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Week 7

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Week 7. Existential Level, Transpersonal Bands, & Associated Therapies This module addresses the following Learning Objectives: #7 - Describe the features of existential level consciousness and the aims of corresponding psychotherapeutic approaches to the resolution of the primary dualism present at this level; #9 - Explore the literature and varying views of the nature of human consciousness and development This week we move further along the spectrum and into the Existential Level, where we explore the mind/body question and the primary dualism of organism/environment; being/non-being. We'll look at somatic existentialism & noetic existentialism approaches to integration at this level through the lens of various therapeutic modalities designed to address this expression of dualism. We'll walk through Wilber's landscape of the spectrum's transpersonal bands and touch upon the collective unconscious and non-ordinary states of consciousness. We'll then look at various views of consciousness mapping, including Stanislav Grof's conceptualization of a human consciousness map and the mandala model of consciousness. We'll also briefly look at maps of consciousness that aim to incorporate altered states of consciousness as distinct from pathology. For this week, I invite you to reflect on the readings and watch Phil Borges and Eleanor Longden's videos. Consider these through the lens of the Spectrum of Consciousness. Reflect on the nature of human consciousness and the parallels between what some viewpoints considered pathology and others referred to as a "gift" or transcendence. What determines a "higher level" consciousness from a shadow? Copyright © 2012. Theosophical Publishing House. All rights reserved. A No-Man's Land Between the Existential Level and the Level of Mind lies the most mysterious, unexplored, misunderstood, fear-inducing, and generally puzzling portion of the s pectrum-the Transpersonal Bands. They can be experiencedas the "dark night ofthe soul" or the boundless light of Amitabha; here one can meet visions of bodhisattvasandangels, or be accosted by the legions of Mara,the archetypal Evil One; one can discover here the Inner Guides, or fall into the hands ofthe terrible Dweller on the Threshold. One's identity can shiR to out ofthe body or one can be whisked away to astral travel. It is here that paranormal occurrences of ESP, clairvoyance, and clairaudience are found (if, indeed, they exist), that one can relive "past lives" or project oneself into future occurrences. If ever existed a no-man's land, the Transpersonal Bands are it. These Bands historically have not beenas widely studiedas the others, for severalreasons: (1)They scare the daylights out ofmost people; (2) Orthodox psychiatry considers them as signs of a very disturbed psyche; and (3) Enlightened Masters consider them makyo-illusions of the most deceptive nature. In general, we agree with the Masters. This is not to say that the Transpersonal Bands are totally worthless as a subject of investigation, only that-for those pursuing the Level of Mind--they are pernicious distractions, something that must be quickly passed through. Nevertheless, we will briefly comment on them, especially since interest in these bands is rapidly growing. An essential point to remember about these bands is that when an individual breaks the Primary Dualism incompletely and hence enters the Transpersonal Bands, h e usually "carries" with him the maps h e has received on the Biosocial and Ego Levels, and these maps will, t o a large extent, determine how he views this territory. Most importantly, many people have maps that tell them that these bands either do not exist orare at least pathological, so that if they occasionally break into these bands they instantly fear for their sanity, an over-reactive attitude that could actually act to "stick" them on one of these bands for a prolonged time, an experience that is rarely harmful but always terrifying. We believe that these bands do indeed exist (although not necessarily all the phenomena that supposedly occur here) and that, in themselves, these bands are not pathological-although many people 254 Wilber, Ken. The Spectrum of Consciousness, Theosophical Publishing House, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sofia/detail.action?docID=1938709. Created from sofia on 2021-05-08 10:24:15. A NeMan's Land 255 Copyright © 2012. Theosophical Publishing House. All rights reserved. who are diagnosed "mentally ill" may be lost in these bands for want of an adequate guide, and thus read as any normal Englishspeaking person might read if dumped into Germany without a translator. To be sure, these bands do not represent Absolute Reality, but then neither do any of the other levels above it. Orthodox psychiatrists do not discover madness on these levels, they invent it on these levles by so defining it, reflecting the incredible fad that the level of consciousness rendered acceptable by social conventions is very much a political affab-the politics of consciousness. Yet to see the beneficial side of the Transpersonal Bands, we have only to look to the purer forms of Tibetan Mysticism or,for those more at home with Western traditions, to Jung's Analytical Psychology. Both ofthese subjects wouldrequire several volumes in themselves, and consequently our comments can only be most disgracefully superficial. On the other hand, at the Transpersonal Bands, we are all somewhat beyond our depth, but we will nevertheless hazard a few hypotheses based upon the work of Jung and certain Eastern mystical traditions, particularly the Tantra. Jung's idea of the "colledive unconscious," if somewhat incredible, is nevertheless simple enough.. Just as a man's body universally contains ten fingers, one spleen, two kidneys, and so on, Jung believed that man's "mind" might contain universal symbols or "archetypes" that, because they were biologically given to the whole species, could not be merely personal or individual and hence were transpersonal or "colledive." Jung states: The other part ofthe unconscious [besides personal] is what I call the impersonnal or collective unconscious. As the name indicates, its contents are not personal but collective; that is, they do not belong to one individual alone but to a whole group of individuals, and generally to a whole nation, or even to the whole of mankind. These contents are not acquired during the individual's lifetime but are products of innate forms and instincts. Although the child possesses no inborn ideas, it nevertheless has a highly developed brain which functions i n a quite definite way. This brain is inherited fkom its ancestors; it is a deposit of the psychic functioning of the whole human race. The childtherefore brings with it an organ ready to function in the same way that it has functioned throughout human history. In the brain the instincts are preformed, and so are the primordial images which have always been the basis of man's thinking. . . .l Wilber, Ken. The Spectrum of Consciousness, Theosophical Publishing House, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sofia/detail.action?docID=1938709. Created from sofia on 2021-05-08 10:24:15. SPECTRUM OF CONSCIOUSNESS Of these primordial images, these archetypes, Jung states: Thereare as many archetypesas thereare typical situations in life. Endless repetition has engraved these experiences into our psychic constitution, not in the form of images filled with content, but at first only as forms without content, representing merely the possibility of a certain type of perception and action. When a situation occurs which corresponds to a given archetype, that archetype becomes activated. . . .* Copyright © 2012. Theosophical Publishing House. All rights reserved. Jung believed that the activation of an archetype produced pathological results only if the individual refused to cooperate with its elaboration or amplification, that is, refused to establish a conscious relation with the images and myths that it animates, seeking their meaning for the individual. If, on the other hand, he did cooperate with the archetype's elaboration, it could provide a powerful, beneficial, and meaningful guide to life. Thus Jung looked upon the archetypes as something like a primitive "mental instinct," so that-like all other "instincts" or needs-if they are heeded they result in fulfillment, while if shunned, neurosis. We have already noted the similarity of the archetypes of the collective unconscious with the vasanas or b i a or seed-forms of the alaya-vinana. It is not surprising, then, that just as Jung's psychology seeks to handle the archetypes not by intellectually or logically analyzing them away but by amplifying them through dream and mythological imagery, so also certain forms of Eastern mysticism seek to utilize these primordial forms for spiritual growth by amplifying them through imagery and religious mythology. The spiritual growth that results, the contact with the Level of Mind, "cannot be achieved," states Lama Govinda, through building up convictions, ideals, and aims based on reasoning, but only through conscious penetration of those layers of our mind which cannot be reached or influenced by logical arguments and discursive thought. Such penetration and transformation is only possible through the compelling power of inner vision, whose primordial images or "archetypes" are the formative principles of our mind. Like seeds they sink into the fertile soil of our subconscious in order to germinate, to grow and to unfold their potentialities.= Both Jungian analysis and Tibetan visualization techniques utilize these primordial forms for beneficial growth by seeking to elaborate and not shun them. In Jung's system, this is accomplished through the use of key dreams or images that reflect universal mythological motifs, so that one can establish a conscious relationship with the archetypes molding all human action Wilber, Ken. The Spectrum of Consciousness, Theosophical Publishing House, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sofia/detail.action?docID=1938709. Created from sofia on 2021-05-08 10:24:15. A NeMan's Land 257 instead of being their unwitting instrument. Similarly, Tibetan Buddhism uses key images, such as the Dhyani or Visualization Buddhas, to become conscious ofthe world and ofthose forces which create it, [so that] we become their master. As long as these forces remain dormant and unperceived within us, we have no access t o them. For this reason it is necessary to project them into the realm ofthe visible in the form of images. The symbols which servethis purposead like a chemical catalyst, through which a liquid is suddenly converted into solid crystals, thusrevealing its true nature and ~ t r u c t u r e . ~ Anyone who has seriously practiced these or other similar "archetype-elaboration" exercises will testify that they apparently tap a source of vast energy and strength which profoundly influences one's basic feeling of existence. As P. W. Martin states, in narrating Jung's "discovery" of this process: Copyright © 2012. Theosophical Publishing House. All rights reserved. In short, [Jung found that1 the unconscious was producing today, in the psychologist's consulting room, symbols which, far away and long ago, had brought new energy and new insights; and the modern Europeans and Americans through whomthisadivity was operating were likewise experiencing a dynamic renewal of life.= These exercises, despite considerable differences in content, nevertheless share several formal characteristics, for they all seek to help elaborate and amplify these primitive "seeds" and then to consciously integrate them. Thus the Tibetan visualization techniques, for example, consist of two major phases: The first is that of elaboration or creation of the mythological image (sristikmma); the second is that of dissolving or integrating (layakrama) these images "into the normal stream of life and conThis two fold process of conscious contact and then s~iousness."