Trance, Art & Creativity
Maps of Consciousness / Psychological Taxonomy
http://ionamiller.weebly.com/psychedelic-individual.html
Maps of Consciousness / Psychological Taxonomy
http://ionamiller.weebly.com/psychedelic-individual.html
Taxonomy is the practice and science of classification. The word comes from the Greek τάξις, taxis, 'order' + νόμος, nomos, 'law' or 'science'. Taxonomies, or taxonomic schemes, are composed of taxonomic units known as taxa (singular taxon), or kinds of things that are arranged frequently in a hierarchical structure, typically related by subtype-supertype relationships, also called parent-child relationships. In such a subtype-supertype relationship the subtype kind of thing has by definition the same constraints as the supertype kind of thing plus one or more additional constraints. For example, car is a subtype of vehicle.
This book [Trance, Art & Creativity] is concerned with a taxonomy of the cognitive representation of numinous experience arranged in a hierarchy. The theme of the book addresses itself to the most important issue which exists for man: how to get in touch with the ground of being (the numinous element) without losing ego-consciousness. The taxonomy therefore goes from a state of complete cognitive chaos (such as schizophrenia) through other types of dissociation and trance (which are regarded as prototaxic modes), to a middle ground of parataxic mode which involves some amelioration of the relationship with the conscious ego through successive stages of archetype, dreams, ritual, myth, and art, finally to the syntaxic mode, in which there is some cognitive control (involving creativity, biofeedback, and meditation) among others. Such an analysis is a continuation of ideas presented in The Development of the Psychedelic Individual. In that volume the explication was given a developmental presentation which is absent from the present book. Instead we have here focused on a more careful examination of the various modes of representation, which may be considered as ascending values of the main parameter.
Qabalists employ this glyph from the Sephir Yetzirah, or The Book of Formation, for meditation. These kabbalistic practices have generalized into the Western mystery tradition as the practice of theurgic or practical magic and self-transformation.
The Tree of Life is a consciousness map and fountain-head of most occult arts. Theurgic magic, which aspires toward greater and greater union with Self and Divinity, is a system of exaltative meditation and creative visualization which employs ritual to alter states of consciousness at will in harmony with the cycles of Nature.
In private correspondence with this author in 1982, Gowan made it known that he considered the practice of magic a form of developmental forcing, and therefore dangerous, so he excluded it from his anecdotal reports of expanded states of consciousness.
The Tree of Life depicts the interactive elements of the psyche as well as the archetypal forces of the universe. The 10 Spheres or vortices of this circuit represent the dynamic, interactive balance of archetypal energetic forces within the universe and each psyche, and their corresponding qualities. The 22 paths of "concealed glory" on the Tree reveal the holistic feedback patterns, the means of transition and interaction between them -- transitional states of consciousness. The Spheres are ways of Being while the paths are ways of Becoming.
Gowan's styles of cognition -- prototaxic, parataxic, syntaxic, and unitive states -- correspond with planes of consciusness: physical, astral, causal, and unitive. This Tree is a "ladder of consciousness" which each aspirant may climb toward higher mystic states. The physical biochemical basis of experience is symbolized by the bottom two vortices, which (ala Gowan) we shall call Succession and Emergence.
There is a vertical symbolic journey from the ordinary sensory consciousness of physical life (succession) toward the emergent psychic capacities encountered in the trance state (emergence). Traditionally, the bottom sphere represents the Elements of Earth, while the trance state is linked through symbolism with the Moon, psychism, and surrealistic "astral" perception which is often bizarre or uncanny.
"Trance" is achieved in therapy and ritual by interrupting ordinary awareness--by creating a discontinuity, disruption, temporary chaos. At this prototaxic level, the ego is overwhelmed, and transformations manifest as sensations at the psychophysical and psychosexual level. Self-image, perceptions, and sense of time may be temporarily lost or distorted. The ego dissolves in unconscious communion with the primal preconscious.
Further development leads not only to a change in planes, but a change in the style of cognition to "Art," the parataxic mode, as expressed through gesture, body language, art, myth, ritual, dream, and archetypes. In this plane, the accent is on affect (emotional response). On the glyph of the Tree of Life, the polarities are depicted as horizontally balanced centers of force, yoked opposites of Cognition and Affect (Hod/Netzach). With greater experience an understanding of the inner world, a relationship develops which allows the ego to glimpse and participate with transpersonal forces.
In the traditional correspondences Cognition is linked with Mercury (Differentiation) and balanced by Affect which is associated with Venus (Metamorphosis). They are akin to Will and Imagination, or perhaps the Jungian functions of Thinking and Feeling. One gains not only theoretical knowledge of Self, but also experiential awareness of the imaginal realms--a "virtual reality"--perceived through the vision of the soul. The dissonance of dysplasia is replaced by a resonating congruence or confluence of both developmental forces. This creates a positive directionality or momentum, an impetus, a facilitation of ecstatic higher states in their emergent or bud form.
We can summarize the correspondences of Gowan's components of escalation with the Spheres of the lower portion of the Tree of Life as follows:
SUCCESSION = MALKUTH, Sphere 10. Implies the perception of the aspirant that there is a fixed hierarchical order among the developmental processes. There is a continual rise in awareness at each level, and the order of succession is invariant. At this level of awareness (Malkuth), it seems as if the track of development is fixed although there is flexibility in rate and extent of progress. The main degree of freedom lies in the speed at which one chooses to escalate along the "path" of development.
DISCONTINUITY = YESOD, Sphere 9. Postulates a series of discrete changes in levels of consciousness, much like the locks of a canal. Movement is from pre-rational to rational to trans-rational. Developmental escalation comes from strategically balancing or equilibrating the forces at each discrete jump, much as a clutch does when we shift gears. Additional energy is freed up for the aspirant through increased efficiency.
EMERGENCE = HOD, Sphere 8. Shows the debut of new powers characteristic of access to the Astral Plane. They are the prototype of latter abilities which can be relied upon to function at will. First powers appear in tenuous form, and later they are permanent. Pathworking becomes more defined. One no longer follows a dim trail, but a clearly marked Way. Each stage is revealing the characteristics of the next phase in bud-form.
DIFFERENTIATION = NETZACH, Sphere 7. Refers to the enhanced focusing and clarifying of concept formation accessable at the Hod-Netzach level of experience; emotional intelligence. Lest we become fixated in habits which prevent further development, a metamorphosis occurs in which there is a sudden switch in emphasis from one stage to another. It is much like an adolescent longing for childhood irresponsibility which transforms into facing the future with a mature, methodical preparation. When we have been successful in one phase of life, the temptation is that we will desire to remain on that level. In other words, we get stuck, and need to transform our hang ups to flow with the grain of natural processes.
INTEGRATION = TIPHARETH, Sphere 6. We can finally put it all together in an integrated whole. This transrational synthesis creates new degrees of insight, freedom, and creativity. All previous sstages are united in a holistic viewpoint, greater than the sum of its parts. According to Gowan, the road to high well-being and creativity has five milestones: "1). confrontation of differences, 2). integration, 3). a yielding up or giving up of the old for a new reorganization, 4). a process of differentiation and 5). a positive directionality."
PSYCHEDELIA = DAATH, The Invisible Sphere. Direct experiential contact with the numinous or divine element, multi-sensory "visionary" state, perceptual synesthesia; complementary images of fullness and void; temporary but profound communion with Nature, God, and Mankind; oceanic and peak experiences.
ILLUMINATION = KETHER, Sphere 1. The Unitive state of consciousness. Rising through the planes on the Tree of Life, "climbing" the tree, is a meditational exercise in consciusness-raising. Emergence is an operative principle throughout the vertical "climb" up the Tree of Life.
Emergent abilities are first glimpsed, and later stabilized. This aspiration is an instinctual urge to experience higher statess of consciousness, and the magical analog of natural escalation and development forcing. We should note that aspirants to this path were always cautioned to have their earthly lives in order before attempting to scale the heights.
Just as Jung recommended the path of individuation only for those approaching midlife, masters of the Qabala preferred well-grounded mature students, rarely accepting those under age 30 for advanced training. Further, Rabbi Kaplan (1990) notes, "a person would not attempt to climb a dangerous mountain without the proper training and equipment. Any novice who would attempt a climb without an experienced guide would be courting disaster. Climbing spiritual heights can be equally dangerous. One needs the proper training and mental equipment, as well as an experienced spiritual guide."
When climbing the "mystic mountain," balancing the Cognitive and Affective energy centers opens a Middle Way, a transitional mode of consciousness referred to as Art or Temperance. This path leads directly to the central sphere of "Creativity," which radiates integration and magnetically draws us toward individualized consciusness, self-actualization or fulfillment of our unique potential. The emergence of this state as a creative impulse is glimpsed in the parataxic mode, but its fruition comes through the stabilzation of syntaxic awareness--the qabalistic form of Self-realization, which brings a new sense of equilibrium and transmuttation.
According to Fortune (1935/1984), "consciousness ceases to work in symbolic subconscious representations but apprehends by means of emotional reactions." Mysticism itself is one of the greatest arts, melding aspiration and artistic expression. This well-spring of creativity is the source of Intuition which balances instinct and proprioceptive Sensation.
In THE TREE OF LIFE, Regardie (1969) states in no uncertain tterms that "Genius in itself is caused by or proceeds concommitantly with a spiritual experience of the highest intuitional order." He considered self-discovery and spiritual attainment an evolutionary mandate.
Aspiration leads up the Middle Way into the state of Psychedelia or mystic rapture, which includes the possibility of mystic rupture of the protective covering of the ego if forced too far, too soon (Daath, the psychedelic sphere of Knowledge).
Again, Rabbi Kaplan notes that, "The further one climbs, however, the more rarefied the atmosphere, and the greater the spiritual danger. By a simple permutation, the word Kether (Crown) becomes Karet, the Hebrew word for excision, where a person is completely cut off spiritually."
The dangers alluded to include mental, emotional, moral, and spiritual chaos. In Jewish or occult meditation, when a qabalist enters the mysteries, he or she must parallel the sequence of creation. We first enter the Universe of Chaos with its confusion of transient images; even the Spheres are perceived as disconnected images.
But by meditating on and experiencing the traditional paths, relationships become apparent and a sense of integration develops as we realize we are that gestalt of the Tree of Life. This "creation pattern" echoes what we find in experiential therapy sessions where notions of the old self break down in chaos prior to connection with holistic repatterning that heals and reveals an expanded sense of self.
The stabilization of the Creative stage ("Beauty," Sphere 6) leads to the ascension of transpersonal values in personality and behavior. So-called normal consciousness can proceed no further, and ego (through this insight) diffuses into an expanded sense of superconsiciousness.
Though Gowan is vague on this point, the Qabala hints that access to higher mystical states involves the balancing of the qualities of Judgement or Severity (strength, fear, discrimination) with those of Mercy, Love, or Compassion, corresponding respectively with Mars and Jupiter. On a higher octave, it involves the downflowing of grace, a marriage of Understanding (Saturn) and Wisdom (Uranus).
This psychedelic state, Daath, is a contact with the macrocosm, the numinous element which resultts from the twin blessings of Wisdom and Understanding wherein the psychophysical self is "contained", yet expanded and diffused in pure consciousness containing no sensory imagery. It holds the secret of generation and regeneration and the manifestation of all things from No Thing. In Qabala, the developmental process culminates in complete absorption in the Unitive state of Kether, the uppermost vortex -- Illumination. (Iona Miller)
The Tree of Life is a consciousness map and fountain-head of most occult arts. Theurgic magic, which aspires toward greater and greater union with Self and Divinity, is a system of exaltative meditation and creative visualization which employs ritual to alter states of consciousness at will in harmony with the cycles of Nature.
In private correspondence with this author in 1982, Gowan made it known that he considered the practice of magic a form of developmental forcing, and therefore dangerous, so he excluded it from his anecdotal reports of expanded states of consciousness.
The Tree of Life depicts the interactive elements of the psyche as well as the archetypal forces of the universe. The 10 Spheres or vortices of this circuit represent the dynamic, interactive balance of archetypal energetic forces within the universe and each psyche, and their corresponding qualities. The 22 paths of "concealed glory" on the Tree reveal the holistic feedback patterns, the means of transition and interaction between them -- transitional states of consciousness. The Spheres are ways of Being while the paths are ways of Becoming.
Gowan's styles of cognition -- prototaxic, parataxic, syntaxic, and unitive states -- correspond with planes of consciusness: physical, astral, causal, and unitive. This Tree is a "ladder of consciousness" which each aspirant may climb toward higher mystic states. The physical biochemical basis of experience is symbolized by the bottom two vortices, which (ala Gowan) we shall call Succession and Emergence.
There is a vertical symbolic journey from the ordinary sensory consciousness of physical life (succession) toward the emergent psychic capacities encountered in the trance state (emergence). Traditionally, the bottom sphere represents the Elements of Earth, while the trance state is linked through symbolism with the Moon, psychism, and surrealistic "astral" perception which is often bizarre or uncanny.
