfection. All that precedes that dawn is prologue, including the dream world in which we live, for this can be conceptualized as no more than the Spirit of Man trying out different facets of its power and energy through the medium of our individualized lives, much as a concert artist tries out themes before a symphony concert. But that rehearsal is a necessary part of its evolution, for when housed in us, it is able, if but in the blink of a man's lifetime to

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blend its awesome power with the personal element which it alone lacks: it is able in a finite life to become complete, and to pre-figure the "far-off Divine event" of the poet, when all having been brought to perfection, the All will fully cognize the All. Thus each individual life is part of an eternal prologue in which the numinous element is being perfected and completed to a new and more glorious dawn. Thoreau, that rustic seer, said of this process: "That day is yet to dawn, for the sun is only a morning star!"



"The proper study of mankind is man", - so the poet told us centuries ago. But how reluctant we are to benefit from this study! It has taken the Zeitgeist this long to develop an interest in Third Force (humanistic) psychology, and to look at the human potentials of mankind instead of some of his mammalian drives and aberrations. For man is an individual of enormous potential development who in his own lifetime can foreshadow the coming evolutionary development of Mankind. We need to envisage man as a becoming being, and his species in the same manner of growth toward an unknown potential.

When man comes to terms with the values inherent in himself, with his preconscious, and with the dark but evolving spirit of his species which lies embedded in his psyche, he can become not only creative, but eventually psychedelic, and as a result of this developmental expansion, he can begin to reach for the real potential of self-actualization for his kind. For man is much more than an animal; his self-conscious mind is geared for much more than the mere intake of raw experience of nature, - it is there for control of his environment, for the ordering of nature into configurations of beauty and power. And in this process, man himself becomes healthy in mind and body, and gains true dominion over the earth.

Critics may say that this is the fruit of the mystic vision of all ages past, and they are right in this narrow sense. But what is different today is that this El Dorado is no longer the privilege of the mystic alone. Humanistic psychology in its developmental aspects has now traced this path stripped of its former religious overtones, and affords all who wish it, a scientific prescription of what to do to gain this kind of life for each of us.

 
"This is the life which man should lead above all others, in the contemplation of Beauty absolute" said Socrates long ago, and he promised us that if man developed this power: "dwelling in that realm alone, he would bring forth not images of beauty, but Beauty itself, and so would become immortal and become the friend of the Gods."