~ re-integration reflects the very same principle used "therapeutically" on every other level we have examined, fi-om contacting and integrating the shadow to contacting and integrating the body. Thus these exercises on the Transpersonal Bandsresult ina "dynamic renewal of life" just as similar exercises based on the same principle produced an analogous "dynamic renewal of life" on the Ego and Existential Levels. But what more can we say about this "dynamic renewal of life" surging up fi-om the Transpersonal Bands themselves? To begin with, listen once again to Jung on the archetypes: Do we ever understand what we think? We understand only such thinking a s is a mere equation and fiom which Wilber, Ken. The Spectrum of Consciousness, Theosophical Publishing House, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sofia/detail.action?docID=1938709. Created from sofia on 2021-05-08 10:24:15. 258 SPECTRUM OF CONSCIOUSNESS Copyright © 2012. Theosophical Publishing House. All rights reserved. nothing comes out but what we have put in. That is the manner of the intellect. But beyond that there is a thinking in primordial images--in symbols that are older than historical man; which have been ingrained in him &om earliest times, and, eternally living, outlasting all generations, still make up the groundwork ofthe human psyche. It is possibleto livethe fullest life only when we are in harmony with these symbols; wisdom is a return t o them. It is a question neither of belief nor knowledge, but ofthe agreement of our thinking with the primordial images of the uncons~ious.~ And so, Jung would ask, by what myth do you live? For mythological imagery springs fiom the collective unconscious, the transconscious, and, among other things, it is therefore not contaminated nor perverted by merely social conventions, language, logic, or the illusions of any particular cult or individual. Furthermore, the language of mythology is associative and integrative, and not like ordinary thought dissociative and analytical, and hence it more clearly and truly reflects the actual physical reality of t h e seamless coat of t h e universe, of t h e mutual interdependence and interpenetration of all things and events. Myth, remember, embodies the nearest approach to absolute truth that can be stated in words. For these reasons, it confers upon the individual an intimation of his universality, a direct pointer to his fundamentally joyous unity with all of creation, a wholeness that whisks him far beyond the dismally petty affairs of day-to-day routine and plunges him into the vast and magical world of the transpersonal. Myth, short -which Jung felt to be the direct embodiment of archetypes-is integrative and patterned, holistic and encompassing, a truer representation of Reality than we will find in any other symbolic system. Although it does not itself abolish all dualisms, it does suspend them, and herein lies the incredibly life-renewing power and eternal fascination of true mythology. Remember that the Hindu calls these Transpersonal Bands the "ananda-maya-kosa", the level of pure bliss, blissful precisely because the war of opposites is temporarily suspended. Now these mythological archetypes, or bijas, or vasanas exert a profound effect upon every level of the Spectrum existing "above" the Transpersonal Bands. This is, of course, a general phenomenon seen throughout the spectrum: the vicissitudes of any level dramatically affect all ofthe levels above it. But we wish to emphasize again that the Transpersonal Bands can themselves bedirectly experienced. This holds not only for the more obvious cases of out-of-the-body experiences, astral travel, traveling clairaudience, and so on, but also for the archetypes themselves, Wilber, Ken. The Spectrum of Consciousness, Theosophical Publishing House, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sofia/detail.action?docID=1938709. Created from sofia on 2021-05-08 10:24:15. A NeMan's Land Copyright © 2012. Theosophical Publishing House. All rights reserved. which are one aspect ofthe Transpersonal Bands. Carl Jung himselfrealizedthis, for he statedthat "Mysticsare people who havea particularly vivid experience of the processes of the collective unconsious. Mystical experience is experience of archetype^."^ Parenthetically, we mustamendJung's statement by sayingthat certain "lesser" mystical states are the direct experience of the archetypes. "True" mysticism is beyond even the archetypes, the vasanas; it is of the Level of Mind, wherein all vasanas are "destroyed." Correspondingly, the Hindu differentiates between savikalpa samadhi and nirvikalpa samadhi. Savikalpa samadhi is the generally blissful experience of the ananda-maya-kosa, the collective unconscious. It is &om this level that one gains an understanding of saguna Brahman, which is nothing other than the archetypal or mythological image of nirguna Brahman, the Godhead itself. It is usually ecstatic because all dualisms (except the primary dualism) are suspended as the self contemplates reality. But nirvikalpa samadhi is beyond even that: it is a direct experience "of' the Level of Mind, nirguna Brahman itself. One no longer contemplates reality, one becomes reality! All dualities and imagesare totally and cleanlyremoved. Sothe one state is the truest image of reality, while the other is reality itself. That, in essence, is the major distinction between the "lesser" mystical states characteristic of the Transpersonal Bands, and the "true" mystical state which is Mind. But our main point is that the archetypes themselves can, in certain cases, be directly experienced. In the context ofthe spectrum of consciousness,how are we to view the bijas or vasanas or archetypes themselves? Let us begin with the following statement of Jung: Again and again I encounter the mistaken notion that an archetype is determined in regard to its content, in other words that it is a kind of unconscious idea (if such an expression isadmissible). It is necessaryto point out once more that archetypes are not determined as regards their content, but only as regards their form and then only to a very limited degree. A primordial image is determined as to its content only when it has become conscious and is therefore filled out with the material of conscious a t t e n t i ~ n . ~ In the spectrum of consciousness, then, the archetypes, as the primordial forms devoid of content, represent the first point where--during its mobilization or "welling-up"-ourpure, formless Engergy starts to take on and animate form. This form will later solidify and pick up content on the Existential-Biosocial Level as images, ideas, and maps in general. They are thus the Wilber, Ken. The Spectrum of Consciousness, Theosophical Publishing House, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sofia/detail.action?docID=1938709. Created from sofia on 2021-05-08 10:24:15. Copyright © 2012. Theosophical Publishing House. All rights reserved. 260 SPECTRUM OF CONSCIOUSNESS primordial but potential source of dualism that we re-activate and crystallize every moment of our lives, especially as the primary dualism. Thus in Buddhist psychology, these archetypes represent the seed-potentialities that manifest the phenomenal universe by objectifying Mind. In sum, the archetypes or bijas or vasanas are the first point where our formless or seamless organismic consciousness starts to take on and animate form. As such, dualisms are p r e s e n t especially some form of the primary dualism-but are more-orless suspended or harmonized: they are present in potential form. These archetypes are thus simultaneously the deepest pointers to organismic consciousness and the first corrupters of organismic consciousness. They point unerringly but, once seen and understood, must not be clung to. That is why, useful and even mandatory as they may be, they must eventually be by-passed, burned up destroyed in a sense. Savikalpa samadhi must give way to nirvikalpa samadhi, mythological experience to direct imageless awareness, the everlastingness of mythological time to the instantaneousness ofthe eternal present, seeing God to being the Godhead. That is why "The yogin is striving to . . . 'burn-up' the vasanas."lO In short, the archetypes are the ultimate pointers as well as the final barrier. But, on the more positiveand beneficial side, notice just what is involved when a person begins to consciously contact the vast store ofarchetypal experience lying at the very base of consciousness itself. Because these symbolsare collective or transpersonal, to touch the archetype is actually to begin to transcend oneself, to find deeply within an intimation and pointer to the deeply beyond. So it might be said, fi-om another angle, that the Transpersonal Bands represent a point where the individual begins to touch Mind. He does not yet directly realize that what he is, is Mind, but through insight and experience he understands indeed that there is within him that which goes beyond him. As such, it is not at all difficultto understand the immense therapeutic power of authentic Transpersonal Band therapies. As stated above, a general characteristic of the Transpersonal Bands is a suspension of all dualisms (except some form of the Primary Dualism). This necessarily includes the dualisms of persona vs. shadow as well as psyche vs. soma. In undercutting these dualisms, one simultaneously undercuts the support of individual neuroses, both egoic and existential. Is this not why a consistent practice of some form of transpersonal meditation can be so highly therapeutic for individual emotional dys-eases? To say the same thing fi-oma slightly different angle, in recognizinga depth of one's identity that goes beyond one's individual Wilber, Ken. The Spectrum of Consciousness, Theosophical Publishing House, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sofia/detail.action?docID=1938709. Created from sofia on 2021-05-08 10:24:15. Copyright © 2012. Theosophical Publishing House. All rights reserved. A No-Man$ Land 261 and separate being, a person can more easily go beyond his individual and separate neuroses. For example, by reflecting on one's life through the eyes of the archetypes and mythological images common to mankind, one's awareness necessarily begins to shift to a universal perspective--a transcendent, de-personal, transpersonal view. Once this process quickens, the individual is no longer exclusively identified with just his separate-self sense and hence is no longer exclusively tied to his purely personal problems. In a sense he can start to let go of his fears and anxieties, depressions and obsessions, and begin to view them with the same clarity and impartiality with which one might view clouds floating through the sky or waters rushing in a stream. The Transpersonal Band therapy discloses-probably for the fwst t i m e - a trans-position &om which he can comprehensively look a t his individual emotional and ideational complexes. But the f a d that he can comprehensively look a t them means that he has ceased using them as something with which to look a t , and thus distort, reality. For the fact that he can look at them means that h e is no longer exclusively identified with them. His identity begins to touch that within which is beyond. In the words of Joseph Campbell, "he disturbed individual may. learn to see himself depersonalized in the mirror of the human spirit and discover by analogy the way to his own larger f ~ l f i l l m e n t . " ~ ~ Butthis leads us directly to a further aspect ofthe Transpersonal Bands, for, as the above suggests, the Transpersonal Bands are sometimes experienced as the supra-individual Witness: that which is capable of observing the flow of what is-without interfering with it, commenting on it, or in any way manipulating it. The Witness simply observes the stream of events both insideand outside the mind-body in a creatively detached fashion, since, in fad, the Witness is not exclusively identified with either. In other words, when the individual realizes that his mind and his body can be perceived objectively, he spontaneously realizes that they canrwt constitute a real subjective self. As Huang Po put it, "Let me remind you, the perceived cannot perceive." This position ofthe Witness, or we might say, this state of Witnessing, is the foundation of all beginning Buddhist practice ("mindfulness"), of Psychosynthesis ("dis-identification and the transpersonal Self 7, and of Hindu Jnana Yoga ("neti, neti"). Further, it seems to resemble very closely what Maslow called "plateau experiences," which 'Yepresent a witnessing of reality. It involves seeing the symbolic, or the mythic, t h e poetic, t h e transcendent, t h e miraculous. . . .It's the transcending of space and time which becomes quite normal, so to speak9'12 It is expressly through these types of experiences that one is fully initiated into the world of Wilber, Ken. The Spectrum of Consciousness, Theosophical Publishing House, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sofia/detail.action?docID=1938709. Created from sofia on 2021-05-08 10:24:15. Copyright © 2012. Theosophical Publishing House. All rights reserved. 