"Trance" is achieved in therapy and ritual by interrupting ordinary awareness--by creating a discontinuity, disruption, temporary chaos. At this prototaxic level, the ego is overwhelmed, and transformations manifest as sensations at the psychophysical and psychosexual level. Self-image, perceptions, and sense of time may be temporarily lost or distorted. The ego dissolves in unconscious communion with the primal preconscious.
Further development leads not only to a change in planes, but a change in the style of cognition to "Art," the parataxic mode, as expressed through gesture, body language, art, myth, ritual, dream, and archetypes. In this plane, the accent is on affect (emotional response). On the glyph of the Tree of Life, the polarities are depicted as horizontally balanced centers of force, yoked opposites of Cognition and Affect (Hod/Netzach). With greater experience an understanding of the inner world, a relationship develops which allows the ego to glimpse and participate with transpersonal forces.
In the traditional correspondences Cognition is linked with Mercury (Differentiation) and balanced by Affect which is associated with Venus (Metamorphosis). They are akin to Will and Imagination, or perhaps the Jungian functions of Thinking and Feeling. One gains not only theoretical knowledge of Self, but also experiential awareness of the imaginal realms--a "virtual reality"--perceived through the vision of the soul. The dissonance of dysplasia is replaced by a resonating congruence or confluence of both developmental forces. This creates a positive directionality or momentum, an impetus, a facilitation of ecstatic higher states in their emergent or bud form.
We can summarize the correspondences of Gowan's components of escalation with the Spheres of the lower portion of the Tree of Life as follows:
SUCCESSION = MALKUTH, Sphere 10. Implies the perception of the aspirant that there is a fixed hierarchical order among the developmental processes. There is a continual rise in awareness at each level, and the order of succession is invariant. At this level of awareness (Malkuth), it seems as if the track of development is fixed although there is flexibility in rate and extent of progress. The main degree of freedom lies in the speed at which one chooses to escalate along the "path" of development.
DISCONTINUITY = YESOD, Sphere 9. Postulates a series of discrete changes in levels of consciousness, much like the locks of a canal. Movement is from pre-rational to rational to trans-rational. Developmental escalation comes from strategically balancing or equilibrating the forces at each discrete jump, much as a clutch does when we shift gears. Additional energy is freed up for the aspirant through increased efficiency.
EMERGENCE = HOD, Sphere 8. Shows the debut of new powers characteristic of access to the Astral Plane. They are the prototype of latter abilities which can be relied upon to function at will. First powers appear in tenuous form, and later they are permanent. Pathworking becomes more defined. One no longer follows a dim trail, but a clearly marked Way. Each stage is revealing the characteristics of the next phase in bud-form.
DIFFERENTIATION = NETZACH, Sphere 7. Refers to the enhanced focusing and clarifying of concept formation accessable at the Hod-Netzach level of experience; emotional intelligence. Lest we become fixated in habits which prevent further development, a metamorphosis occurs in which there is a sudden switch in emphasis from one stage to another. It is much like an adolescent longing for childhood irresponsibility which transforms into facing the future with a mature, methodical preparation. When we have been successful in one phase of life, the temptation is that we will desire to remain on that level. In other words, we get stuck, and need to transform our hang ups to flow with the grain of natural processes.
INTEGRATION = TIPHARETH, Sphere 6. We can finally put it all together in an integrated whole. This transrational synthesis creates new degrees of insight, freedom, and creativity. All previous sstages are united in a holistic viewpoint, greater than the sum of its parts. According to Gowan, the road to high well-being and creativity has five milestones: "1). confrontation of differences, 2). integration, 3). a yielding up or giving up of the old for a new reorganization, 4). a process of differentiation and 5). a positive directionality."
PSYCHEDELIA = DAATH, The Invisible Sphere. Direct experiential contact with the numinous or divine element, multi-sensory "visionary" state, perceptual synesthesia; complementary images of fullness and void; temporary but profound communion with Nature, God, and Mankind; oceanic and peak experiences.
ILLUMINATION = KETHER, Sphere 1. The Unitive state of consciousness. Rising through the planes on the Tree of Life, "climbing" the tree, is a meditational exercise in consciusness-raising. Emergence is an operative principle throughout the vertical "climb" up the Tree of Life.
Emergent abilities are first glimpsed, and later stabilized. This aspiration is an instinctual urge to experience higher statess of consciousness, and the magical analog of natural escalation and development forcing. We should note that aspirants to this path were always cautioned to have their earthly lives in order before attempting to scale the heights.
Just as Jung recommended the path of individuation only for those approaching midlife, masters of the Qabala preferred well-grounded mature students, rarely accepting those under age 30 for advanced training. Further, Rabbi Kaplan (1990) notes, "a person would not attempt to climb a dangerous mountain without the proper training and equipment. Any novice who would attempt a climb without an experienced guide would be courting disaster. Climbing spiritual heights can be equally dangerous. One needs the proper training and mental equipment, as well as an experienced spiritual guide."
When climbing the "mystic mountain," balancing the Cognitive and Affective energy centers opens a Middle Way, a transitional mode of consciousness referred to as Art or Temperance. This path leads directly to the central sphere of "Creativity," which radiates integration and magnetically draws us toward individualized consciusness, self-actualization or fulfillment of our unique potential. The emergence of this state as a creative impulse is glimpsed in the parataxic mode, but its fruition comes through the stabilzation of syntaxic awareness--the qabalistic form of Self-realization, which brings a new sense of equilibrium and transmuttation.
According to Fortune (1935/1984), "consciousness ceases to work in symbolic subconscious representations but apprehends by means of emotional reactions." Mysticism itself is one of the greatest arts, melding aspiration and artistic expression. This well-spring of creativity is the source of Intuition which balances instinct and proprioceptive Sensation.
In THE TREE OF LIFE, Regardie (1969) states in no uncertain tterms that "Genius in itself is caused by or proceeds concommitantly with a spiritual experience of the highest intuitional order." He considered self-discovery and spiritual attainment an evolutionary mandate.
Aspiration leads up the Middle Way into the state of Psychedelia or mystic rapture, which includes the possibility of mystic rupture of the protective covering of the ego if forced too far, too soon (Daath, the psychedelic sphere of Knowledge).
Again, Rabbi Kaplan notes that, "The further one climbs, however, the more rarefied the atmosphere, and the greater the spiritual danger. By a simple permutation, the word Kether (Crown) becomes Karet, the Hebrew word for excision, where a person is completely cut off spiritually."
The dangers alluded to include mental, emotional, moral, and spiritual chaos. In Jewish or occult meditation, when a qabalist enters the mysteries, he or she must parallel the sequence of creation. We first enter the Universe of Chaos with its confusion of transient images; even the Spheres are perceived as disconnected images.
But by meditating on and experiencing the traditional paths, relationships become apparent and a sense of integration develops as we realize we are that gestalt of the Tree of Life. This "creation pattern" echoes what we find in experiential therapy sessions where notions of the old self break down in chaos prior to connection with holistic repatterning that heals and reveals an expanded sense of self.
The stabilization of the Creative stage ("Beauty," Sphere 6) leads to the ascension of transpersonal values in personality and behavior. So-called normal consciousness can proceed no further, and ego (through this insight) diffuses into an expanded sense of superconsiciousness.
Though Gowan is vague on this point, the Qabala hints that access to higher mystical states involves the balancing of the qualities of Judgement or Severity (strength, fear, discrimination) with those of Mercy, Love, or Compassion, corresponding respectively with Mars and Jupiter. On a higher octave, it involves the downflowing of grace, a marriage of Understanding (Saturn) and Wisdom (Uranus).
This psychedelic state, Daath, is a contact with the macrocosm, the numinous element which resultts from the twin blessings of Wisdom and Understanding wherein the psychophysical self is "contained", yet expanded and diffused in pure consciousness containing no sensory imagery. It holds the secret of generation and regeneration and the manifestation of all things from No Thing. In Qabala, the developmental process culminates in complete absorption in the Unitive state of Kether, the uppermost vortex -- Illumination. (Iona Miller)
Gowan, J.C., THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CREATIVE INDIVIDUAL, R. Knapp, San Diego, 1972.
Gowan, J.C. DEVELOPMENT OF THE PSYCHEDELIC INDIVIDUAL, J.A Gowan, Brooktondale, NY, 1974.
http://www.csun.edu/edpsy/Gowan/contentp.html
Gowan, J.C., TRANCE, ART, AND CREATIVITY, J.A. Gowan, Brooktondale, NY, 1975.
http://www.csun.edu/edpsy/Gowan/content.html
Gowan, J.C., OPERATIONS OF INCREASING ORDER, J.C. Gowan, Westlake Village, CA, 1980.
http://www.csun.edu/edpsy/Gowan/contentz.html
Gowan, J.C. DEVELOPMENT OF THE PSYCHEDELIC INDIVIDUAL, J.A Gowan, Brooktondale, NY, 1974.
http://www.csun.edu/edpsy/Gowan/contentp.html
Gowan, J.C., TRANCE, ART, AND CREATIVITY, J.A. Gowan, Brooktondale, NY, 1975.
http://www.csun.edu/edpsy/Gowan/content.html
Gowan, J.C., OPERATIONS OF INCREASING ORDER, J.C. Gowan, Westlake Village, CA, 1980.
http://www.csun.edu/edpsy/Gowan/contentz.html
THE THREE MODES:
PROTOTAXIC, PARATAXIC and SYNTAXIC
a) SHAMANISM: prototaxic experience (characterized by trance-state and loss of ego; ego control absent); dissociation, superstition, possession. Shadow, instinct.
b) ARCHETYPE, MYTH & DREAM: Art : ( Ego expressive) parataxic experience, characterized by the production of images whose meaning is not clear or categorical because it remains largely unconscious; muse, anima/animus
c) CREATIVITY: Self-Actualization. (Ego stabilized in practice and service). Syntaxic experience, conscious clarity, (where meaning is more or less fully cognized symbolically, with ego present). Gifts, genius, compassion, recognition available as a resource at will. The authentic life. Illumination is a steady state where the art of cooperating with navigating numinous experience has been mastered. Self.
Three popular names for these three modes are TRANCE, ART, and CREATIVITY, respectively. Possibly delusional and idiosyncratic beliefs evolve into expressed but little understood beliefs, then into fully cognizable states of cognitive and affective parity. The emotions don't run away with the mind and the mind doesn't dissociate and distort or exploit the emotions. The first is a feeling-oriented possession by the numinous, the second an imaginary attempt to communicate with it expressively, and the third a fully-cognizant stabilized steady state of balance and cooperation between the ego and numinous.
When climbing the "mystic mountain," balancing the mental and emotional energy opens a Middle Way, a transitional mode of consciousness referred to as Art or Temperance. This path leads directly to the core of "Creativity," which radiates integration and magnetically draws us toward individualized consciousness, self-actualization or fulfillment of our unique potential. Such genius has traditionally been called "divine".
TRANCE, ART, AND CREATIVITY
by JOHN CURTIS GOWAN
A Psychological Analysis of the Relationship between the Individual Ego and the Numinous Element in Three Modes: Prototaxic, Parataxic, and Syntaxic
Keywords: archetype, art, biofeedback, collective unconscious, creativity, dissociation, dream, drug effects, ecstasy, ESP, glossolalia, hallucination, hypnosis, meditation, myth, mysticism, numinous element, parapsychology, peak experience, psychic, psyche, ritual, self-actualization, tantra, trance.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Advisory
Title Page
Copyright Acknowledgements
General Acknowledgements
List of Tables and Figures
Chapter I pages 1-23 plus preface (102k)
Synopsis of the Book
1. INTRODUCTION I
1.1 SYNOPSIS 1
1.2 THE NUMINOUS ELEMENT 3
1.3 THE THREE ILLUSIONS 10
1.31 Space: The Physical Universe 12
1.32 Time 14
1.33 Ego 16
1.34 Conclusion 17
1.4 THE THREE MODES: PROTOTAXIC, PARATAXIC, AND SYNTAXIC 19
Chapter II:
The Prototaxic Mode - Trance
Chapter IIa pages 24-104 (261k) The Varieties of Trance
2. THE PROTOTAXIC MODE: TRANCE 24
2.1 INTRODUCTION 24
2.2 SCHIZOPHRENIA 26
2.21 The Panic-Reaction Type of Boisen 27
2.22 Developmental Forcing and "Positive Disintegration". . 28
2.23 Unstressing 31
2.3 TRANCE 34
2.31 General 34
2.32 Group Trance Dance 43
2.33 Possession Trance 50
2.34 Mediumistic Trance 56
2.35 Shamanistic Trance 60
.351 General 60
.352 Qualifications , Training, Initiation 62
.353 Paraphernalia and Familiars 66
.354 Magic 69
2.36 Hypnosis 70
.361 General 70
.362 Hysteria 77
.363 Autohypnosis, and Autogenic Training 79
.364 Conclusion 80
2.37 Psychedelic Drugs 81
.371 Introduction 81
.372 Effects 84
.373 Mescaline 91
.374 LSD 93
.375 Marijuana 95
.376 Miscellaneous Drugs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
.377 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
.378 Delirium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
2.38 Sensory Deprivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Chapter IIb pages 105-173 (220k)
Paranormal Effects of Trance
2.4 PARANORMAL EFFECTS OF TRANCE 105
2.41 General 105
2.42 ESP Effects 111
2.43 Hallucinations 117
.431 General 117
.432 Auditory Hallucinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
.433 Visual Hallucinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
.434 Hypnagogic Hallucinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
.435 Hallucinations under Sensory Deprivation 125
.436 Hallucination Associated With the Death of the Agent 127
.437 Critique and Conclusion 128
2.44 Healing and the Conquest of Pain 131
.441 General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
.442 Folk Healing in South America With Drugs . . . . . . 131
.443 Shamanistic Psychic Surgery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
.444 Hypnotic Control of Pain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
.445 Accelerated Mental Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
2.45 Mastery Over Fire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
2.46 Psychokinesis and Poltergeist Phenomena . . . . . . . . 144
2.47 The Out-of-Body Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
2.48 Mob Contagion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
2.5 THE AUTOMATISMS OF GLOSSOLALIA AND AUTOMATIC WRITING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
2.51 Glossolalia 152
2.52 Xenoglossia 161
2.53 Single Limb Trance: Automatic Writing 161
2.6 "HIGHER" TRANCE: A DISPUTED ANCHOR POINT............................... . 162
2.61 General 162
2.62 Religious Trances 163
2.7 PROTOTAXIC CONCLUSION 167
Chapter III pages 174-244 (223k)
The Parataxic Mode - Art
3. THE PARATAXIC MODE: (ART) 174
3.1 INTRODUCTION 174
3.2 ARCHETYPE 178
3.3 DREAMS 185
3.31 Introduction 185
3.32 Physiology of Sleep and Dreaming 186
3.33 Theories of Dreaming 187
3.34 Nightmares 193
3.35 Hypnotic Investigation of Dreams 194
3.36 Dreams and Creativity 195
3.37 Dreams and the Paranormal 199
3.38 High Dreams, Lucid Dreams, Programming Dreams 201
3.39 Conclusion 203
3.4 MYTH 204
3.41 General Introduction 204
3.42 Examples of Myth 209
3.43 Myth and Animals 210
3.44 Totemization of Myth 213
.441 General 213
.442 Talismans 215
3.45 Myth and Ritual 217
3.5 RITUAL 218
3.6 ART 224
3.61 Introduction 224
3.62 Image-Magic 227
3.63 Art as a Representation of the Numinous 230
3.64 Metaphysical Art 235
3.65 Art and Creativity 238
3.66 Conclusion-Art 239
3.7 PARATAXIC MODE CONCLUSION 241
Chapter IV:
The Syntaxic Mode - Creativity
Chapter IVa pages 245-319 (251k) An Overview of Creativity
4. THE SYNTAXIC MODE (CREATIVITY) 245
4.1 INTRODUCTION 245
4.11 Introduction 245
4.12 The Numinous Element as the Collective Preconscious............................... . 250
4.13 The Three Illusions Revisited 257
4.14 The Right Cerebral Hemisphere Function 261
4.15 Siddhis 264
.151 General 264
.152 ESP, Telepathy, Precognition, Psychometry and Accelerated Mental Process 266
.153 Human Auras and Kirlian Photography 267
.154 Healing and Anesthesia from Pain 268
.155 Power over Fire: Psychic Heat 269
.156 OBE, Traveling Clairvoyance, Levitation, Magical Flight 271
.157 Psychokinesis 272
.158 Physiological Aspects: Breathing, Autonomic Processes, Kundalini, Psychic Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
.159 Miscellaneous Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
4.2 TANTRIC SEX (Jhana-6) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
4.3 CREATIVITY (Jhana-5) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
4.31 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
4.32 The Importance of Symbolization in Verbal Creativity282
4.33 Creativity as Cognitive, Rational, and Semantic .... 286
4.34 Creativity as Personal and Environmental . . . . . . . 287
4.35 Creativity as Psychological Openness . . . . . . . . . . 290
.351 General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
.352 Openness Facilitated by Hypnosis . . . . . . . . . . . . 293 .
353 Openness Facilitated by Drugs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
.354 The Role of ESP in Creativity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
.355 Dreams and Creativity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
4.36 Creativity and the Preconscious . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
4.37 Creativity as Evidence of Mental Health and Self -Actualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
.37a Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
.37b General Research on Self-Actualization . . . . . . . . 304
.37c Joy, Content, and Expectation of Good . . . . . . . . . 306
.37d Serendipity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
.37e Increased Control over Environment . . . . . . . . . . 306
.37f Sense of Destiny . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
.37g Acceptance of Self, Others, Nature . . . . . . . . . . . 307
.37h Spontaneity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
.37i Detachment and Autonomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
.37j Gemeinschaftgefuhl (Brotherly Love) . . . . . . . . . 308
.37k A Philosophical and Unhostile Sense of Humor . . . 308
.371 Psychological and Semantic Flexibility . . . . . . . . 309
.37m The "Witness Phenomenon .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
4.38 Creative Organization: General Systems Theory . . . . 310
4.39 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
4.4 BIOFEEDBACK (Jhana-4) 314
4.41 General Introduction 314
4.42 Alpha Wave Training and Its Implications for Meditation 316
4.43 Alpha and Creativity 319
Chapter IVb pages 320-391 (234k)
Orthocognition, Meditation, and Higher Stages
4.5 ORTHOCOGNITION (Jhana-3) 320
4.51 General Principles 320
4.52 Is Orthocognition Moral? 327
4.53 Orthocognition Compared 328
4.54 Orthocognition as Healing 330
4.6 MEDITATION (Jhana-2) 332
4.61 General Information 332
4.62 Nichiren Shoshu 337
4.63 Transcendental Meditation 338
4.64 Psychocatalysis 340
4.65 Arica 341
4.66 Zen 342
4.67 Vedanta 344
4.68 Integral Yoga 345
4.69 Conclusion 348
4.7 PSYCHEDELIA AND ECSTASY 351
4.71 Response Experiences (Jhana-1) 358
4.72 Adamic or Time Ecstasies ("Access" or Jhana 0) 361
4.73 Knowledge Ecstasy (Jhana 1) 366
4.74 Knowledge-Contact Ecstasy of Degree I (Jhana 2) 369
4.75 Knowledge-Contact Ecstasy of Degree 2 (Jhana 3) 373
4.76 Knowledge-Contact Ecstasy of Degree 3 (Jhana 4) 373
4.77 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374
4.8 THE UNITIVE STAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375
4.81 Ineffable Contact (Jhana 5) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376
4.82 Transcendental Contact (Jhana 6) . . . . . . . . . . . . 376
4.83 Ineffable Union (Jhana 7) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
4.84 Transcendental Union (Jhana 8) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
4.9 CONCLUSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
APPENDIX 392
Bibliography pages 409-447 (85k)
Glossary
Index
by JOHN CURTIS GOWAN
A Psychological Analysis of the Relationship between the Individual Ego and the Numinous Element in Three Modes: Prototaxic, Parataxic, and Syntaxic
Keywords: archetype, art, biofeedback, collective unconscious, creativity, dissociation, dream, drug effects, ecstasy, ESP, glossolalia, hallucination, hypnosis, meditation, myth, mysticism, numinous element, parapsychology, peak experience, psychic, psyche, ritual, self-actualization, tantra, trance.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Advisory
Title Page
Copyright Acknowledgements
General Acknowledgements
List of Tables and Figures
Chapter I pages 1-23 plus preface (102k)
Synopsis of the Book
1. INTRODUCTION I
1.1 SYNOPSIS 1
1.2 THE NUMINOUS ELEMENT 3
1.3 THE THREE ILLUSIONS 10
1.31 Space: The Physical Universe 12
1.32 Time 14
1.33 Ego 16
1.34 Conclusion 17
1.4 THE THREE MODES: PROTOTAXIC, PARATAXIC, AND SYNTAXIC 19
Chapter II:
The Prototaxic Mode - Trance
Chapter IIa pages 24-104 (261k) The Varieties of Trance
2. THE PROTOTAXIC MODE: TRANCE 24
2.1 INTRODUCTION 24
2.2 SCHIZOPHRENIA 26
2.21 The Panic-Reaction Type of Boisen 27
2.22 Developmental Forcing and "Positive Disintegration". . 28
2.23 Unstressing 31
2.3 TRANCE 34
2.31 General 34
2.32 Group Trance Dance 43
2.33 Possession Trance 50
2.34 Mediumistic Trance 56
2.35 Shamanistic Trance 60
.351 General 60
.352 Qualifications , Training, Initiation 62
.353 Paraphernalia and Familiars 66
.354 Magic 69
2.36 Hypnosis 70
.361 General 70
.362 Hysteria 77
.363 Autohypnosis, and Autogenic Training 79
.364 Conclusion 80
2.37 Psychedelic Drugs 81
.371 Introduction 81
.372 Effects 84
.373 Mescaline 91
.374 LSD 93
.375 Marijuana 95
.376 Miscellaneous Drugs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
.377 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
.378 Delirium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
2.38 Sensory Deprivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Chapter IIb pages 105-173 (220k)
Paranormal Effects of Trance
2.4 PARANORMAL EFFECTS OF TRANCE 105
2.41 General 105
2.42 ESP Effects 111
2.43 Hallucinations 117
.431 General 117
.432 Auditory Hallucinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
.433 Visual Hallucinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
.434 Hypnagogic Hallucinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
.435 Hallucinations under Sensory Deprivation 125
.436 Hallucination Associated With the Death of the Agent 127
.437 Critique and Conclusion 128
2.44 Healing and the Conquest of Pain 131
.441 General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
.442 Folk Healing in South America With Drugs . . . . . . 131
.443 Shamanistic Psychic Surgery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
.444 Hypnotic Control of Pain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
.445 Accelerated Mental Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
2.45 Mastery Over Fire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
2.46 Psychokinesis and Poltergeist Phenomena . . . . . . . . 144
2.47 The Out-of-Body Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
2.48 Mob Contagion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
2.5 THE AUTOMATISMS OF GLOSSOLALIA AND AUTOMATIC WRITING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
2.51 Glossolalia 152
2.52 Xenoglossia 161
2.53 Single Limb Trance: Automatic Writing 161
2.6 "HIGHER" TRANCE: A DISPUTED ANCHOR POINT............................... . 162
2.61 General 162
2.62 Religious Trances 163
2.7 PROTOTAXIC CONCLUSION 167
Chapter III pages 174-244 (223k)
The Parataxic Mode - Art
3. THE PARATAXIC MODE: (ART) 174
3.1 INTRODUCTION 174
3.2 ARCHETYPE 178
3.3 DREAMS 185
3.31 Introduction 185
3.32 Physiology of Sleep and Dreaming 186
3.33 Theories of Dreaming 187
3.34 Nightmares 193
3.35 Hypnotic Investigation of Dreams 194
3.36 Dreams and Creativity 195
3.37 Dreams and the Paranormal 199
3.38 High Dreams, Lucid Dreams, Programming Dreams 201
3.39 Conclusion 203
3.4 MYTH 204
3.41 General Introduction 204
3.42 Examples of Myth 209
3.43 Myth and Animals 210
3.44 Totemization of Myth 213
.441 General 213
.442 Talismans 215
3.45 Myth and Ritual 217
3.5 RITUAL 218
3.6 ART 224
3.61 Introduction 224
3.62 Image-Magic 227
3.63 Art as a Representation of the Numinous 230
3.64 Metaphysical Art 235
3.65 Art and Creativity 238
3.66 Conclusion-Art 239
3.7 PARATAXIC MODE CONCLUSION 241
Chapter IV:
The Syntaxic Mode - Creativity
Chapter IVa pages 245-319 (251k) An Overview of Creativity
4. THE SYNTAXIC MODE (CREATIVITY) 245
4.1 INTRODUCTION 245
4.11 Introduction 245
4.12 The Numinous Element as the Collective Preconscious............................... . 250
4.13 The Three Illusions Revisited 257
4.14 The Right Cerebral Hemisphere Function 261
4.15 Siddhis 264
.151 General 264
.152 ESP, Telepathy, Precognition, Psychometry and Accelerated Mental Process 266
.153 Human Auras and Kirlian Photography 267
.154 Healing and Anesthesia from Pain 268
.155 Power over Fire: Psychic Heat 269
.156 OBE, Traveling Clairvoyance, Levitation, Magical Flight 271
.157 Psychokinesis 272
.158 Physiological Aspects: Breathing, Autonomic Processes, Kundalini, Psychic Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
.159 Miscellaneous Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
4.2 TANTRIC SEX (Jhana-6) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
4.3 CREATIVITY (Jhana-5) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
4.31 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
4.32 The Importance of Symbolization in Verbal Creativity282
4.33 Creativity as Cognitive, Rational, and Semantic .... 286
4.34 Creativity as Personal and Environmental . . . . . . . 287
4.35 Creativity as Psychological Openness . . . . . . . . . . 290
.351 General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
.352 Openness Facilitated by Hypnosis . . . . . . . . . . . . 293 .