262 SPECTRUM OF CONSCIOUSNESS meta-motivations, B-values, transcendent values, mythological and supra-individual awareness-in short, the spiritual dimension of the Transpersonal Bands. But I would like to remind the reader of the distinction between what I am calling-for lack of better terms-"lessei' mysticism and "true" mysticism, for it is again the distinction between the transpersonal Witness and the Level of Mind. The transpersonal Witness is a "position" of Witnessing reality. But notice at once that this state of the transpersonal Witness still contains a subtle form of the Primary Dualism, namely, the witness vs. what is witnessed. It is when this last trace of dualism is finally and completely shattered that one awakens to Mind, for at that moment (which is this moment), the witness and the witnessed are one and the same. This, however, is not at all to denigrate the position of the transpersonal self or Witness, for-as we have seen-it can be highly therapeutic in itself, and further, in ways which we will explore in the final chapter, it can frequently act as a type of springboard to the Level of Mind. Nevertheless, it is not to be confused with Mind itself. This is why, in Zen, a student who remains in the peaceful bliss of the transpersonal self is called a "dead-void heretic," and the Tibetan Buddhists refer to it as being "stuck in the kun-gzhi." In general Mahayana terms, the tainted alaya-v&jnana has to be smashed through, because it contains the subtle dualistic forms of the vasanas, which give rise to the subject-object dualism of the witness vs. the witnessed. Such, then, is the major difference between the lesser mystical states of the transpersonal self, and the true mystical state which is Mind. In one, a person may witness reality; in the other he is reality. While one invariably retains some subtle form of the Primary Dualism, the other does not. It is this final dissolution of any form of the primary dualism that Zen refers to by the phrase, "the bottom of the bucket breaks," for there remains in one's awareness no bottom-that is to say, no sense of any inner subjectivity confronting any world of outer objectivity. The two worlds have radically coalesced, or rather, are understood to have never been separate. The individual goes right to the very bottom of his being to find who or what is doing the seeing, and he ultimately finds-instead of a transpersonal self-nothing other than what is seen, which Blyth called "the experience by the universe of the universe." The bottom of the bucket has broken. With this, the Vedanta is in perfect agreement. Although Vedanta metaphorically speaks of the Atman-Brahman as the Seer, Knower, or Witness, it employs a very special connotation to distinguish the Seer from the transpersonal self, namely, the Seer is Wilber, Ken. The Spectrum of Consciousness, Theosophical Publishing House, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sofia/detail.action?docID=1938709. Created from sofia on 2021-05-08 10:24:15. Copyright © 2012. Theosophical Publishing House. All rights reserved. A NeMan's Land 263 one with all worlds seen. In the words of Sri Ramana Maharshi, "The notion that the Seer is different from the seen abides in the mind. For those that ever abide in the Heart, the Seer is the same as the seen." To bring this section to an end, we will briefly comment on the so-called paranormal occurrences: ESP, clairvoyance, other-world visions, astral travel, etc. The feature that they and all events of the Transpersonal Bands have in common is an incomplete breakdown or suspension of the Primary Dualism, so that although the self is still experienced as being more or less separate from the world, it nevertheless has greatly extended some portion of its boundary (representing the point where the primary dualism "breaks.") There seems to be a rapidly growing interest in parapsychology, especially in the scientific community, which has seized upon these events primarily because they can be "kicked," that is, subjected to the orthodox criteria of objectivity, measurement and verification. In ESP studies, for example, it is a fairly simple matter to set up laboratory controls, gather data and statistically evaluate it, and then draw a conclusion, which is usually that ESP does indeed exist. Inherently there is no reason that these experiments could or should not be performed, but it should be emphatically stressed that these areas have absolutely nothing to do with the Level of Mind or pure mysticism per se. Many scientists unfortunately slure over this distinction, and then feel that in "proving" the existence of ESP or psychokinesis or whatever, they have proved the existence of the Level of Mind, and so they document their experimental findings with the sayings of Eckhart, Rumi, Chung Tzu, or Shankara. Despite their unmistakably good intentions, this is really a rather elaborate hoax. The Level of Mind cannot be externally proven, for the simple reason that there is nowhere in the universe where one can go that is outside of Mind so as to be able to verify it, objectify it, or measure it. One cannot grasp it because it is in the very grasping itself. Scientificverification demands the Primary Dualism between the verifier and the verified, and that distinction is foreign to Mind. Mind can be "proven" experimentally by any individual who will consent to follow the Way, but this "proof' is not an external one. At best, these scientists are working on the Transpersonal Bands where they are showing that the primary dualism can be partially undercut. But their zeal is perhaps understandable, for science is such a powerful tool on the upper levels of the spectrum that it is only natural to try to extend it to the lower levels, and certainly on some levels of the Transpersonal Bands this is perfectly legitimate. But to reach the Level of Mind one must eventually quit studying facts Wilber, Ken. The Spectrum of Consciousness, Theosophical Publishing House, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sofia/detail.action?docID=1938709. Created from sofia on 2021-05-08 10:24:15. Copyright © 2012. Theosophical Publishing House. All rights reserved. 264 SPECTRUM OF CONSCIOUSNESS and instead become the facts. The light of science is here of no avail. This is the very old story of the drunk who lost his key and then looked for it under the lamp p o s t n o t because that is where he lost the key, but because that is where the light was. Finally, we must recall the words of the enlightened Masters, who have universally claimed that paranormal powers, or siddhi, are always shunned by the sage, for behind the deliberate use of all paranormal phenomena lies the urge to power of the frightened ego, which is ever seeking to extend its capability to manipulate and control its environment. But when you are one with the environment, what possible meaning could manipulating the environment have? The urge to develop "psychotechnology" is at heart no different from the urge to develop typical technology, and the ego has so fouled the environment with regular technology, we can hardly guess to what ingenious uses it will put psychotechnology. The inescapable conclusion is that only a sage is qualified to use siddhi, but he will have nothing to do with it. Nevertheles, we are today seeing fools rush in where angels fear to tread. It is one thing to scientifically explore siddhi, but quite another to personally cultivate it. One can gain abundant personal benefits from the Transpersonal Bands by sticking to. Jungian analysis through dream amplification, Tibetan or Hindu Tantra utilizing visualization techniques and bijamantra meditations, such as Transcendental Meditation, or Psychosynthesis, Progoff dialogue, or similar exercises. With these concluding remarks on the Transpersonal Bands, we have finished our survey of the "therapies" that address themselves to the various levels, and so let us take this opportunity to make a few general commentson the levels of the spectrum and the various groups of therapy that address them. Our startingpoint, as always, is with Mind-only, the Void, Brahman, the non-dual, the Dharmadhatu. We have also called this non-dual awareness "Absolute Subjectivity" as a kind of signpost, for when you completely go "behind" the pseudo-subject,what you now call your "self," you will find only objects, which is the clearest demonstration that the real Self, the Absolute Subjectivity, is one with the universe it knows. It knows this page, for example, not by looking at it from afar but by being it. In other words, everything you observe is you who are observing it, and this is the fundamental condition of the real world prior to the illusory split between you and it. Yet in a certain sense, you cannot see Mind or Absolute Subjectivity. As the Knower, it cannot be known; as the Seer, it cannot be seen; as the Investigator, it cannot be investigated. True, Absolute Subjectivity is everything of which you are now aware, but when you realize that, your sense of identity must likewise shift to Wilber, Ken. The Spectrum of Consciousness, Theosophical Publishing House, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sofia/detail.action?docID=1938709. Created from sofia on 2021-05-08 10:24:15. Copyright © 2012. Theosophical Publishing House. All rights reserved. A No-Man's Land everything of which you are aware-and when that occurs (it is occurring now), you will no longer feel yourself to beseparute from that which you are now observing. Thus, as we have said many times, the subject vs. object dualism vanishes in Absolute Subjectivity, in Mind. The subject and the object don't vanish, but thegap between them does--or rather, it is understood to have never existed in the first place, so that the adjectives "subjective" and "objective" become quite nonsensical. There is simply a process of non-dual awareness wherein the observer is the observed. So in one sense you cannot see Mind, for it is the Seer; yet in another sense, you are never aware of anything but Mind, for it is everything that is seen! Now "out of' this Absolute Subjectivity, in this moment, there evolves the spectrum of consciousness. We have described this evolution from several viewpoints, all somewhat different, but all pointing to the same process: The apparent splitting of a universe into a seer and a seen, and the numerous complexities and reverberations that follow inexorably from this initial complication. First and foremost, we have described this evolution as resulting from the seeming superimposition of several major dualisms upon Mind, with each successive dualism generating a distinctly narrower sense of identity called a "level" or " b a n d of the spectrum. Simply stated, each dualism severs a "unitary" process, represses its non-duality, and projects it as two apparently antagonistic opposites-and we, to put it very figuratively, identify with only one of the opposites, or one of the poles of the duality, thereby restricting and narrowing our identity "by half." Each successive dualism-repression-projection thus drastically diminishes those phenomena with which we identify, and consequently our identity shifts successively from the universe to the organism to the ego to parts of the ego (i.e., from Mind to Existential to Ego to Shadow Levels). Since each dualism-repression-projection renders certain processes unconscious, it follows that each level of the spectrum is potentially productive of a specific class of dys-eases. At any rate, thus does the spectrum, with all its consequences, evolve. We have also followed this evolution using the Tantric metaphor of Energy as Mind, and, from this point of view, we described each level of the spectrum as a certain stage of Energy disintegration, ranging from the originally pure, in-formal Energy (prana, chi, ki, pneuma, ruh, organismic consciousness) of Mind all the way "up" to its disintegrations that animate the symbolic and conceptual knowledge of the Ego Level. We have used this metaphor of Energy and its disintegrations because it furnishes a concrete way to relate the evolution of the spectrum to our very sensations a t this moment, and also because this interpretation will prove most Wilber, Ken. The Spectrum of Consciousness, Theosophical Publishing House, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sofia/detail.action?docID=1938709. Created from sofia on 2021-05-08 10:24:15. Copyright © 2012. Theosophical Publishing House. All rights reserved. SPECTRUM OF CONSCIOUSNESS useful in the next chapter when we discuss ways to forestall the disintegration of Energy and so remember and discover Mind. From yet another angle, we have described this evolution as the confusing of Absolute Subjectivity with aparticular and exclusive group or complex ofobjects: This we have called the objectification of Absolute Subjectivity. And that means nothing more, nothing less, than that we mistakenly view the universe as a multiple of "objects out there" separate from and opposed to the "subject in here" that I call my "self." Yet this separate and subjective "self," the "little man within" that supposedly looks out at the universe of objects, is obviously an illusion. It is an illusion because, although I imagine it to be the subject which sees, knows, and feels the universe, it is in fact simply another object of perception. That is to say, this "separate self' is actually something which I can see, know, or at least be aware of, for this I betray all the time by saying such things as, "I am aware of myself," or "I know who I am," or "Of course I am aware of myself reading this book!" Inescapably, I feel that I can look at myself, and yet anything at which I can look must be an object of perception: Thus my supposedly "subjective self' is not a true subject at all, it is a pseudo-subject,which, in actuality, isjust another object! It is something which I can perceive and therefore it cannot be the real Perceiver! As for the real Perceiver, the true Self, the Absolute Subjectivity-it cannot be seen because it is doing the seeing; it cannot be known for it is the Knower. My true Self can no more see itself as an object than fire can burn itself or a knife can cut itself. Yet, for some odd reason, I have identified my real Self with some peculiar complex of objects that I can look at, and this complex of objects I then mistake for my "subjective self." Thus my identify shifts from Absolute Subjectivity, which is one with its universe, to pseudosubjectivity, which is supposedly separate from its objects of perception, even though a careful look will inescapably demonstrate this pseudo-subject to be nothing but one among other objects of perception. I have, in other words, objectifid what I am, I have tried to see my real Self as an object, and imagining that I have succeeded, I have necessarily surrendered my original identity with the entire universe and have instead fastened onto a particular and exclusive set of objects. In short, I have confused the Seer with what, in fact, is something that can be seen. In this confusion, my identity shifts to a pseudo-subject which I now imagine confronts an alien world of objects. But my case of mistaken identity does not end here, for, as we have seen, there are levels of pseudo-subjectivity. There follows, upon this, initial confusion, a progressive narrowing and restricti Wilber, Ken. The Spectrum of Consciousness, Theosophical Publishing House, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sofia/detail.action?docID=1938709. Created from sofia on 2021-05-08 10:24:15. Copyright © 2012. Theosophical Publishing House. All rights reserved. A NeMan's Land 267 ing of my sense of personal identity, that is, a narrowing and restricting of my sense ofpseudo-subjectivity, of that which I feel to be the rrseparatesubject' in me which confronts the world as object out there. This sense of separate identity, of pseudo-subjectivity, ranges from my total organism to my ego to parts of my ego-each shift representing, of course, a level of the spectrum. We have called this viewpoint the "objectification of Mind," because each level representsjust t h a t a particular and exclusive set of objects which I have mistaken for a real subjective self and with which I therefore inadvertently identify. In this sense, each level of the spectrum is a level of mistaken identity, of pseudo-subjectivity. Such, then, are the three different ways we have described the evolution of the spectrum of consciousness. Of course, each is saying the same thing from a different angle; for to say that each level of the spectrum is a level of pseudo-subjectivity, or a progressively narrowed sense of personal identity, is to say that each level is marked by a particular dualism-repression-projection, inasmuch as this is precisely the mechanism which creates and supports each level, each sense of pseudo-subjectivity. Put rather figuratively, on each level our sense of pseudo-subjectivity is simply our mistaken identity with "one-half' of the dualism which creates that level. Thus a particular sense of pseudo-subjectivityis always supported by a particular dualism-repression-projectionfor that dualism is simply the dividing line between the pseudosubject "in here" and its "objects out there." Now because the common thread running throughout each level is the process of dualism, then repression, then projection, the therapies of each level also share a common characteristic-they reverse this process (on their particular level) by helping the individual contact the alienated and projected aspects, re-integrate them, and thus "heal," "make whole," and "unifjl" that level. This process results in "cure," or "growth," or "healing," for the simple reason that the individual has, in effect, broadened or expanded his sense of self-identity. As a dualism is healed on any level, the elements of that level which once threatened the individual are seen to be nothing more than aspects of his own consciousness which he had split-off, repressed, and projected, a process which necessarily diminished his sense of identity and set the stage for a certain class of dys-eases. Reversing this process on any level simply yanks the support out from under that level's class of dys-eases. Any time an individual completely reverses this process, heals and wholes the major dualism of any level, then it follows that he automaticallyand quite spontaneouslydescends the spectrum to the next level, to the level that "includes" both poles of the "old" duali- Wilber, Ken. The Spectrum of Consciousness, Theosophical Publishing House, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sofia/detail.action?docID=1938709. Created from sofia on 2021-05-08 10:24:15. Copyright © 2012. Theosophical Publishing House. All rights reserved. 268 SPECTRUM OF CONSCIOUSNESS ty, to the level of which the one above was merely a fragmentation. For example, when the tertiary split between psyche and soma is actually healed, the individual necessarily discovers the total organism: in other words, he has automatically descended to the Existential Level. The healing of any major dualism simply reveals the "underlying unitary process" or gestalt which was rendered unconscious by that dualism-and that in itself marks the descent of the spectrum to the new "underlying" level. Once on the "new" level, whatever that level may be, the individual naturally becomes more sensitive to the major characteristics ofthat level: its particular "needs" or "instincts" or "drives," its potentials and values, its mode of knowing, its dream material (furnished by its unconscious processes), and of course its major dualism-repression-projection and the class of dys-eases potentially consequent upon it. We have spent the last four chapters very briefly outlining these characteristics of each level, and so, for convenience sake, we will summarize these in chart form only (see Table 1).Let us repeat, however, that these characteristics necessarily are rather general and abstract, leaving much room for individual elaboration. This is especially true of the concept of "need," "drive," or "instinct." Generally-speaking, we understand the "needs" of any level to be a reflection of the potential for growth on that level as well as a type of compensation for what, on that level, seems lacking in the individual. Further, let us state here, without the embellishment that more space would allow, that we take the dreams of any level to be a symbolic intimation of that lack, i.e., a symbolic intimation of those aspects of the universe with which one is no longer identified. Wherever there is alienation of the universe from itself, there is the stuff of which dreams are made. At any rate, as the individual descends the spectrum, different characteristics of the "new" levels begin to more clearly emerge. This phenomenon of spontaneous descent, which is potentially inherent in everyone, is an almost exact analogue of Maslow's hierarchical needs13-that is, neurotic needs (Shadow Level), basic needs (Ego and Existential Levels), and meta-needs (Transpersonal Bands. Mind has no needs for there is nothing outside it.) As soon as an individual clears up one set of needs, the next set spontaneously emerges, and failure to satisfy these emergent needs will result in a different set of problems ("grumbles and meta-grumbles"). Thus, on the Shadow Level, the basic needs are not satisfied. Through repression, alienation, or some other projective mechanism, the individual fails to recognize the nature of his basic needs. And since, a s is well-known, one cannot get enough of what one Wilber, Ken. The Spectrum of Consciousness, Theosophical Publishing House, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sofia/detail.action?docID=1938709. Created from sofia on 2021-05-08 10:24:15. A NeMan's L a n d does not really need, a whole battery of insatiable neurotic needs develop. If, on the other hand, these neurotic needs can be understood and displaced, so that the underlying basic needs can emerge (hierarchically), the individual can begin to act on them so as to find thereby his way to a larger fulfillment. He also finds-almost by definition-his way to a lower level of the Spectrum. And by the time the individual reaches the Existential Level, an entirely new set of needs, the meta-needs, begin to emerge, carrying with them a call, sometimes a demand, to transcendence. Acting upon these meta-needs initiates one into the world of the Transpersonal Bands; shunning them throws one into the grips of a metapathology. That these meta-needs correspond to a transpersonal reality is clearly announced by Maslow himself: Copyright © 2012. Theosophical Publishing House. All rights reserved. Meta-motives are, therefore, no longer only intra-psychic [i.e., Egoic] or organismic [i.e., Existential]. They are equally inner and outer. . . .This means that the distinction between self and not-self has broken down (or has been transcended). There is now less differentiation between the world and the person. . . .He becomes an enlarged self, we could say. . . .To identify one's highest self with the highest values of the world out there means, to some extent a t least, a fusion with the notself.14 Keeping in mind that his partial fusion of organism and environment is a fusion without confusion, Maslow's quote may be taken as perfectly descriptive of the Transpersonal Bands. At any rate, let us now continue with our basic discussion on the common thread running throughout the therapies which address the various levels of the Spectrum. Because each major dualism creates a corresponding sense of pseudo-subjectivity, we can also approach our topic from this angle. Since each level of the Spectrum is actually a particular set of objects mistaken for a real subject, that is, since each level is a progressively narrowed sense of personal identity or pseudo-subjectivity, therapy consists, on each level, in bringing this particular pseudo-subject fully into consciousness. For by bringing it completely into awareness and by seeing itobjectively, the individual realizes that it is obviously not a real subject, a real self. Thereupon, he relinguishes his identity with that particular pseudo-subject and descends a level to a broader and firmer base of personal identity. Thus, it matters not whether we speak of healing a major dualism or of relinguishing the corresponding sense of pseudo-subjectivity. For to heal the major dualism of any level is to make that level fully conscious; to make it conscious is to see it as an object; to see it a s an object is to cease confusing it with the Seer. Wilber, Ken. The Spectrum of Consciousness, Theosophical Publishing House, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sofia/detail.action?docID=1938709. Created from sofia on 2021-05-08 10:24:15. 