353 Openness Facilitated by Drugs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
.354 The Role of ESP in Creativity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
.355 Dreams and Creativity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
4.36 Creativity and the Preconscious . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
4.37 Creativity as Evidence of Mental Health and Self -Actualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
.37a Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
.37b General Research on Self-Actualization . . . . . . . . 304
.37c Joy, Content, and Expectation of Good . . . . . . . . . 306
.37d Serendipity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
.37e Increased Control over Environment . . . . . . . . . . 306
.37f Sense of Destiny . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
.37g Acceptance of Self, Others, Nature . . . . . . . . . . . 307
.37h Spontaneity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
.37i Detachment and Autonomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
.37j Gemeinschaftgefuhl (Brotherly Love) . . . . . . . . . 308
.37k A Philosophical and Unhostile Sense of Humor . . . 308
.371 Psychological and Semantic Flexibility . . . . . . . . 309
.37m The "Witness Phenomenon .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
4.38 Creative Organization: General Systems Theory . . . . 310
4.39 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
4.4 BIOFEEDBACK (Jhana-4) 314
4.41 General Introduction 314
4.42 Alpha Wave Training and Its Implications for Meditation 316
4.43 Alpha and Creativity 319
Chapter IVb pages 320-391 (234k)
Orthocognition, Meditation, and Higher Stages
4.5 ORTHOCOGNITION (Jhana-3) 320
4.51 General Principles 320
4.52 Is Orthocognition Moral? 327
4.53 Orthocognition Compared 328
4.54 Orthocognition as Healing 330
4.6 MEDITATION (Jhana-2) 332
4.61 General Information 332
4.62 Nichiren Shoshu 337
4.63 Transcendental Meditation 338
4.64 Psychocatalysis 340
4.65 Arica 341
4.66 Zen 342
4.67 Vedanta 344
4.68 Integral Yoga 345
4.69 Conclusion 348
4.7 PSYCHEDELIA AND ECSTASY 351
4.71 Response Experiences (Jhana-1) 358
4.72 Adamic or Time Ecstasies ("Access" or Jhana 0) 361
4.73 Knowledge Ecstasy (Jhana 1) 366
4.74 Knowledge-Contact Ecstasy of Degree I (Jhana 2) 369
4.75 Knowledge-Contact Ecstasy of Degree 2 (Jhana 3) 373
4.76 Knowledge-Contact Ecstasy of Degree 3 (Jhana 4) 373
4.77 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374
4.8 THE UNITIVE STAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375
4.81 Ineffable Contact (Jhana 5) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376
4.82 Transcendental Contact (Jhana 6) . . . . . . . . . . . . 376
4.83 Ineffable Union (Jhana 7) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
4.84 Transcendental Union (Jhana 8) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
4.9 CONCLUSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
APPENDIX 392
Bibliography pages 409-447 (85k)
Glossary
Index
CONTENTS - DEVELOPMENT OF THE PSYCHEDELIC INDIVIDUAL
Title Page
PREFACE vii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xv
LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES xxi
Introduction - Things are not what they Seem -1
INTRODUCTION 1
0.1 THINGS ARE NOT WHAT THEY SEEM 1
0.2 CONTINGENCY 4
0.3 PROSPECTUS 11
Chapter 1. The Literature of Parasensory Experiences - 12
1. THE LITERATURE 12
1.1 PARASENSORY EXPERIENCES 12
1.2 THE COLLECTIVE PRECONSCIOUS 27
1.21 Cognitive Modes of Experiencing 31
1.22 Archetypes of the Collective Preconscious 34
1.3 PSYCHEDELIA 38
1.4 DEVELOPMENT TOWARD SELF ACTUALIZATION 41
Chapter 2. Creativity and Developmental Stage Theory - 48
2 THE ERIKSON-PAIGET-GOWAN THEORY OF PERIODIC DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES 48
2.1 CREATIVITY AND DEVELOPMENTAL STAGE THEORY 48
2.2 ESCALATION AND DYSPLASIA 60
2.21 Succession 62
2.22 Discontinuity 64
2.23 Emergence 64
2.24 Differentiation 66
Fixation 66
Metamorphosis 66
2.25 Integration ......................... 67
2.3 THE DEVELOPMENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CREATIVITY 69
2.31 Creativity as the Outcome of the Proper Functioning of Development 69
2.32 Oedipal Origins: Magic Nightmare or Creative Fantasy 71
2.33 Third Column Characteristics of Creativity 72
2.34 Creativity and Auxiliary Variables 74
2.35 Creativity in Individuals of Less than Perfect Mental Health 76
2.36 Creativity as Evolutionary Development 79
2.4 THE PRECONSCIOUS 80
2.41 Dreams and Creativity 85
2.42 Dreams and Science 86
2.43 A Theory About the Impersonal Collective Preconscious 89
2.44 Summary 95
Chapter 3. Psychedelia as a Developmental Stage - 96
3 THE PSYCHEDELIC STAGE 96
3.1 PSYCHEDELIA AS A DEVELOPMENTAL STAGE: IMPLICATIONS OF THE THEORY 96
3.11 The Psychedelic Experience 96
3.12 The Psychic and the Psychedelic 101
3.13 The Normal and the Psychedelic 104
3.14 Creativity and Psychedelia 106
Psychedelic Drugs and Creativity 106
The Role of ESP 107
3.1.5 Stage Characteristics of Psychedelia 110
3.2 NATURAL PSYCHEDELIA 113
3.3 THE STIMULATION OF PSYCHEDELIA: TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION 119
3.4 THE MYSTIC EXPERIENCE 127
3.5 THE GENTLING OF THE PRECONSCIOUS 134
Chapter 4. Measurement of Self-Actualization and Psychedelia - 140
4 THE MEASUREMENT OF SELF ACTUALIZATION AND PSYCHEDELIA 140
4.1 INTRODUCTION TO THE MEASUREMENT OF HIGHER DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES . 140
4.2 SURVEY OF THE LITERATURE ON MEASUREMENT INSTRUMENTS INCLUDING THE PERSONAL ORIENTATION INVENTORY 143
4.21 The Personality Orientation Inventory 143
4.22 Other Measures of Self -Actualization 154
4.3 THE NORTHRIDGE DEVELOPMENTAL SCALE 158
Chapter 5. Developmental Dysplasia - 164
5 DEVELOPMENTAL DYSPLASIA 164
5.1 THE EXISTENCE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF DYSPLASIA ... 164
Preamble ... .... 164
Postulates about Dysplasia 166
Some Possible Exceptions and their Significance . . 168
In Summary 171
5.2 THE IVY LEAGUE DYSPLASIA STUDY . 172
The Survey Categories 173
Statistical Results 182
Summary 182
5.3 STASIS IN THE HIGHER STAGES 184
5.4 SOME COMMENTS AND SPECULATIONS 185
Chapter 6. Developmental Forcing - 187
6 DEVELOPMENTAL FORCING 187
6.1 SPONTANEOUS DEVELOPMENTAL FORCING: SCHIZOPHRENIA 187
6.2 POSSESSION 193
6.3 HYPNOSIS 198
6.4 PSYCHEDELIC DRUGS 201
6.5 ALPHA WAVE BIOFEEDBACK 209
The Brain, Its Electrical Activity, Alpha
Waves and Biofeedback 209
6.6 RELIGIOUS, PENTECOSTAL AND GROUP PEAK EXPERIENCES 214
6.7 CRITIQUE 214
Meditation compared with Developmental Forcing 215
Chapter 7. The Process of Self-Actualization - 218
7 THE PROCESS GOAL OF SELF ACTUALIZATION 218
7.1 SELF ACTUALIZATION: CONSCIOUSNESS AND ITS DEVELOPMENT 218
7.11 Self Actualization 218
7.12 Consciousness and its Development 220
Tendency to Form 220
Tendency toward altered states ............. 220
Tendency toward higher integration 221
Whole, a developmental process 221
7.13 Maslow's Views 221
7.2 THE HIGHEST STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS 224
7.21 Illumination: The Eighth Stage 224
7.22 High Levels of Arrest 233
7.23 Higher Entities 234
7.3 SUGGESTIONS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF PSYCHEDELIC FUNCTION 235
7.31 Meditation 235
7.32 Alpha Wave Training and its Implications 237
7.33 Programming the Preconscious 239
7.34 Sensory Deprivation 241
7.35 Other Methods 241
7.4 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 242
7.41 The Search for a Compatible Construct 242
7.42 Intimations 246
7.43 Epilogue 248
BIBLIOGRAPHY 253
APPENDIX .(The Northridge Developmental Scale).............................. 275
Index
Title Page
PREFACE vii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xv
LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES xxi
Introduction - Things are not what they Seem -1
INTRODUCTION 1
0.1 THINGS ARE NOT WHAT THEY SEEM 1
0.2 CONTINGENCY 4
0.3 PROSPECTUS 11
Chapter 1. The Literature of Parasensory Experiences - 12
1. THE LITERATURE 12
1.1 PARASENSORY EXPERIENCES 12
1.2 THE COLLECTIVE PRECONSCIOUS 27
1.21 Cognitive Modes of Experiencing 31
1.22 Archetypes of the Collective Preconscious 34
1.3 PSYCHEDELIA 38
1.4 DEVELOPMENT TOWARD SELF ACTUALIZATION 41
Chapter 2. Creativity and Developmental Stage Theory - 48
2 THE ERIKSON-PAIGET-GOWAN THEORY OF PERIODIC DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES 48
2.1 CREATIVITY AND DEVELOPMENTAL STAGE THEORY 48
2.2 ESCALATION AND DYSPLASIA 60
2.21 Succession 62
2.22 Discontinuity 64
2.23 Emergence 64
2.24 Differentiation 66
Fixation 66
Metamorphosis 66
2.25 Integration ......................... 67
2.3 THE DEVELOPMENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CREATIVITY 69
2.31 Creativity as the Outcome of the Proper Functioning of Development 69
2.32 Oedipal Origins: Magic Nightmare or Creative Fantasy 71
2.33 Third Column Characteristics of Creativity 72
2.34 Creativity and Auxiliary Variables 74
2.35 Creativity in Individuals of Less than Perfect Mental Health 76
2.36 Creativity as Evolutionary Development 79
2.4 THE PRECONSCIOUS 80
2.41 Dreams and Creativity 85
2.42 Dreams and Science 86
2.43 A Theory About the Impersonal Collective Preconscious 89
2.44 Summary 95
Chapter 3. Psychedelia as a Developmental Stage - 96
3 THE PSYCHEDELIC STAGE 96
3.1 PSYCHEDELIA AS A DEVELOPMENTAL STAGE: IMPLICATIONS OF THE THEORY 96
3.11 The Psychedelic Experience 96
3.12 The Psychic and the Psychedelic 101
3.13 The Normal and the Psychedelic 104
3.14 Creativity and Psychedelia 106
Psychedelic Drugs and Creativity 106
The Role of ESP 107
3.1.5 Stage Characteristics of Psychedelia 110
3.2 NATURAL PSYCHEDELIA 113
3.3 THE STIMULATION OF PSYCHEDELIA: TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION 119
3.4 THE MYSTIC EXPERIENCE 127
3.5 THE GENTLING OF THE PRECONSCIOUS 134
Chapter 4. Measurement of Self-Actualization and Psychedelia - 140
4 THE MEASUREMENT OF SELF ACTUALIZATION AND PSYCHEDELIA 140
4.1 INTRODUCTION TO THE MEASUREMENT OF HIGHER DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES . 140
4.2 SURVEY OF THE LITERATURE ON MEASUREMENT INSTRUMENTS INCLUDING THE PERSONAL ORIENTATION INVENTORY 143
4.21 The Personality Orientation Inventory 143
4.22 Other Measures of Self -Actualization 154
4.3 THE NORTHRIDGE DEVELOPMENTAL SCALE 158
Chapter 5. Developmental Dysplasia - 164
5 DEVELOPMENTAL DYSPLASIA 164
5.1 THE EXISTENCE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF DYSPLASIA ... 164
Preamble ... .... 164
Postulates about Dysplasia 166
Some Possible Exceptions and their Significance . . 168
In Summary 171
5.2 THE IVY LEAGUE DYSPLASIA STUDY . 172
The Survey Categories 173
Statistical Results 182
Summary 182
5.3 STASIS IN THE HIGHER STAGES 184
5.4 SOME COMMENTS AND SPECULATIONS 185
Chapter 6. Developmental Forcing - 187
6 DEVELOPMENTAL FORCING 187
6.1 SPONTANEOUS DEVELOPMENTAL FORCING: SCHIZOPHRENIA 187
6.2 POSSESSION 193
6.3 HYPNOSIS 198