270 LEVEL SPECTRUM OF CONSCIOUSNESS POTENTIALS Overt compensations: pride, drive to success, righteous indignation, sensitivity, role playing, "neurotic creativity" Copyright © 2012. Theosophical Publishing House. All rights reserved. Romantic love-heterosexual or homosexual (shadow-hugging) Panic anxiety Guilt (Super-ego) Hatred (shadow-boxing) Depression (retroflected rage) Pressure (projected drive) Fear (projected aggression) Intellectual-philosophical Character stability Civility Self-control, deliberate Verbal communication Linear illumination in general Crystallization of 1st mode of knowing Adjustment to Biosocial Band Chronic low-grade emergency (Perls) Depression as dis-embodiment (Lowen Lack of Prehension & Intentionality The world as banal (Watts) Lack of spontaneity and l3-values World as linear-only Civilization Culture Conventional stabilization Traditional perception Social membership Language, law, logic Biosocialization of all existential and transpersonal awareness, needs, perceptions, etc. The Great Filter Breakdown of World Gloss and Zonventional World View (one element :omman in "schizophrenia", but also, with different effects, in deep meditation-the latter rarely results ir "dys-ease",however, because the World View can be easily resumed for all practical purposes) Prehension Intentionality Emergence of Bvalues Authenticity (Perk) Centeredness Biological faith (Lowen) Exoteric religion Biological spontaneity Angst-the cramp (Benoit) Existential despair Metaphysical distress Humanistic guilt (Fromm) Perinatal irruptions (Grof)of a negativc nature Existential anxiety as the "inability t c accept death" (Brown) Primordial hatred of Not-Self-a resuli of the primary dualism Bvalues Mythological awareness Plateau experience Detachment and the transpersonal Witness Paranormal phenomena Extra-terrestrial encounters Prana appears as higher Kundalini chakras (to Level of Mind, Chakras [Sefiroth] are symbolic only Archetype irruptions Transpersonal anxiety (Lilly) Dead void heresy (Zen) Negative out-of-the-body experiences Negative phylogenetic irruptions Wilber, Ken. The Spectrum of Consciousness, Theosophical Publishing House, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sofia/detail.action?docID=1938709. Created from sofia on 2021-05-08 10:24:15. A NeMan's Land 271 JOHN LILLY (GurdjiefD OTHER SIMILARITIES (Western Only) - 24 "Negative state; pain, guilt, fear." 5 48 "Neutral biocomputer state; absorption and transmission of new ideas; reception and transmission of new data and programs; teaching and l e a n i n g with max. facilitation. Neutral state. On the earth." + 24 Copyright © 2012. Theosophical Publishing House. All rights reserved. "All needed programs are in the unconscious of the biocomputer, operating smoothly. Ego is lost in pleasurable tasks one knows and likes." Idealized self (Homey) TopdogIUnderdog (Perls) ParentIChild (Berne) Lower unconscious (Assagioli) Remnants of infantile ego (Freud) Actual self (Horney) Self (Rogers) Ego (Freud) Eigenwelt Adult Ego State (Berne) Freudian level (Grofl Recollective Analytic Level (HoustodMasters) Social Filter oE. Social Character Langauge Logic (Fromm) - Mitwelt Social gloss Consensual validation Unwelt + 12 "Blissful state; cosmic love, reception of Real Self (Honey) Total organism (Rogers) grace, heightened bodily awareness; Body-ego (Freud) highest function of bodily Centered self (Perls) consciousness, being in love, etc." Biological self (Lowen) - 12 Ontogenetic layer (Ring) "Extremely negative body state; one is Basic Perinatal Matrices (Grofl still in the body, pain extreme." Rankian Level (Grof) +6 "Point source of consciousness. Astral travel, traveling clairaudience and clairvoyance; fusion with other entities in time." -6 "Purgatorial negativity." Higher Self (Assagioli) Collective Unconscious (Jung) Trans-individual, Phylogenetic, and Extra-terrestrial layers (Ring) Supra-individual witnessing (Maslow The Integral Level (HoustonlMasters: Wilber, Ken. The Spectrum of Consciousness, Theosophical Publishing House, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sofia/detail.action?docID=1938709. Created from sofia on 2021-05-08 10:24:15. SPECTRUM OF CONSCIOUSNESS LEVEL DREAMS NEEDS Vightmares Symbolic shadow Malevolent aspects Neurotic needs, e.g.: manipulation power ~exualization 3bsessive-compulsive ?rejected shadow Need for a n accurate and acceptable self-image (Putneys) Nangover from the day Environmental unfinished gestalten Basic needs (Maslow), which usually emerge hierarchically Psychodynamic Linear stability Goal-oriented needs As with most characteristics, the Biosocialization of existential needs Demand (Lacan) Translation of reality accurately according to conventional paradigme dreams above the Biosocial Bands reflect conventions of society; those below begin to be universal: existentia or archetypal (Reality principle is actually the Conventionality principle) Emergence of meta-needs (Maslow) Copyright © 2012. Theosophical Publishing House. All rights reserved. Nonconventional environmental background Angst, death dreams Perinatal factors Ontogenetic dreams Need to endure (time) and to exist (space)-compensations of primary an secondary repressions Growth (as used by Perls) Intentionalities Hangovers from history Phylogenetic Incarnational Archetypal ESP dreams Satisfaction of meta-needs Translucent dreams (state of the transpersonal Witness) Avoidance of Mind (atthis level, that i a true need, the last to be displaced) Archetype elaboration Trans-individual relationship Wilber, Ken. The Spectrum of Consciousness, Theosophical Publishing House, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sofia/detail.action?docID=1938709. Created from sofia on 2021-05-08 10:24:15. A No-Man's Land 273 UNCONSCIOUS POU PSU Ego Biosocial Band Centaur Transpersonal Bands Absolute Subjectivity (universe) Biosocial Band Centaur Transpersonal Bands Absolute Subjectivity (universe) Centaur Transpersonal Bands Absolute Subjectivity (universe) I I 1 I I I I Shadow Body (biosocialized) Environment (biosocialized, archetypal) Body (biosocialized) Environment (biosocialized, archetypal) Environment (biosocialized, archetypal) Copyright © 2012. Theosophical Publishing House. All rights reserved. I Transpersonal Bands Absolute Subjectivity (universe) I Environment (archetypal) Absolute Subjectivity (universe) I Portions of environment (some archetypal, some "pure") Wilber, Ken. The Spectrum of Consciousness, Theosophical Publishing House, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sofia/detail.action?docID=1938709. Created from sofia on 2021-05-08 10:24:15. Conventional time as linear past-present-future "Desparation" willpower, the frantic, demonic will Distorted conventional time TIME AND TENDENCIES Active reflection-if shadow complex is strong, active reflection, the mental grasp of one's self-image, can occur accurately only after active association or some other Shadow Level approach Active association-or "free association," discovering the linear or distorted linear "psychic enchainment" leading to shadow complex CONTACTING LEVEL COMMON MODE OF OTHER ASPECTS Deep-rooted inclination to time structuring Paternal mythology, incest, castration (Neumam) On the Egoishadow level, a person is actively involved in conventional, linear time structuring, a phenomenor presently being studied by Transactional Analysis; this time structuring involves the manufacture of scripts, counterscripts, and egoic games. Wilber, Ken. The Spectrum of Consciousness, Theosophical Publishing House, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sofia/detail.action?docID=1938709. Created from sofia on 2021-05-08 10:24:15. Copyright © 2012. Theosophical Publishing House. All rights reserved. I Vasanas--subtle, trans-individual tendencies, responsible for moment to moment "re-birth of the separate-self sense Mythological everlastingness (Mind alone being strictly timeless) Intentionalities (moving prehensions) The Will Passing present (nunc fluens) Socialization as establishment of conventional "meaning" (spliting of prehensions) Socialization and serialization of the passing present (For Level of Mind: active attention, factor 1 [See chap. XI]) Active imagination, in the very special sense given it by Jung-a radial awareness Active detachment or dis-identification Active prehension-the three-dimensional grasp of one's entire being; not to be confused with active reflection or association No common mode here, but Lilly (see elsewhere on this table) suggests what amounts to active dereflection; Frankl, in fact, has long proposed active dereflection as a preliminary move to the Existential Level. Breath as circulation of vital force [prana) takes on supra-individual and spiritual dimensions (prana=-Holy Spirit) Uroboric mythology, incest, castration :Neumann) Breath as circulation of vital force (prana) Maternal mythology, incest, castration (Neumann) The distinctions of the BSB lead to mlec which in turn structure games; these subtle games, however, which amour11 to something like a world gloss, are not to be confused with the more overt "games egos play," so admirably dealt with by Berne, although they are indeed their root source Wilber, Ken. The Spectrum of Consciousness, Theosophical Publishing House, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sofia/detail.action?docID=1938709. Created from sofia on 2021-05-08 10:24:15. Copyright © 2012. Theosophical Publishing House. All rights reserved. 276 SPECTRUM OF CONSCIOUSNESS This suggests that, in one sense, the descent of the spectrum of consciousness is a progressive process of dis-identification from a "narrower" sense of pseudo-subject to a "broader" one, a process which brings an expanded sense of freedom and control. In the words of Assagioli: Copyright © 2012. Theosophical Publishing House. All rights reserved. We are dominated by everything with which our self becomes identified. We can dominate and control everything from which we dis-identify ourselves.15 That is quite true, but let us not forget it is only half the story. For if each successive shift down the spectrum is a process of dis-identifying with the "old" pseudo-subject, then it is also a process of discovering a "new" identity on the level beneath it. For when an individual ceases to identify with a pseudo-subject composing "one-half' of the major dualism of the particular level of the spectrum, he necessarily shifts down a level and discovers a new identity which includes "both halves" of the old duality, which harmonizes what were once thought to be antagonistic opposites. More correctly, he has simply discovered the particular gestalt of which the old level was a fragmentation. Dis-identifying with the "half," he spontaneously identifies with the "whole." At this broader level of pseudo-subjectivity, he is finally able to assume responsibility for what, on the level above, had appeared as involuntary, alien, outside. Overall, then, the healing of a major dualism results in a shift of personal identity, for (again speaking very figuratively) the individual can no longer attach himself to "one-half' of the old dualism, such as, for example, his mind and not his body. The individual's "old" sense of pseudo-subject, which was confined to one pole of the dualism, is realized to be just another object of perception-as such, he is no longer using it as a pseudo-subject with which to see, and thus distort, the world. The collapse of a major dualism is simultaneously the collapse of the particular sense of pseudo-subjectivity supported by that dualism. Unconscious symbolic separation and its resultant dys-ease has been replaced by conscious authentic non-separation and its relative harmony. Because the "old level was actually created by a splitting of the level beneath it, its "healing" automatically results in the restoration of that prior unity. This process occurs each time the individual descends a level. His identity has broadened to include aspects of the universe once thought alien; he now confronts the world from a broader and firmer base of pseudosubjectivity. To be sure, t h i s does not represent "final awakening7'-the "new" level is still a pseudo-subject, but it is nevertheless a more comfortable one, a more dysease-less one. It is Wilber, Ken. The Spectrum of Consciousness, Theosophical Publishing House, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sofia/detail.action?docID=1938709. Created from sofia on 2021-05-08 10:24:15. Copyright © 2012. Theosophical Publishing House. All rights reserved. A No-Man's Land 277 still a dream, but less ofa nightmare. It is only in the final step that the dream of pseudo-subjectivity itself vanishes-and we are now ready to examine that step. Finally, let us clarify one last technical but important point. And to do so, let us recall, as an illustration of what we will be discussing, the generation of the Ego Level. With the rise of the tertiary dualism, the centaur is rendered unconscious: it is split, repressed, and projected as the ego vs. the body. Correspondingly, the individual's sense of selfness, his pseudo-subjectivity, shifts from the centaur to the ego, with the body now felt to be anobject out there. So, we may ask, what becomes ofthe centaur? We know of course that its repression does not kill it, but merely buries it alive. Hence it continues to exist and to exert a profound, if sometimes subtle, influence upon the individual. For the centaur, although "unconscious", nevertheless acts-however indirectly-so as to color the individual's entire sense of being a separate self, the individual's entire sense of pseudo-subjectivity. Remember that the sense of being an ego rests upon the sense of being a centaur, although the latter is now more-or-less consciously forgotten. Because the centaur now lies in the direction of those factors that unconsciously but profoundly mold a person's conscious sense of pseudosubjectivity,we can speak of the nowburied centaur as an aspect of what might be called the "pseudo-subjectal unconscious", or PSU for short. In general, all of the levels and bands of the Spectrum that are beneath the one upon which an individual presently exists collectively contribute to that inwardly felt sense of pseudosubjectivity, of which his present level is merely the conscious tip. And thus, all of these lower levels taken together constitute the pseudo-subjectal unconscious (Fig. 18has been drawn to represent this PSU for an individual living as the persona). Because of this, a change in, for example, the Biosocial Band, or the activation of an archetype, can produce in the ego or persona significant alterations in its conscious sense of existence. Using Energy metaphor, we would say that the contents of the individual's consciousness have reached awareness only after transversing all of the levels of the PSU, the pseudo-subjectal unconscious. So just because a person is living on one particular level of the spectrum is no reason to disregard any of the lower levels-just the contrary: their influence is profound. But, to finish with this illustration, what becomes of the "body" with the generation of the Ego Level? It is spoken of as a "content" of the unconscious, to be sure, yet the individual does perceive it, only in a very distorted and even illusory fashion, namely, as an, object "out there." Yet remember that the same thing occurs with the Shadow: when the ego is rendered unconscious with the rise of Wilber, Ken. The Spectrum of Consciousness, Theosophical Publishing House, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sofia/detail.action?docID=1938709. Created from sofia on 2021-05-08 10:24:15. Copyright © 2012. Theosophical Publishing House. All rights reserved. 278 SPECTRUM OF CONSCIOUSNESS the quaternary dualism, the Shadow is perceived as existing "objectively, out there." And so also with the environment itself: after the primary dualism, the environment appears as an "object out there." Now all of these-the environment, the body, the shadow-are indeed aspects of the unconscious, but through the major dualisms and projections, they are perceived in a distorted fashion: as false or illusory or pseudo objects. Thus, we may collectively speak of them as constituting the "pseudo-objectal unconscious", or POU for short. (See Fig. 18) Thus, just as the contents of the PSU mold an individual's sense of existence from within, the contents of the POU mold it from without. And this molding action from without is always of one general type: the individual reacts to these ttobjects" instead of acts, he avoids instead of witnesses, he is affected instead of informed. This we have seen on every level of the Spectrum. The different levels of the pseudo-subjectal and pseudo-objectal unconscious together constitute the entire unconscious. Needless to say, these two aspects of the total unconscious are actually just flip sides of one another. At any rate, in Fig. 18,which is representative of an individual on the Shadow Level, we have marked out the three major areas: the conscious pseudo-subject, the pseudosubjectal unconscious, and the pseudo-objectal unconscious (as well as all of the levels and bands of the spectrum composing these areas.) These three areas together constitute the entire territory of consciousness/unconsciousness. The import of what has been said thus far is that all of the lower levels, although unconscious in one sense, are in no sense dead or ineffectual. This is especially to be seen with such items as "symptoms", desires, or dreams. For although the individual is definitely more alive to the characteristics of his present level, to its dyseases and pains, its joys and potentials, its desires and needs, and its dreams, nevertheless all of the lower levels (the PSU aqd the POU)contribute, in one way or another, to the "contents" of consciousness. And the point is that-especially in any sort of "therapy2'-it is most wise to determine where possible, the levels from which different dreams, symptoms, or desires originate, and respond accordingly. For example, archetypal anxiety, existential anxiety, and shadow anxiety are different beasts indeed, and simply must not be treated as the same. The indiscriminate use of a singIe therapeutic technique for all symptoms may, on occassion, have the most unfortunate effects. Shadow anxiety, for instance, is that "hit the panic-button" feeling which usually arises from some projected bit of excitement and interest, or occasionally from some projected anger. This is handled-as we have seen-by integrating that Wilber, Ken. The Spectrum of Consciousness, Theosophical Publishing House, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sofia/detail.action?docID=1938709. Created from sofia on 2021-05-08 10:24:15. Copyright © 2012. Theosophical Publishing House. All rights reserved. A NeMan's Land Wilber, Ken. The Spectrum of Consciousness, Theosophical Publishing House, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sofia/detail.action?docID=1938709. Created from sofia on 2021-05-08 10:24:15. 279 Copyright © 2012. Theosophical Publishing House. All rights reserved. 280 SPECTRUM OF CONSCIOUSNESS projected facet. Existential anxiety, however, is felt not so much as a "feet-don't-fail-me-now" panic but as a cold, almost paralyzing, cramp in the very center of one's existence, and its cold flames are fanned by the black debate of one's being vs. one's nullity. And this angst can only be dealt with by facing not one's anger but one's death, one's inner void. To confuse these two is indeed to run the risk of upsetting the entire apple cart. And as for most transpersonal anxiety, we haven't even the foggiest notion of how to treat that, and so most therapists, wellintentioned to be sure, nevertheless pass the buck by trying to reduce it to shadow anxiety, thereby more or less elegantly extracting their own necks from the noose while so much the worse for the patients. (It is generally the case that, while therapists of one level recognize all of the levels above their own, they view any level deeper than their own as being of a pathological character, and so are quick to explain it away with a diagnostic fury. The same holds doubly for actual dys-eases of any "deeper" level, which must be met with dialogues on that level alone, and not reduced to the terms of an upper level.) So also with dreams: we must recognize, where we are able, the level from which a dream originates. It is a nightmare dream, a terrifyingly direct message from the Shadow? Or is it simply a hangover from the day, originating from the Ego? Or deeper yet, a hangover from history, a "big dream" of archetypal import, messages from the Transpersonal Bands, hints from the gods themselves? The answer to this will determine which approach one will use: for example, Gestalt or Jungian (or perhaps both in proper sequence). Failure to recognize these differences will result in either impoverishment or inflation: archetype reduced to ego, or ego inflated to archetype. Any slight appreciation of man's depth, of his pluridimensional awareness, of the spectrum-like nature of his consciousness, forces these considerations upon us-and they are extremely important considerations a t that. It slowly begins to dawn on a person, for example, that he is leading a "life of despair." He might indeed simply be "madder 'n hell" and not know it, so that here on the Shadow Level "m-a-d" has become "s-a-d" (as most psychoanalytical thinkers would argue).16Yet he might instead b m n the Ego Level-totally out of direct touch with his body (as described by, for example, Lowen).17Or yet again, he might have actually seen the cramp of the secondary dualism, the spasm at Existential Level, the avoidance of death which is the root of all man's motivations (as Benoit has pointed out).18Or has he indeed looked into the very face of the transpersonal Dweller on the Threshold, and so knows deep within that his coming rebirth demands his instant death (as Wilber, Ken. The Spectrum of Consciousness, Theosophical Publishing House, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sofia/detail.action?docID=1938709. Created from sofia on 2021-05-08 10:24:15. Copyright © 2012. Theosophical Publishing House. All rights reserved. A NeMan's L a n d 281 the mystics of all ages have told)? Can we be so callous and so insensitive as to dare throw them all into the same therapeutic bag? Now I hope that this type of approach-recognizing Absolute Subjectivity as well as levels of conscious pseudo-subject, levels of pseudo-subjectal unconscious, and levels of pseudo-objectal unconsious-will also help to make sense of what appears to be some contradictory trends in humanistic, orthodox, and transpersonal psychologies. At one point we are told to "stop alienating, identify with your own actions and emotions and assume responsibility!" And yet other approaches will ask us to "dis-identify with your ego, your emotions, your body, etc." Are we to identify or dis-identify? The contradiction is resolved when we see, on the Shadow Level for example, that to identify with the Shadow (POU) is to dis-identify with the persona (conscious pseudo-subject) and thereby awaken to the Ego (heretofore PSU). Then going a step further, or deeper if you will, to identify with the body (POW is to dis-identify with the ego (consciouspseudo-subject) and awaken to the centaur (heretofore PSU, now conscious pseudo-subject). And finally, to identify completely with the object of meditation (e.g., a koan) is to dis-identify with the last traces of the pseudo-subject in general and thus awaken as non-dual awareness. To be a consistent practice, most forms of therapy emphasize one of these a p proaches exclusively, and rightly so; it can otherwise be most confusing. But I don't think we need to conclude thereby that we have a contradiction here. In other words, whether a therapy 1) "digs" for the PSU, like psychoanalysis on the Shadow Level or Jungian analysis on the Transpersonal Bands; or 2) identifies with the POU, like Gestalt on the Shadow Level and Bioenergetics on the Existential Level; or 3) dis-identifies with the pseudo-subject, like Transactional Analysis on the Shadow Level and Psycho-synthesis on the Transpersonal Bands-we see in every case the same basic process of "descent" a t work: the remapping of a person's boundaries, the shift to the "next deepest" level of the Spectrum. The various schools of therapy simply aim a t different levels, so that some therapies are geared to take this process to deeper and deeper realms. And yet this is in no way to be taken as a denigration of therapies that work only with upper levels. The various levels of the Spectrum do apparently exist; they do have different characteristics, among which is different dys-eases; and thus we do need to recognize and utilize the therapies most appropriate for a particular level. Even if everybody in the world acknowledged Mind-only and were practicing shikan-taza or mahamudra or dzog-chen, we Wilber, Ken. The Spectrum of Consciousness, Theosophical Publishing House, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sofia/detail.action?docID=1938709. Created from sofia on 2021-05-08 10:24:15. Copyright © 2012. Theosophical Publishing House. All rights reserved. 