6.4 PSYCHEDELIC DRUGS 201
6.5 ALPHA WAVE BIOFEEDBACK 209
The Brain, Its Electrical Activity, Alpha
Waves and Biofeedback 209
6.6 RELIGIOUS, PENTECOSTAL AND GROUP PEAK EXPERIENCES 214
6.7 CRITIQUE 214
Meditation compared with Developmental Forcing 215
Chapter 7. The Process of Self-Actualization - 218
7 THE PROCESS GOAL OF SELF ACTUALIZATION 218
7.1 SELF ACTUALIZATION: CONSCIOUSNESS AND ITS DEVELOPMENT 218
7.11 Self Actualization 218
7.12 Consciousness and its Development 220
Tendency to Form 220
Tendency toward altered states ............. 220
Tendency toward higher integration 221
Whole, a developmental process 221
7.13 Maslow's Views 221
7.2 THE HIGHEST STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS 224
7.21 Illumination: The Eighth Stage 224
7.22 High Levels of Arrest 233
7.23 Higher Entities 234
7.3 SUGGESTIONS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF PSYCHEDELIC FUNCTION 235
7.31 Meditation 235
7.32 Alpha Wave Training and its Implications 237
7.33 Programming the Preconscious 239
7.34 Sensory Deprivation 241
7.35 Other Methods 241
7.4 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 242
7.41 The Search for a Compatible Construct 242
7.42 Intimations 246
7.43 Epilogue 248
BIBLIOGRAPHY 253
APPENDIX .(The Northridge Developmental Scale).............................. 275
Index
/www.csun.edu/edpsy/Gowan/contentz.html
TABLE OF CONTENTS: OPERATIONS OF INCREASING ORDER
TITLE PAGE
COPYRIGHT ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
FOREWORD (by Dudley Lynch)
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION 1
.1 Things Are Not What They Seem 1
.2 Physical Reality is Junior to Normal State 4
.3 Knowledge Must Change and Grow 5
.4 The Number of Exceptions to the Present Paradigm Requires Change 7
.5 This Change is Toward the Holistic and Cosmic 9
.6 Paradigms Exist Which Handle the Exceptions 10
.7 We Need to Decide if Replacement is Necessary 29
1. OPERATIONS OF INCREASING ORDER 33
2. EXOTIC ABILITIES OF MANKIND 47
2.0 Introduction 47
2.1 Animal Senses and Their Refinement 57
2.2 A Taxonomy of Exotic Factors of Intellect 62
2.3 The Etheric Body 66
2.4 Non-Paranormal Human Oddities 68
2.5 Developmental Aspects in Phenotype and Genotype. .72
3. COSMOGENIC POWERS AND ABILITIES 76
3.0 Introduction to Paranormal Powers 76
.01 Telepathy 80
.02 Dowsing 86
.03 Siddhis 93
3.1 Physical Mediumship 98
.10 Mediumship and Possession 99
.11 Psychokinesis 107
.12 Materializations 111
.13 Poltergeist Phenomena 120
.14 Apports 125
.15 Conclusion 128
3.2 Transformations in Space and Time 130
.21 Out-of-Body Experience (OBE) and Bilocation 130
.22 Clairvoyance 138
.23 Precognition 139
.24 Teleportation and Time-Warp 143
3.3 Endothermic and Exothermic Reactions 149
.31 Firewalking 149
.32 Psychic Heat 160
.33 Spontaneous Human Combustion (SHC) 162
.34 Other Thermal Effects 165
3.4 Stigmata 167
3.5 Electromagnetic Effects: Prana 172
.51 Luminosity and Auras 177
.52 Electromagnetic Properties 181
3.6 Independence from Physical Functions 184
.61 (Breathing, Excretion and Sex Deleted), A Note on Chastity 184
.62 Inedia (not eating) 185
.63 Non-Somnia (not sleeping) 187
3.7 Mortem Effects 187
.71 Transfiguration 188
.72 Translation 188
.73 Automatic Disposal of Body After Death 189
.74 Incorruptibility of Body 189
.75 Knowing Hour of One's Death 189
3.8 Levitation 190
.81 Among Christian Mystics 190
.82 Among Non-Religious Paragnosts 195
.83 Levitation in the TM Siddhi Program 202
.84 Theories to Account for Levitation 204
3.9 Invisibility 206
3.X Body Size and Weight Changes, Abnormal Strength 207
.X1 Elongation 208
.X2 Size and Weight Changes 209
.X3 Extraordinary Strength 210
3.Y Externalization of Sense Organs: Odor of Sanctity 211
.Y1 Conclusion to Chapter 3 212
4. COSMOGENIC MENTAL ABILITIES 214
.01 Psychometry 215
.02 Knowledge of Arrangement and Motion of Stars 217
4.1 Vision of Cosmic Beings 218
4.2 Calm - 219
4.3 Vision Through Opaque Objects: Miraculous Sight. .219
4.4 Miraculous Touch 222
.41 Healing Through Laying-on-of- Hands 223
.42 Psychic Surgery I 228
4.5 Miraculous Hearing: Clairaudience 234
4.6 Empery 236
.61 Over Self 237
.62 Over Others: Orthocognitive Healing 237
.63 Over Animals 245
.64 Over Natural Elements and Other Forms 247
4.7 Adamic Ecstasy 248
.71 Time Recovery and Other Characteristics . . . . .248
.72 Friendliness or Gemeinschaftgefuhl 252
.73 Union-Compassion Healing 253
4.8 Infused Knowledge: Omniscience 254
4.9 Continuous Contact and Union 256
5. GENIUS, PRECOCITY AND REINCARNATION 262
5.0 Introduction 262
5.1 Genius and Some Examples and Conclusions 273
5.2 Precocity as the End Product of Neotony 292
5.3 Reincarnation or Something Grander? 308
5.4 Conclusion 317
6. ALTERED STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS: A TAXONOMY 320
7. FORM AS THE DEVOLUTION OF COSMIC SUBSTANCE 336
8. THE THREE-FOLD BODY OF BUDDHA 348
9. SUMMARY 357
9.1 Recapitulation 357
9.2 Unsolved Problems and Needed Research 360
9.3 Epilogue 367
REFERENCES 373
Comments and Addendum
SUBJECT INDEX 383
TABLES AND FIGURES
LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES
I. ERIKSON-PIAGET-GOWAN PERIODIC DEVELOPMENT STAGES 51
11. GROWTH AND DIFFUSION OF THE EGO DURING DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES 57
111. THE DEVELOPMENT OF ERIKSONIAN STAGES 59
IV. THE RELATION OF THE EGO TO THE PERCEPTUAL FIELD 61
V. THE COMPONENTS OF ESCALATION 63
VI. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PRECONSCIOUS 83
VII. METHOD OF TELEPATHIC TRANSMISSION 93
VIII. MENTAL SICKNESS AND HEALTH IN RELATION TO CONSCIOUSNESS 126
IX. MINITASKS OF THE SIXTH AND SEVENTH COGNITIVE STAGES 160
X. BASIC STATISTICS AND CRITICAL RATIO FOR VARIOUS GROUPS OF STUDENTS ON
NORTHRIDGE DEVELOPMENTAL SCALE 162
XI. PERSONALITY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE HIGHER DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES 169
XII. STATISTICAL TREATMENT OF THE IVY LEAGUE RESPONDERS STUDY 183
TABLE OF CONTENTS: OPERATIONS OF INCREASING ORDER
TITLE PAGE
COPYRIGHT ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
FOREWORD (by Dudley Lynch)
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION 1
.1 Things Are Not What They Seem 1
.2 Physical Reality is Junior to Normal State 4
.3 Knowledge Must Change and Grow 5
.4 The Number of Exceptions to the Present Paradigm Requires Change 7
.5 This Change is Toward the Holistic and Cosmic 9
.6 Paradigms Exist Which Handle the Exceptions 10
.7 We Need to Decide if Replacement is Necessary 29
1. OPERATIONS OF INCREASING ORDER 33
2. EXOTIC ABILITIES OF MANKIND 47
2.0 Introduction 47
2.1 Animal Senses and Their Refinement 57
2.2 A Taxonomy of Exotic Factors of Intellect 62
2.3 The Etheric Body 66
2.4 Non-Paranormal Human Oddities 68
2.5 Developmental Aspects in Phenotype and Genotype. .72
3. COSMOGENIC POWERS AND ABILITIES 76
3.0 Introduction to Paranormal Powers 76
.01 Telepathy 80
.02 Dowsing 86
.03 Siddhis 93
3.1 Physical Mediumship 98
.10 Mediumship and Possession 99
.11 Psychokinesis 107
.12 Materializations 111
.13 Poltergeist Phenomena 120
.14 Apports 125
.15 Conclusion 128
3.2 Transformations in Space and Time 130
.21 Out-of-Body Experience (OBE) and Bilocation 130
.22 Clairvoyance 138
.23 Precognition 139
.24 Teleportation and Time-Warp 143
3.3 Endothermic and Exothermic Reactions 149
.31 Firewalking 149
.32 Psychic Heat 160
.33 Spontaneous Human Combustion (SHC) 162
.34 Other Thermal Effects 165
3.4 Stigmata 167
3.5 Electromagnetic Effects: Prana 172
.51 Luminosity and Auras 177
.52 Electromagnetic Properties 181
3.6 Independence from Physical Functions 184
.61 (Breathing, Excretion and Sex Deleted), A Note on Chastity 184
.62 Inedia (not eating) 185
.63 Non-Somnia (not sleeping) 187
3.7 Mortem Effects 187
.71 Transfiguration 188
.72 Translation 188
.73 Automatic Disposal of Body After Death 189
.74 Incorruptibility of Body 189
.75 Knowing Hour of One's Death 189
3.8 Levitation 190
.81 Among Christian Mystics 190
.82 Among Non-Religious Paragnosts 195
.83 Levitation in the TM Siddhi Program 202
.84 Theories to Account for Levitation 204
3.9 Invisibility 206
3.X Body Size and Weight Changes, Abnormal Strength 207
.X1 Elongation 208
.X2 Size and Weight Changes 209
.X3 Extraordinary Strength 210
3.Y Externalization of Sense Organs: Odor of Sanctity 211
.Y1 Conclusion to Chapter 3 212
4. COSMOGENIC MENTAL ABILITIES 214
.01 Psychometry 215
.02 Knowledge of Arrangement and Motion of Stars 217
4.1 Vision of Cosmic Beings 218
4.2 Calm - 219
4.3 Vision Through Opaque Objects: Miraculous Sight. .219
4.4 Miraculous Touch 222
.41 Healing Through Laying-on-of- Hands 223
.42 Psychic Surgery I 228
4.5 Miraculous Hearing: Clairaudience 234
4.6 Empery 236
.61 Over Self 237
.62 Over Others: Orthocognitive Healing 237
.63 Over Animals 245
.64 Over Natural Elements and Other Forms 247
4.7 Adamic Ecstasy 248
.71 Time Recovery and Other Characteristics . . . . .248
.72 Friendliness or Gemeinschaftgefuhl 252
.73 Union-Compassion Healing 253
4.8 Infused Knowledge: Omniscience 254
4.9 Continuous Contact and Union 256
5. GENIUS, PRECOCITY AND REINCARNATION 262
5.0 Introduction 262
5.1 Genius and Some Examples and Conclusions 273
5.2 Precocity as the End Product of Neotony 292
5.3 Reincarnation or Something Grander? 308
5.4 Conclusion 317
6. ALTERED STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS: A TAXONOMY 320
7. FORM AS THE DEVOLUTION OF COSMIC SUBSTANCE 336
8. THE THREE-FOLD BODY OF BUDDHA 348
9. SUMMARY 357
9.1 Recapitulation 357
9.2 Unsolved Problems and Needed Research 360
9.3 Epilogue 367
REFERENCES 373
Comments and Addendum
SUBJECT INDEX 383
TABLES AND FIGURES
LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES
I. ERIKSON-PIAGET-GOWAN PERIODIC DEVELOPMENT STAGES 51
11. GROWTH AND DIFFUSION OF THE EGO DURING DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES 57
111. THE DEVELOPMENT OF ERIKSONIAN STAGES 59
IV. THE RELATION OF THE EGO TO THE PERCEPTUAL FIELD 61
V. THE COMPONENTS OF ESCALATION 63
VI. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PRECONSCIOUS 83
VII. METHOD OF TELEPATHIC TRANSMISSION 93
VIII. MENTAL SICKNESS AND HEALTH IN RELATION TO CONSCIOUSNESS 126
IX. MINITASKS OF THE SIXTH AND SEVENTH COGNITIVE STAGES 160
X. BASIC STATISTICS AND CRITICAL RATIO FOR VARIOUS GROUPS OF STUDENTS ON
NORTHRIDGE DEVELOPMENTAL SCALE 162
XI. PERSONALITY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE HIGHER DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES 169
XII. STATISTICAL TREATMENT OF THE IVY LEAGUE RESPONDERS STUDY 183
THE NORTHRIDGE DEVELOPMENTAL SCALE
(this preface by Iona Miller)
(SELF-TEST YOUR SELF-ACTUALIZATION)
Caution: Do not read to the end of this file if you intend to take this self-test, or you will skew your results. Read this brief introduction, take the test, and then read further about the development and meaning of the test. For self-scoring, click the link at the end of the test for directions on scoring and interpreting your results.
We all have the potential for being creative and even extraordinary human beings, yet many of us never develop this capacity fully, due to a variety of blocks. When we see the creativity of others, we may often wonder how we can tap our own creative potential. Psychologists have been trying for years to determine what distinguishes the creative personality from the population at large. Being scientists, they have devised means for categorizing and measuring these distinctions. Some of the most interesting work along these lines has been
conducted by Piaget, Erikson, Maslow, Arieti, Tart, and John Gowan.
Gowan synthesized the best research on consciousness and development toward self-actualization, which Maslow defined as the manifesting of one's potential capabilities. However, it is more thoroughly described as a process/goal with operations on three distinct levels: 1). the creative; 2). the psychedelic, and 3). the
illuminative. Those in whom this process is stabilized, rather than merely emergent, are termed self-actualized. In the perennial philosophy this process is known as Self-Realization, a living connection with the creative inspiration of the higher Self, which Plato called the Daemon or genius.
Gowan reworked several standard evaluation tests to determine levels of mental and emotional health in graduate candidates. Because the scale extends beyond the traits of healthy adult adjustment, it also is an objective measure of some aspects of spirituality. He reasoned that not fostering these extraordinary traits
and transcendent experiences concurrent with the adult tasks of career and family building is roughly equivalent to lack of sexual maturation in an adolescent. The strong ego, fearing loss of control, may be reluctant to enter the soul-revealing stages of psychedelia.
More recently these creative and transpersonal qualities have been compared on a par with I.Q. as E.Q. (Emotional Quotient) and S.Q. (Spiritual Quotient). Gowan emphasized that when the opposites of cognitive and emotional development keep pace with one another, a more balanced individual emerges. This balance is reflected in both inner and outer life. This test will help you understand where you are in your personal individuation, what is blocking you, and what developmental tasks remain as options for further exploration and development. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
THE NORTHRIDGE DEVELOPMENTAL SCALE
(from the book Development of the Psychedelic Individual)
by J. C. Gowan
This test attempts to find out how well you know yourself and your own development. There are no right answers. You are asked in each question to respond to one of the four alternatives IF YOU WISH. if none of them is "you," please mark response 5. You can work rapidly and take your first impression. You should finish within 45 minutes.
1.1 It seems like the world is going crazy.
.2 1 find life makes more and more sense.
.3 One has to fight one's way up in the world.
.4 1 would rather retreat from the world.
2.1 1 like the status quo.
.2 1 feel comfortable with change.
.3 Society needs a revolution.
.4 Society needs more hermits and cop-outs.
3.1 1 have the worst luck in the world.
.2 Fighting is a natural heritage of man.
.3 I know who my enemies are.
.4 Lucky little things keep happening to me.
4.1 1 worry about the future.
.2 1 believe in serendipity.
.3 1 suffer from my memories.
.4 Man is naturally antagonistic.
5.1 1 certainly feel useless at times.
.2 1 have never laughed at a dirty joke.
.3 1 think I would like to be an auto racer.
.4 Some people are plotting against me.
6.1 1 am afraid to be myself.
.2 1 don't put off till tomorrow what ought to be done today.
.3 1 have sometimes had awareness of things and events before they occur.
.4 1 have low back pain.
7.1 1 have waked up with an idea so compelling, I have to run to get it down.
.2 1 feel obligated when a stranger does me a favor.
.3 1 dislike modern art.
.4 No one is going to exploit me if I can help it.
8.1 1 am seldom bothered by nightmares.
.2 1 am often bothered by nightmares.
.3 1 am often constipated.
.4 1 am afraid to be myself.
9.1 1 don't accept my own weaknesses.
.2 1 have sinned much in the past.
.3 People are essentially "no-good."
.4 My life is very full and complete.
10.1 1 don't really care whether people like or dislike me.
.2 1 am stricter about right and wrong than most people.
.3 1 am fascinated by fire.
.4 My parents never really understood me.
11. 1 1 am assertive and self-confident.
.2 1 am going down hill.
.3 1 would like to take a year off and visit a desert island.
.4 The last few years have been the best of my life.
12.1 1 am often angry with those I love.
I feel good about life.
I am over-dependent on those I love.
Most people's lives fill me with despair.
13.1 1 have been very fortunate in life.
.2 1 have been very unfortunate in life.
.3 1 have nothing to complain about.
.4 There are many people who are better off than I am.
14.1 Good things are continually happening to me.
.2 Bad things are continually happening to me.
.3 Freaky things are continually happening to me.
.4 Dumb things are continually happening to me.
15.1 1 always finish everything I start.
.2 1 am afraid of deep water.
.3 If the wages were good, I would like to travel with a circus.
.4 1 know who my enemies are.
16.1 1 tend to play on bad luck.
.2 On several occasions I have been unjustly accused when innocent.
.3 Luck is simply a matter of the law of averages.
.4 Happy little coincidences seem continually to occur in my life.
17.1 1 like to be helpful to others.
.2 1 don't care about being helpful to others.
.3 1 like others to be helpful to me.
.4 1 find that being myself is helpful to others.
18.1 1 am not absolutely bound by the principle of fairness.
.2 1 have never had a traffic ticket.
.3 1 am not in as good health as most of my friends.
.4 1 do not agree with many modern trends.
19.1 1 think tests like this one are really stupid.
.2 Some things are right, and some are wrong, and there is no middle.
.3 1 have dreams about my parent(s).
.4 The pursuit of happiness is not opposed to altruism.
20.1 1 must admit that I am a hyper-strung person.
.2 1 like only the better things in life.
.3 1 am afraid to be alone in the dark.
.4 1 can describe myself as a strong person.
21.1 1 do not have to justify my feelings with reasons.
.2 1 like crowds.
.3 1 would like to go to an orgy.
.4 My health is below par.
22.1 Personal autonomy is more important than personal consistency.
.2 Personal consistency is more important than personal autonomy.
.3 1 dislike dogs.
.4 Even when feeling ill, I am never cross.
23.1 1 can express affection regardless of whether it is returned.
.2 1 believe in corporal punishment in the schools.
.3 1 often think about things too bad to talk about.
.4 Disorganization continually keeps cropping up in my life.
24.1 1 would like to live in a fantasy world.
.2 1 am fascinated by horror stories.
.3 1 need a great deal of security.
.4 It is important for me to perceive reality as it is.
25.1 1 have often been punished without cause.
.2 1 take a bath every day without fail.
.3 1 cannot do anything really well.
.4 1 have a great deal of stomach trouble.
26.1 People have an instinct for evil.
.2 1 feel ashamed of my emotions.
.3 1 often feel controlled by forces outside myself.
.4 1 am loved because I am loveable.
27.1 1 feel the world is getting better not worse.
.2 People are just too hostile.
.3 1 should like to go away and pull things in with me.
.4 1 feel very dependent on some other person.
28.1 1 hate growing older.
.2 1 have a lot of aches and pains as I grow older.
.3 1 find more opportunities for growth as I grow older.
.4 1 do not think about growing older.
29.1 1 find learning usually involves growing toward others.
.2 1 wish I had a lot more money.
.3 There are people I dislike so much I'm afraid to go near them.
.4 Everything tastes the same.
30.1 A thunderstorm terrifies me.
.2 If I had to choose between liberty and security, I'd choose security.
.3 My fingers and nails are always neat and clean.
.4 My sleep is fitfull and disturbed.
31.1 My environment often baffles me.
.2 Disorganization continues to pop up in my life.
.3 1 feel very much in control of my environment.
.4 The world is a jungle any way you look at it.
32.1 1 wish certain people would stop persecuting me.
.2 An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth is a good motto.
.3 1 am a piano player in the whore-house of life.
.4 1 feel that my life is dedicated to a noble purpose.
33.1 1 live a very ordinary kind of life.
.2 1 am concerned with self-improvement at all times.
.3 1 know that others are often talking about me.
.4 1 live a very unusual type of life.
34.1 While I love people, I often need withdrawal and detachment.
.2 1 feel lonely whenever I don't have friends around me.
.3 1 do what others expect of me.
.4 1 had no idea life could be so depraved.
35.1 People often talk about me behind my back.
.2 My father was a strong man who was severe in discipline.
.3 If I were to die tonight, I feel I would go to Heaven.
.4 1 doubt if anyone is really happy.
36.1 Every day something happens to frighten or worry me.
.2 Every day something happens to anger or annoy me.
.3 Every day seems to bring new challenges and opportunities.
.4 Every day is one step nearer to the grave.
37.1 1 am optimistic about the future and never feel anxious about it.
.2 1 am pessimistic about the future and really see little hope.
.3 1 rarely think about the future.
.4 Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
38.1 1 have some very sad memories.
.2 1 have some very nice memories.
.3 1 have some very scary memories.
.4 1 have no memories.
39.1 1 am thorough.
.2 1 am consistent.
.3 1 am dependent.
.4 1 am self-sufficient.
40.1 1 know who is responsible for most of my troubles.
.2 1 sweat very easily even on cool days.
.3 Familiarity breeds contempt.
.4 1 never jay-walk across the street.
41.1 1 sometimes have experiences where life seems just about perfect.
.2 1 wouldn't let a man hijack a plane I was on.
.3 1 feel moody much of the time.
.4 Most people don't give a damn what happens to you.
42.1 My life is really messed up.
.2 1 feel that I have an innate capacity to deal with life.
.3 How one gets on in life is largely a matter of luck.
.4 Life never allows one any second chances.
43.1 1 hated one of my brothers or sisters.
.2 1 do not feel in control of my environment on some occasions.
.3 It is important to accept others as they are.
.4 1 believe marriage should improve a husband or a wife.
44.1 1 dislike the Moslem religion.
.2 1 dislike to cook.
.3 1 am sometimes disturbed by the hostile humor of others.
.4 1 have often wanted to run away.
45.1 1 would like to belong to a motorcycle club.
.2 At times I have a strong urge to do something harmful or shocking.
.3 My moral code is above reproach.
.4 1 often get disgusted with myself.
46.1 There is not enough time in the day.
.2 1 dislike cats.
.3 1 am very independent.
.4 There are some very bigoted people in our neighborhood.
47.1 1 do not feel bound by my duties and obligations to others.
.2 1 have stomach cramps often.
.3 1 am proud of my possessions.
.4 1 hate to wait for a traffic light to change.
48.1 Man is naturally aggressive.
.2 Man is naturally cooperative.
.3 Man is naturally weak.
.4 Man isn't naturally anything.
49.1 It is not necessary that others approve of what I do.
.2 It is not necessary that others follow the rules.
.3 It is not necessary that others and I communicate.
.4 It is not necessary that others and I live on friendly terms.
50.1 1 have never acted like a coward.
.2 Most people seem pretty ignorant and gullible.
.3 1 am afraid of high places.
.4 Sometimes I feel I must injure either myself or others.
51.1 1 like to play and hate to work.
.2 For me, work and play are the same.
.3 I like to alternate hard work and hard play.
.4 All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
52.1 Man is bad and needs to be saved.
.2 Man is good and can be trusted.
.3 Man is, and values are inherent in the situation.
.4 Why make such a big fuss about it ?
53.1 My values come primarily from a code to which I adhere.
.2 My values come primarily from what others say and think.
.3 My values come primarily from my own feelings.
.4 1 have no need for values.
54.1 Sometimes I feel like I would like to run away.
.2 Sometimes I feel like I would like to fight the world.
.3 Sometimes I feel like giving up.
.4 Sometimes I feel as though I knew a secret about the universe.
55.1 Once you get the facts, there is usually only one answer to a question.
.2 1 feel generally gloomy about the future.
.3 1 carry a heavy burden which few others understand.
.4 1 never lose my temper.
56.1 1 like to have lots of people around me.
.2 1 have a great need for privacy in my life.
.3 1 feel guilty when I am selfish.
.4 1 know who my creator is.
57.1 1 think of myself as masculine (m) or feminine (f).
.2 1 think of myself as honest and reliant.
.3 1 think of myself as conscientious and intelligent.
.4 1 think of myself as creative.
58.1 People are apt to describe me as creative.
.2 People are apt to describe me as good-looking.
.3 People are apt to describe me as responsible and conscientious.
.4 People are apt to describe me as having a pleasing personality.
59.1 New ideas frequently occur to me.
.2 1 am sometimes frightened by TV violence.
.3 When someone else gets into trouble, most people are indifferent.
.4 When I listen to a lecture, I often feel restless.
60.1 There seems to be a lump in my throat much of the time.
.2 1 am afraid of deep water.
.3 1 make it a rule never to indulge in gossip.
.4 Success is a matter of will power.