282 SPECTRUM OF CONSCIOUSNESS would still need upper level therapies, because a person characteristically avoids Mind-only by presently constructing boundaries (levels of the Spectrum); these different boundaries generate different dys-eases; and these dys-eases can best be dealt with by therapies which take them as their sole concern. Let me give a small example of this. A woman who had been practicing a mantra meditation for about two years was one day violently interrupted during meditation by a startling vision of a dog about to attack her. This considerably disturbed this woman for some time, and the only advice her teacher had for her was to keep trying to meditatewhich she did, for over two months without success. This is unfortunate, because I've seen a good Gestalt therapist permanently take care of that type of projection in 15 minutes. What had occurred was that some PSU hostility complex had surfaced, was resisted, and therefore projected as POU-a dog attacking her! Now the PSU, if we may approach it from another angle, is that which, at this moment, unconsciously separates a person as "subject" from the world of objects "out there". The PSU, as a whole, is a type of unconscious wedge driven between subject and object, a wedge that separates you from this page, and thus distorts-in different ways on different levels-the real world of Suchness. Under the special conditions of any type of legitimate therapy, the PSU of the corresponding level is loosened, broken-up, dislodged, and rises to the surface, as it were. Every therapist recognizes that the essential aspect of the therapeutic process is an understanding, or witnessing, or working-through, or digesting, or giving awareness to, this "stuff which comes up." And the stuff which comes up is nothing other than the PSU. This is therapeutic not so much because it affords insight into a person's self, not so much because it is a working-through of infantile or birth trauma, not so much because it is a desensitization-although all these might be auxiliary reasons-but primarily because, in globally apprehending this uprising material, a person has made it an object of awareness and thus is no longer exclusively andsubjectively identified with it. Because he can see it, he no longer confuses it with the Seer. Because he can look a t it, he has ceased using it as something with which to unconsciously look a t and thus distort reality. In short, the wedge between subject and object has been "thinned." Every therapy-whether psychoanalysis, Rolfing, Gestalt, Jungian, rational-emotive, psychosynthesis, bioenergetics-deals with this "stuff which comes up" on its own level and with its own appropriate means. Furthermore, in a global fashion the therapy of any level ultimately cuts through the PSU of every level above it. Thus, transpersonal meditation, and especially Mind medita- Wilber, Ken. The Spectrum of Consciousness, Theosophical Publishing House, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sofia/detail.action?docID=1938709. Created from sofia on 2021-05-08 10:24:15. Copyright © 2012. Theosophical Publishing House. All rights reserved. A NeMan's Land 283 tion, necessarily cuts through the PSU of all upper levels. What we see in meditation is thus a gradual surfacing of all of the PSU, until it is exhausted as object (emptied or cast out) and the person hence falls through his pseudo-subjectivity into Absolute Subjectivity. This exhausting of the PSU shows up as "makyo" (Zen), or "unstressing thoughts" (TM),or "rising mind forms" (bhakti yoga), or the "casting up and out of demons" (contemplation)-the very same phenomenon seen in every other level therapy, except that meditation aimed at Mind takes this process to its ultimate conclusion, to the limit of the Spectrum, to the total dissolution of the PSU. As the PSU comes up in an individual, it is made objective, no longer confused with the Real Subject until there is only the Real Subject. In some cases the PSU may come up in meditation so globally that it is almost unnoticed. But in a large number of cases the PSU comes up in a characteristic order, the same order frequently seen in LSD research, an order Grof sets out as Freudian, Rankian, Jungian, which we recognize easily as Ego, Existential, and Transpersonal, reflecting exactly the order of the boundaries of the Spectrum. It is not necessary that this order be passed through (since to directly contact one level is to undercut all levels above it), but it usually is. We can conclude, therefore, that an upper level therapy can be beneficial for anyone pursuing the Transpersonal or Mind Levels. These therapies very rapidly loosen the PSU of their respective levels, so that meditation can more quickly proceed to deeper levels. At the same time, there is a danger, for someone pursuing Mind, in overdoing this shuffling of therapies, since a person might likely become enchanted with the games of an upper level instead of putting that level in order so as to more easily drop it. In general, then, we might say that until meditation becomes stabilized, appropriate upper level therapies might be most beneficial. Once stabilized, however, recourse to extended upper level therapy is indicated only in severe irruptions of the PSU which seriously disrupt further practice (as in the case of the woman and the dog vision.) Ultimately, a person in meditation must face having no recourse a t all, and this is just what upper level therapies prevent. Having no recourse, no way out, no way forward or backward, he is reduced to the simplicity of the moment, with nothing ahead ofhim and nothing behind him. His boundaries collapse, and, as St. Augustine put it, "in one single flash he arrives at That Which Is." When Fa-ch'ang was dying, a squirrel screeched out from the roof-top. "It's just this," he said, "and nothing more." With these concluding remarks, the only "therapies" remaining for us to consider are those that address themselves to the Level of Wilber, Ken. The Spectrum of Consciousness, Theosophical Publishing House, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sofia/detail.action?docID=1938709. Created from sofia on 2021-05-08 10:24:15. 284 SPECTRUM OF CONSCIOUSNESS Mind. For those who wish to follow the mystics to this Level, it is the venture of all ventures, the quest for the Holy Grail, the search for the Philosopher's Stone, the Elixir of Immortality, the Master Game itself. It is not without risks, but then no voyage is. As a "therapy" this one is no different from any other-it, too, aims a t healing a particular dualism, in this case, the Primary Dualism, the primordial dualism, the separation of the organism and environment, of subject and object, the separation of the Sun and the Moon, the splitting of Heaven and Earth, the very creation of Male and Female, the distinction between Inner Man and Outer Individuality, Sacredotium and Regnum, the primordial dismemberment of the endless S e r p e n t a dismemberment reenacted today exactly a s it was performed in the most ancient of ancient times, long before the Gods descended from Mount Olympus and Meru and Tabor to counsel mortals, long before the Earth and Sun were separated out of a single mass of blazing fire in the remote darkness of space, a dismemberment that goes back to the very point where God emerged from the Void and divided the Light from the Dark, a point that is nevertheless everpresent, without date or duration, reenacting itself Now, not once, but thousands upon thousands of times in this single moment. And it is precisely here, in this moment, this never-fading Now, that the search ends, for it flashes clear that the Goal, the Sought, is nothing but the Seeker himself. Copyright © 2012. Theosophical Publishing House. All rights reserved. REFERENCES AND NOTES C. G. Jung, The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche (New York: Pantheon, 1960),pp. 310-311. Joseph Campbell,ed., TheportableJung (NewYork:Viking Press),p. 67. Lama Govinda, The Foundations of Tibetan Mysticism (New York: Samuel Weiser, 1973),p. 91. Ibid., p. 104. P. W. Martin, Experiment in Depth (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1967). Govinda, Foundations of Tibetan Mysticism, p. 105. C . G. Jung, Modern Man in Search of a Soul (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1936). C . G.Jung,AnalyticalPsychology:ZtsTheory andpractice (NewYork: Vintage, 1968, p. 110. Wilber, Ken. The Spectrum of Consciousness, Theosophical Publishing House, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sofia/detail.action?docID=1938709. Created from sofia on 2021-05-08 10:24:15. A NeMan's Land 285 9. Quoted in J. Campbell, The Masks of God-Creative Mythology (New York: Viking, 19681, p. 655. 10. M. Eliade, Images and Symbols (Sheed and Ward, 19691, p. 89. 11. Campbell, Portable Jung, p. xxii. 12. S.Krippner, ed., "The Plateau Experience: A. H. Maslow and others", Journal of TranspersonelPsychology, vol. 4, no. 2,1972 pp. 107-120. 13. A. H. Maslow, Toward a Psychology of Being (New York: Van Nostrand, 1968). 14. A. H. Maslow, The Farther Reaches of Human Nature (New York: Viking, 1971). 15. R. Assagioli, Psychosynthesis (New York: Viking 1965). 16. 0. Fenichel, The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis (New York: Norton, 1972). 17. A. Lowen, Depression and the Body (Baltimore: Penguin, 1973). Copyright © 2012. Theosophical Publishing House. All rights reserved. 