61.1 1 tend to be more realistic than optimistic or pessimistic.
.2 1 am often annoyed by weak people.
.3 1 always finish everything I start.
.4 My health often gives me concern.
62.1 1 worry about unimportant things.
.2 1 know people who have very bad tempers.
.3 1 dislike to speak in front of a crowd.
.4 1 feel integrated with myself and the universe.
63.1 1 am not in as good health as most of my friends.
.2 1 am on guard with those more friendly than I expected.
.3 People say I am an unusual person.
.4 1 am not one who would rather switch than fight.
64.1 1 find it hard to keep my mind on a task or job.
.2 1 sometimes feel that things are not real.
.3 People think of me as a problem solver.
.4 1 feel that the world is pretty much like a jungle.
65.1 1 have been disappointed in love.
.2 1 sometimes have spells of hay fever or asthma.
.3 My table manners are as good at home as when I am out in company.
.4 1 agree with an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
66.1 1 adhere to the moral values which I was taught.
.2 My feet frequently hurt.
.3 Some people among my acquaintances have it in for me.
.4 Some mornings the world seems clean and bright as if it was just created.
67.1 1 enjoy the process of work more than the product.
.2 1 would feel ashamed to walk barefoot down a street.
.3 1 often sweat a lot.
.4 The personal habits of some people annoy me.
68.1 1 blame others for my habits
.2 1 am under a doctor's care.
.3 1 object to taking orders from other people.
.4 People describe me as a doer.
69.1 1 have often had bad dreams and nightmares.
.2 1 like spontaneous humor.
.3 As a child, I did not belong to a gang or crowd.
.4 Old fashioned discipline is what is needed by most children.
70.1 1 feel nervous when meeting a lot of people.
.2 Most people are secretly pleased when someone else gets into trouble.
.3 1 am made nervous by certain animals.
.4 1 read the editorial page thoroughly every day.
71.1 Evil is an intrinsic part of human nature.
.2 Moral laxity is the cause of our present sorry situation.
.3 Success is generally the result of the puritan ethic of good hard work.
.4 1 often know beforehand when the day will be particularly good.
72.1 1 need fame and adulation most.
.2 1 need money and power most.
.3 1 need detachment and privacy most.
.4 1 need challenge and conquest most.
73.1 1 consider myself good looking.
.2 1 feel inferior much of the time.
.3 1 had rather be myself than anyone I know.
.4 Sometimes I cry myself to sleep.
74.1 Airline hijackers should be given the death penalty.
.2 1 can center in on a problem while most others are confused by emotions.
.3 1 sometimes think about things too bad to talk about.
.4 When my views differ from others, I usually change my mind.
75.1 At times I feel like picking a fight with someone.
.2 1 know who my enemies are.
.3 Almost every day something happens to frighten me.
.4 1 have never been even slightly under the influence of alcohol.
76.1 1 feel most people have an instinct for good.
.2 Disorganization keeps cropping up in my life.
.3 Other people generally know what is best for me.
.4 People have sometimes called me ruthless.
77.1 1 would not object to hanging a convicted murderer.
.2 1 am assertive and affirming.
.3 1 know a number of people who are mentally unbalanced.
.4 It is better to give in than to cause trouble.
78.1 Death is not one of my worries.
.2 Several times a week I feel something dreadful will happen.
.3 1 often feel I made the wrong choice in my occupation.
.4 A strong person doesn't show his feelings or emotions.
79.1 1 am in favor of strict enforcement of all laws.
.2 Death is not one of my worries.
.3 1 have had some strange and peculiar experiences.
.4 There have been times when I have been discouraged.
80.1 1 would like to see a bullfight.
.2 Much of the time my head seems to hurt or ache.
.3 1 usually feel nervous at parties.
.4 1 am equally polite to people whether they annoy me or not.
81.1 1 believe in what I am doing.
.2 1 like to keep my things tidy, neat, and in good order.
.3 When I hear of someone else's success, it makes me feel like a failure.
.4 1 am sometimes troubled by attacks of nausea and vomiting.
82.1 Sometimes it seems that life has no meaning.
.2 Sometimes I feel like smashing things.
.3 Sometimes I feel I may lose my mind.
.4 It is important for me to perceive reality as it is.
83.1 1 have never been arrested for a traffic violation.
.2 Sometimes I can see reality that others are not ready to accept.
.3 It is pretty easy for people to win arguments with me.
.4 1 have not lived the right kind of life.
84.1 1 certainly feel useless at times.
.2 My mouth feels dry most of the time.
.3 I am always honest in thought and deed.
.4 1 have at least two friends approaching self-actualization.
85.1 1 often lose sleep by having bad dreams or worries.
.2 1 hate someone very much.
.3 Sometimes I would like to run away and join a circus.
.4 Children should be seen and not heard.
86.1 1 sometimes feel that things are not real.
.2 Overcoming or preventing problems is a challenge I accept.
.3 1 have never been bothered with thoughts about sex.
.4 It is usually safer to trust nobody.
87.1 Most leaders cannot be trusted.
.2 1 like to give orders and get people moving.
.3 1 am very independent.
.4 1 never gossip.
88.1 1 have few fears compared to my friends' fears.
.2 1 am not afraid of fire; actually I'm fascinated by it.
.3 1 am afraid of snakes.
.4 1 was never afraid of the dark.
89.1 1 have never deliberately told a lie.
.2 Even if I could afford to retire, I'd still work for free.
.3 People often talk about me behind my back.
.4 1 would enjoy having authority over others.
90.1 1 would rather be myself than anyone I know.
.2 1 have never been cross or grouchy without reason.
.3 1 sometimes feel weak and dependent.
.4 1 cannot eat certain foods.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
ANSWER KEY
DO NOT READ BEFORE TAKING THE TEST
(this preface by Iona Miller)
(SELF-TEST YOUR SELF-ACTUALIZATION)
Caution: Do not read to the end of this file if you intend to take this self-test, or you will skew your results. Read this brief introduction, take the test, and then read further about the development and meaning of the test. For self-scoring, click the link at the end of the test for directions on scoring and interpreting your results.
We all have the potential for being creative and even extraordinary human beings, yet many of us never develop this capacity fully, due to a variety of blocks. When we see the creativity of others, we may often wonder how we can tap our own creative potential. Psychologists have been trying for years to determine what distinguishes the creative personality from the population at large. Being scientists, they have devised means for categorizing and measuring these distinctions. Some of the most interesting work along these lines has been
conducted by Piaget, Erikson, Maslow, Arieti, Tart, and John Gowan.
Gowan synthesized the best research on consciousness and development toward self-actualization, which Maslow defined as the manifesting of one's potential capabilities. However, it is more thoroughly described as a process/goal with operations on three distinct levels: 1). the creative; 2). the psychedelic, and 3). the
illuminative. Those in whom this process is stabilized, rather than merely emergent, are termed self-actualized. In the perennial philosophy this process is known as Self-Realization, a living connection with the creative inspiration of the higher Self, which Plato called the Daemon or genius.
Gowan reworked several standard evaluation tests to determine levels of mental and emotional health in graduate candidates. Because the scale extends beyond the traits of healthy adult adjustment, it also is an objective measure of some aspects of spirituality. He reasoned that not fostering these extraordinary traits
and transcendent experiences concurrent with the adult tasks of career and family building is roughly equivalent to lack of sexual maturation in an adolescent. The strong ego, fearing loss of control, may be reluctant to enter the soul-revealing stages of psychedelia.
More recently these creative and transpersonal qualities have been compared on a par with I.Q. as E.Q. (Emotional Quotient) and S.Q. (Spiritual Quotient). Gowan emphasized that when the opposites of cognitive and emotional development keep pace with one another, a more balanced individual emerges. This balance is reflected in both inner and outer life. This test will help you understand where you are in your personal individuation, what is blocking you, and what developmental tasks remain as options for further exploration and development. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
THE NORTHRIDGE DEVELOPMENTAL SCALE
(from the book Development of the Psychedelic Individual)
by J. C. Gowan
This test attempts to find out how well you know yourself and your own development. There are no right answers. You are asked in each question to respond to one of the four alternatives IF YOU WISH. if none of them is "you," please mark response 5. You can work rapidly and take your first impression. You should finish within 45 minutes.
1.1 It seems like the world is going crazy.
.2 1 find life makes more and more sense.
.3 One has to fight one's way up in the world.
.4 1 would rather retreat from the world.
2.1 1 like the status quo.
.2 1 feel comfortable with change.
.3 Society needs a revolution.
.4 Society needs more hermits and cop-outs.
3.1 1 have the worst luck in the world.
.2 Fighting is a natural heritage of man.
.3 I know who my enemies are.
.4 Lucky little things keep happening to me.
4.1 1 worry about the future.
.2 1 believe in serendipity.
.3 1 suffer from my memories.
.4 Man is naturally antagonistic.
5.1 1 certainly feel useless at times.
.2 1 have never laughed at a dirty joke.
.3 1 think I would like to be an auto racer.
.4 Some people are plotting against me.
6.1 1 am afraid to be myself.
.2 1 don't put off till tomorrow what ought to be done today.
.3 1 have sometimes had awareness of things and events before they occur.
.4 1 have low back pain.
7.1 1 have waked up with an idea so compelling, I have to run to get it down.
.2 1 feel obligated when a stranger does me a favor.
.3 1 dislike modern art.
.4 No one is going to exploit me if I can help it.
8.1 1 am seldom bothered by nightmares.
.2 1 am often bothered by nightmares.
.3 1 am often constipated.
.4 1 am afraid to be myself.
9.1 1 don't accept my own weaknesses.
.2 1 have sinned much in the past.
.3 People are essentially "no-good."
.4 My life is very full and complete.
10.1 1 don't really care whether people like or dislike me.
.2 1 am stricter about right and wrong than most people.
.3 1 am fascinated by fire.
.4 My parents never really understood me.
11. 1 1 am assertive and self-confident.
.2 1 am going down hill.
.3 1 would like to take a year off and visit a desert island.
.4 The last few years have been the best of my life.
12.1 1 am often angry with those I love.
I feel good about life.
I am over-dependent on those I love.
Most people's lives fill me with despair.
13.1 1 have been very fortunate in life.
.2 1 have been very unfortunate in life.
.3 1 have nothing to complain about.
.4 There are many people who are better off than I am.
14.1 Good things are continually happening to me.
.2 Bad things are continually happening to me.
.3 Freaky things are continually happening to me.
.4 Dumb things are continually happening to me.
15.1 1 always finish everything I start.
.2 1 am afraid of deep water.
.3 If the wages were good, I would like to travel with a circus.
.4 1 know who my enemies are.
16.1 1 tend to play on bad luck.
.2 On several occasions I have been unjustly accused when innocent.
.3 Luck is simply a matter of the law of averages.
.4 Happy little coincidences seem continually to occur in my life.
17.1 1 like to be helpful to others.
.2 1 don't care about being helpful to others.
.3 1 like others to be helpful to me.
.4 1 find that being myself is helpful to others.
18.1 1 am not absolutely bound by the principle of fairness.
.2 1 have never had a traffic ticket.
.3 1 am not in as good health as most of my friends.
.4 1 do not agree with many modern trends.
19.1 1 think tests like this one are really stupid.
.2 Some things are right, and some are wrong, and there is no middle.
.3 1 have dreams about my parent(s).
.4 The pursuit of happiness is not opposed to altruism.
20.1 1 must admit that I am a hyper-strung person.
.2 1 like only the better things in life.
.3 1 am afraid to be alone in the dark.
.4 1 can describe myself as a strong person.
21.1 1 do not have to justify my feelings with reasons.
.2 1 like crowds.
.3 1 would like to go to an orgy.
.4 My health is below par.
22.1 Personal autonomy is more important than personal consistency.
.2 Personal consistency is more important than personal autonomy.
.3 1 dislike dogs.
.4 Even when feeling ill, I am never cross.
23.1 1 can express affection regardless of whether it is returned.
.2 1 believe in corporal punishment in the schools.
.3 1 often think about things too bad to talk about.
.4 Disorganization continually keeps cropping up in my life.
24.1 1 would like to live in a fantasy world.
.2 1 am fascinated by horror stories.
.3 1 need a great deal of security.
.4 It is important for me to perceive reality as it is.
25.1 1 have often been punished without cause.
.2 1 take a bath every day without fail.
.3 1 cannot do anything really well.
.4 1 have a great deal of stomach trouble.
26.1 People have an instinct for evil.
.2 1 feel ashamed of my emotions.
.3 1 often feel controlled by forces outside myself.
.4 1 am loved because I am loveable.
27.1 1 feel the world is getting better not worse.
.2 People are just too hostile.
.3 1 should like to go away and pull things in with me.
.4 1 feel very dependent on some other person.
28.1 1 hate growing older.
.2 1 have a lot of aches and pains as I grow older.
.3 1 find more opportunities for growth as I grow older.
.4 1 do not think about growing older.
29.1 1 find learning usually involves growing toward others.
.2 1 wish I had a lot more money.