18. H. Benoit, The Supreme Doctrine (New York: VikingJ955). For important works on some facets of the Transpersonal Bands, See also Masters and Houston, Varieties of Psychedelic Experience. (Dell); S. Groff, Realms of theHuman Unconscious (Viking); and C. Tart, ed., Transpersonal Psychologies (Harper). Wilber, Ken. The Spectrum of Consciousness, Theosophical Publishing House, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sofia/detail.action?docID=1938709. Created from sofia on 2021-05-08 10:24:15. Copyright © 2012. Theosophical Publishing House. All rights reserved. Man as Centaur Before exploring the Existential Level, let us get our bearings: a t the upper limits of this Level is the Biosocial Band, and "above" that lies the levels of the Ego and Shadow; while directly "beneath" the Existential Level are the Transpersonal Bands and the Level of Mind. We must remember that the Primary Dualism of organism vs. environment or self vs. other, and the Secondary Dualism of life vs. death or being vs. non-being-these are the two major dualisms marking this Level, so that here our identity is with our total organism a s it exists in space and time. Also, it is significant that the Tertiary Dualism of psyche vs. soma or mind vs. body is not p r e s e n t a t least not prominently-and hence this Level represents our total existential prehension of existence as opposed to our fragmentary ideas-about-existence which compose the Ego Level. Since, in fact, it is the Tertiary Dualism of mind vs. body that propels us away from the Existential Level towards the Ego Level, it is precisely by healing this split, this tertiary dualism, that we center ourselves in the total organism of mind-body called the Existential Level, just a s by healing or whole-ing the quaternary dualism between persona and shadow we descend to the Ego from the Shadow Level. As we have previously explained, this shift to the Existential Level can temporarily be effected by simply resting in a quiet place, chasing away all mental concepts about oneself, and plainly sensing one's basic existence. But to establish one's identity on this Level on a more or less permanent basis usually requires some form of existential "therapy," such as hatha yoga, bioenergetic analysis, structural integration. existential psychology, polaritv therapy, humanistic psychology, logotherapy, massage therapy-to name a prominent few. Despite their wide divergence of external forms, all of these therapies aim essentially a t getting us in touch with the "authentic being" -of our total organism by integrating the tertiary dualism. Now because our approach towards the Existential Level is usually from the Ego Level through the tertiary dualism of mind vs. body, these "therapies" generally fall into two broad classes, reflecting the dualism itself those that proceed primarily through the "mind," such as existential analysis, humanistic therapies, logotherapy, etc.; and those that proceed basically through the "body," such a s structural integration, hatha yoga, polarity therapy, and so on. Some approaches, of course, work "from both 232 Wilber, Ken. The Spectrum of Consciousness, Theosophical Publishing House, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sofia/detail.action?docID=1938709. Created from sofia on 2021-05-08 10:23:51. M a n as Centaur 233 ends" at once, mind and body, such a s bioenergetic analysis and Orgone therapy. But whether proceeding through the mind or the body or both, all alike share a common goal: the integrated organism, the Existential Level, man a s Centaur. Both major approaches-through the mind or through the body-have their special merits, their peculiar advantages and disadvantages. But both alike are based on a principle that is becoming more and more obvious to researchers on this level, a principle that can loosely be stated a s follows: for every mental r>roblem" or "knot," there is a corresponding bodily "knot,"and vice versa, since, in fact, body and mind are not two. As an example of a bodily knot and its corresponding mental knot, we may take the following story about John Lilly. As a youth, Lilly had accidentally sunk a chopping ax deep into his foot, a trauma so severe that he had "repressed" the pain of the ax cut-he saw the ax bury into Iris foot, but felt no pain. His "mind," of course, recorded this incident and its concomitant pain, but it repressed this trauma from his consciousness. Years later, Lilly was undergoing structural integration under Peter Melchior, who instantly noticed the brutal scar on his foot. As he started working toward this scar, deeply massaging and pounding the tissue to loosen the bodily kinks, Lilly began to get visibly anxious and tense. When he finally attacked the scar itself, the whole painful occurrence of the accident flashed into Lilly's mind, and for the first time he actually felt the pain of the original ax cut, a pain that had been buried in his "unconscious" all those years. Copyright © 2012. Theosophical Publishing House. All rights reserved. Suddenly I realized that I had blocked the pain in the original experience. This scar had held the potential of that pain ever since. It also had a basic traumatic memory, a tape loop [mental "hang-up"]attached to it. I had favored that foot, favored that region of the foot, and had not completed the hole that was left in my body image here. The Rolfing [structural integration] allowed this hole to fill in. . . . The point is that through a n attack on the body, a mental knot was loosened. As an example of the reverse-of mental knots producing corresponding bodily knots-we need only mention the work of Wilhelm Reich on the character armor and Fritz Perls on retroflection. Essentially, both of these researchers maintained that a person suffering from a neurosis, such a s the quaternary dualism, will manipulate, squeeze, and tighten his own bodily musculature a s a substitute for what he would really like to do to others. Reich especially felt that neurotics choke off their "nasty" sexual impulses by squeezing and compacting the muscles of the pelvic Wilber, Ken. The Spectrum of Consciousness, Theosophical Publishing House, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sofia/detail.action?docID=1938709. Created from sofia on 2021-05-08 10:23:51. Copyright © 2012. Theosophical Publishing House. All rights reserved. 234 SPECTRUM OF CONSCIOUSNESS region, so that after a while true sexual release is next to impossible; while Perls emphasized that alienated aggression is turned onto the body by a general locking of the muscles involved, so that a person who wants to choke someone might retroflect the aggression and stammer instead, or a person who wants to "squeeze the daylights" out of others might instead stiffen and tighten his entire body. Thus, "in the mind", aggression is alienated by repressing and projecting it, but "in the body", aggression is repressed only by locking all of the muscles opposed to those which would normally discharge that emotion. The result is stalemate, spasm, blockage-large amounts of energies pulling in equal but opposite directions, with a net movement of zip. So it slowly becomes obvious that what in the mind is a war of attitudes, in the body is a war of muscles! Thus, a person who represses his interest and excitement must, at the same time, repress his bodily breathing: he must lock his chest, stiffen his diaphragm and stomach, and clamp hisjaws. Someone who represses his anger must lock all the muscles opposed to those which would strike out at the world: contract and pull in his shoulders, clench his chest, and lock the musculature of his arm. One who wishes to repress crying or screaming must violently tense his eye, neck and throat muscles, as well as restrict breathing and block off all sensations of the gut. In order to repress all sexual impulses, one has to tighten the muscles of the pelvis, lock the lower back muscles, and studiously avoid any awareness of the entire midsection of the body. In all of these cases, a mental knot has produced a bodily knot, which an attack on the mind can loosen. (Actually, to ask whether mental knots produce bodily knots or whether bodily knots produce mental knots is probably a wrong question-the most we should say is that they arise together, and can be cured by an "attack" through either "end," since mind and body are not two). Dr. Lilly, who has had extensive experience on the Existential Level, clearly recognizes these two major approaches-through the mind or through the body-for he states: Thus I realized that the human biocomputer includes the muscle systems and the way these are held by central nervous system patterns of activity is a function of fixation in childhood. Trauma causes hiding of the causes of the trauma, thus setting up a tape loop in the central nervous system, which goes on perpetually activated until broken into either at the brain end or at the muscle end.2 Now to simplify this discussion, any of those approaches, such as hatha yoga, polarity therapy, and structural integration, that aim Wilber, Ken. The Spectrum of Consciousness, Theosophical Publishing House, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sofia/detail.action?docID=1938709. Created from sofia on 2021-05-08 10:23:51. Man a s Centaur at healing the tertiary split between mind and body by working primarily through the "body", through the "muscle end", we will call a somatic-existentialism; while any of those approaches proceeding basically through the "mind", through the "brain end", such as existential analysis and logotherapy, we will term a noetic-existentialism. Theoretically a t least, one approach, either somatic or noetic, if carried out completely and conclusively, can result in thorough contact with the Existential Level. Ideally, however, a combination of the two is highly desirable and most efficacious, a point to which we will presently return. As an example of a typical somatic-existential approach, let us take structural integration or "Rolfing" as it is called after its founder, Dr. Ida Rolf. She writes: Copyright © 2012. Theosophical Publishing House. All rights reserved. In any attempt to create an integrated individual, an obvious starting place is his physical body, if for no other reason than to examine the old premise that a man can project only that which is within. To the medical specialist, this body, and this alone, is the man. To the psychiatrist, this body is less than the man; it is merely the externalized expression of personality. Neither of these specialists has accepted as real a third possibility; namely, that in some way, as yet poorly defined, the physical body is actually the personality, rather than its expression, is the energy unit we call man. . . . = That is to say, the aim of "Rolfing" is to experience the integrated organism wherein the mind is the body and the body is the mind, which unmistakably refers to the healing of the tertiary dualism. Now many of us will find this somewhat difficult to understand, especially since we are so used to placing our "mind," and consequently our identity, in our head, and we feel that our body just sort of dangles along after us. Yet any student of Rolfing, hatha yoga, or massage therapy very soon starts to experience his identity as not being in his body but as his body, with his body, and he has consequently started to dissipate the tertiary dualism and hence to establish himself on the Existential Level. Even Albert Einstein, in all seriousness, claimed that he thought with his muscles! Rolfing itself is a series of exercises and deep massages designed to reawaken our usually benumbed body so that we can begin to reintegrate it, re-own it, and hence take delight in it, as once we had done as children-before we were taught the tertiary dualism, before we were taught that the body housed animal and disgusting passions, that it should be hidden from our sight by binding and suffocating clothing, that while the "mind" produced noble ideas, the body produced nothing but "brute" force or "foul" excretions, that bodily disease was evil and something to feel ashamed of, and Wilber, Ken. The Spectrum of Consciousness, Theosophical Publishing House, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sofia/detail.action?docID=1938709. Created from sofia on 2021-05-08 10:23:51. Copyright © 2012. Theosophical Publishing House. All rights reserved. 236 SPECTRUM OF CONSCIOUSNESS that sooner or later our body would just rot out from under us, eaten up by such unspeakable horrors as cancer. The whole weight of our social indoctrination is aimed at placing as much distance between our "minds" and our "bodies" as possible. But this maneuver inevitably backfires, for as Freud, Blake, and others have so clearly explained, all joy is of the body, of the senses, so that in exiling our bodies we simultaneously exile all possibility of real joy and happiness. To recover this possibility, we must descend from the Ego to the Existential Level, there to awaken the life and energy of the body, for "Energy is eternal delight . . . and is from the Body." In this respect, what was said of Rolfing is essentially applicable to the other somatic-existential approaches, although naturally the techniques, the outer forms, and the "philosophy" of each varies considerably. Hatha yoga, for instance, has always had as its basic aim the awakening of the body and its uniting with the psyche (which is not to be confused with the "higher" yogas such as raja yoga that aim at the Level of Mind). Hatha yoga selects the breath for special attention, since it is most clearly the function where mind and body unite, where conscious mental control and unconscious bodily processes u n i t e a s such, the breath is the royal road to mind-body union. The word "yoga" itself means "union," and hat...

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