.3 There are people I dislike so much I'm afraid to go near them.
.4 Everything tastes the same.
30.1 A thunderstorm terrifies me.
.2 If I had to choose between liberty and security, I'd choose security.
.3 My fingers and nails are always neat and clean.
.4 My sleep is fitfull and disturbed.
31.1 My environment often baffles me.
.2 Disorganization continues to pop up in my life.
.3 1 feel very much in control of my environment.
.4 The world is a jungle any way you look at it.
32.1 1 wish certain people would stop persecuting me.
.2 An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth is a good motto.
.3 1 am a piano player in the whore-house of life.
.4 1 feel that my life is dedicated to a noble purpose.
33.1 1 live a very ordinary kind of life.
.2 1 am concerned with self-improvement at all times.
.3 1 know that others are often talking about me.
.4 1 live a very unusual type of life.
34.1 While I love people, I often need withdrawal and detachment.
.2 1 feel lonely whenever I don't have friends around me.
.3 1 do what others expect of me.
.4 1 had no idea life could be so depraved.
35.1 People often talk about me behind my back.
.2 My father was a strong man who was severe in discipline.
.3 If I were to die tonight, I feel I would go to Heaven.
.4 1 doubt if anyone is really happy.
36.1 Every day something happens to frighten or worry me.
.2 Every day something happens to anger or annoy me.
.3 Every day seems to bring new challenges and opportunities.
.4 Every day is one step nearer to the grave.
37.1 1 am optimistic about the future and never feel anxious about it.
.2 1 am pessimistic about the future and really see little hope.
.3 1 rarely think about the future.
.4 Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
38.1 1 have some very sad memories.
.2 1 have some very nice memories.
.3 1 have some very scary memories.
.4 1 have no memories.
39.1 1 am thorough.
.2 1 am consistent.
.3 1 am dependent.
.4 1 am self-sufficient.
40.1 1 know who is responsible for most of my troubles.
.2 1 sweat very easily even on cool days.
.3 Familiarity breeds contempt.
.4 1 never jay-walk across the street.
41.1 1 sometimes have experiences where life seems just about perfect.
.2 1 wouldn't let a man hijack a plane I was on.
.3 1 feel moody much of the time.
.4 Most people don't give a damn what happens to you.
42.1 My life is really messed up.
.2 1 feel that I have an innate capacity to deal with life.
.3 How one gets on in life is largely a matter of luck.
.4 Life never allows one any second chances.
43.1 1 hated one of my brothers or sisters.
.2 1 do not feel in control of my environment on some occasions.
.3 It is important to accept others as they are.
.4 1 believe marriage should improve a husband or a wife.
44.1 1 dislike the Moslem religion.
.2 1 dislike to cook.
.3 1 am sometimes disturbed by the hostile humor of others.
.4 1 have often wanted to run away.
45.1 1 would like to belong to a motorcycle club.
.2 At times I have a strong urge to do something harmful or shocking.
.3 My moral code is above reproach.
.4 1 often get disgusted with myself.
46.1 There is not enough time in the day.
.2 1 dislike cats.
.3 1 am very independent.
.4 There are some very bigoted people in our neighborhood.
47.1 1 do not feel bound by my duties and obligations to others.
.2 1 have stomach cramps often.
.3 1 am proud of my possessions.
.4 1 hate to wait for a traffic light to change.
48.1 Man is naturally aggressive.
.2 Man is naturally cooperative.
.3 Man is naturally weak.
.4 Man isn't naturally anything.
49.1 It is not necessary that others approve of what I do.
.2 It is not necessary that others follow the rules.
.3 It is not necessary that others and I communicate.
.4 It is not necessary that others and I live on friendly terms.
50.1 1 have never acted like a coward.
.2 Most people seem pretty ignorant and gullible.
.3 1 am afraid of high places.
.4 Sometimes I feel I must injure either myself or others.
51.1 1 like to play and hate to work.
.2 For me, work and play are the same.
.3 I like to alternate hard work and hard play.
.4 All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
52.1 Man is bad and needs to be saved.
.2 Man is good and can be trusted.
.3 Man is, and values are inherent in the situation.
.4 Why make such a big fuss about it ?
53.1 My values come primarily from a code to which I adhere.
.2 My values come primarily from what others say and think.
.3 My values come primarily from my own feelings.
.4 1 have no need for values.
54.1 Sometimes I feel like I would like to run away.
.2 Sometimes I feel like I would like to fight the world.
.3 Sometimes I feel like giving up.
.4 Sometimes I feel as though I knew a secret about the universe.
55.1 Once you get the facts, there is usually only one answer to a question.
.2 1 feel generally gloomy about the future.
.3 1 carry a heavy burden which few others understand.
.4 1 never lose my temper.
56.1 1 like to have lots of people around me.
.2 1 have a great need for privacy in my life.
.3 1 feel guilty when I am selfish.
.4 1 know who my creator is.
57.1 1 think of myself as masculine (m) or feminine (f).
.2 1 think of myself as honest and reliant.
.3 1 think of myself as conscientious and intelligent.
.4 1 think of myself as creative.
58.1 People are apt to describe me as creative.
.2 People are apt to describe me as good-looking.
.3 People are apt to describe me as responsible and conscientious.
.4 People are apt to describe me as having a pleasing personality.
59.1 New ideas frequently occur to me.
.2 1 am sometimes frightened by TV violence.
.3 When someone else gets into trouble, most people are indifferent.
.4 When I listen to a lecture, I often feel restless.
60.1 There seems to be a lump in my throat much of the time.
.2 1 am afraid of deep water.
.3 1 make it a rule never to indulge in gossip.
.4 Success is a matter of will power.
61.1 1 tend to be more realistic than optimistic or pessimistic.
.2 1 am often annoyed by weak people.
.3 1 always finish everything I start.
.4 My health often gives me concern.
62.1 1 worry about unimportant things.
.2 1 know people who have very bad tempers.
.3 1 dislike to speak in front of a crowd.
.4 1 feel integrated with myself and the universe.
63.1 1 am not in as good health as most of my friends.
.2 1 am on guard with those more friendly than I expected.
.3 People say I am an unusual person.
.4 1 am not one who would rather switch than fight.
64.1 1 find it hard to keep my mind on a task or job.
.2 1 sometimes feel that things are not real.
.3 People think of me as a problem solver.
.4 1 feel that the world is pretty much like a jungle.
65.1 1 have been disappointed in love.
.2 1 sometimes have spells of hay fever or asthma.
.3 My table manners are as good at home as when I am out in company.
.4 1 agree with an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
66.1 1 adhere to the moral values which I was taught.
.2 My feet frequently hurt.
.3 Some people among my acquaintances have it in for me.
.4 Some mornings the world seems clean and bright as if it was just created.
67.1 1 enjoy the process of work more than the product.
.2 1 would feel ashamed to walk barefoot down a street.
.3 1 often sweat a lot.
.4 The personal habits of some people annoy me.
68.1 1 blame others for my habits
.2 1 am under a doctor's care.
.3 1 object to taking orders from other people.
.4 People describe me as a doer.
69.1 1 have often had bad dreams and nightmares.
.2 1 like spontaneous humor.
.3 As a child, I did not belong to a gang or crowd.
.4 Old fashioned discipline is what is needed by most children.
70.1 1 feel nervous when meeting a lot of people.
.2 Most people are secretly pleased when someone else gets into trouble.
.3 1 am made nervous by certain animals.
.4 1 read the editorial page thoroughly every day.
71.1 Evil is an intrinsic part of human nature.
.2 Moral laxity is the cause of our present sorry situation.
.3 Success is generally the result of the puritan ethic of good hard work.
.4 1 often know beforehand when the day will be particularly good.
72.1 1 need fame and adulation most.
.2 1 need money and power most.
.3 1 need detachment and privacy most.
.4 1 need challenge and conquest most.
73.1 1 consider myself good looking.
.2 1 feel inferior much of the time.
.3 1 had rather be myself than anyone I know.
.4 Sometimes I cry myself to sleep.
74.1 Airline hijackers should be given the death penalty.
.2 1 can center in on a problem while most others are confused by emotions.
.3 1 sometimes think about things too bad to talk about.
.4 When my views differ from others, I usually change my mind.
75.1 At times I feel like picking a fight with someone.
.2 1 know who my enemies are.
.3 Almost every day something happens to frighten me.
.4 1 have never been even slightly under the influence of alcohol.
76.1 1 feel most people have an instinct for good.
.2 Disorganization keeps cropping up in my life.
.3 Other people generally know what is best for me.
.4 People have sometimes called me ruthless.
77.1 1 would not object to hanging a convicted murderer.
.2 1 am assertive and affirming.
.3 1 know a number of people who are mentally unbalanced.
.4 It is better to give in than to cause trouble.
78.1 Death is not one of my worries.
.2 Several times a week I feel something dreadful will happen.
.3 1 often feel I made the wrong choice in my occupation.
.4 A strong person doesn't show his feelings or emotions.
79.1 1 am in favor of strict enforcement of all laws.
.2 Death is not one of my worries.
.3 1 have had some strange and peculiar experiences.
.4 There have been times when I have been discouraged.
80.1 1 would like to see a bullfight.
.2 Much of the time my head seems to hurt or ache.
.3 1 usually feel nervous at parties.
.4 1 am equally polite to people whether they annoy me or not.
81.1 1 believe in what I am doing.
.2 1 like to keep my things tidy, neat, and in good order.
.3 When I hear of someone else's success, it makes me feel like a failure.
.4 1 am sometimes troubled by attacks of nausea and vomiting.
82.1 Sometimes it seems that life has no meaning.
.2 Sometimes I feel like smashing things.
.3 Sometimes I feel I may lose my mind.
.4 It is important for me to perceive reality as it is.
83.1 1 have never been arrested for a traffic violation.
.2 Sometimes I can see reality that others are not ready to accept.
.3 It is pretty easy for people to win arguments with me.
.4 1 have not lived the right kind of life.
84.1 1 certainly feel useless at times.
.2 My mouth feels dry most of the time.
.3 I am always honest in thought and deed.
.4 1 have at least two friends approaching self-actualization.
85.1 1 often lose sleep by having bad dreams or worries.
.2 1 hate someone very much.
.3 Sometimes I would like to run away and join a circus.
.4 Children should be seen and not heard.
86.1 1 sometimes feel that things are not real.
.2 Overcoming or preventing problems is a challenge I accept.
.3 1 have never been bothered with thoughts about sex.
.4 It is usually safer to trust nobody.
87.1 Most leaders cannot be trusted.
.2 1 like to give orders and get people moving.
.3 1 am very independent.
.4 1 never gossip.
88.1 1 have few fears compared to my friends' fears.
.2 1 am not afraid of fire; actually I'm fascinated by it.
.3 1 am afraid of snakes.
.4 1 was never afraid of the dark.
89.1 1 have never deliberately told a lie.
.2 Even if I could afford to retire, I'd still work for free.
.3 People often talk about me behind my back.
.4 1 would enjoy having authority over others.
90.1 1 would rather be myself than anyone I know.
.2 1 have never been cross or grouchy without reason.
.3 1 sometimes feel weak and dependent.
.4 1 cannot eat certain foods.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
ANSWER KEY
DO NOT READ BEFORE TAKING THE TEST
THE NORTHRIDGE DEVELOPMENTAL SCALE* - Origin and Rationale
by John Curtis Gowan
In the fall of 1971 the Guidance Master of Arts Committee (Department of Psychological Foundations, School of Education, California State University, Northridge) commissioned the writer to develop an instrument to measure and select candidates on other than an intellectual basis. At this time, he was finishing the manuscript for Development of the Creative Individual which stresses developmental process and self-actualization in adults. It appeared to him that one test might be designed to satisfy both areas.
Turning to the Personal Orientation Inventory as a likely point of departure, the author carefully read the Zimmerman factor-analysis of it, and decided to avoid time competence/incompetence, and aggression, and concentrate on the self-actualizing value scale. He averted the problems inherent in the true-false POI response, by using five alternatives for each item, 1) a self-actualizing alternative, 2) an authoritarian-aggressive distractor, 3) a depression distractor, 4) a psychoneurotic distractor, and 5) a "free" alternative - "none of the previous". The set of minitasks of the upper sixth (creativity) stage were hypothesized (see Table IX) from the descriptions of Maslow and others about self-actualizing people, and the self-actualizing scale constructed from this model.
In February 1972, a sixty item "Self Knowledge Test" emerged that would eventually be refined into the Northridge Developmental Scale. The "Self Knowledge Test" was given extensively during the 1972 Spring semester. From an item analysis, 45 valid items were selected and arranged in the order of validity to become the first 45 items of the scale.
For the last 45 items, the writer utilized the insights of colleagues, and the cooperation of about 20 people who he felt were self-actualized persons and would give self-actualizing responses to his inquiries. Eventually, the last 45 self-actualizing items were decided on, interspersed with suitable distractors, and incorporated into the developmental scale.
The major scale determines the development of self-actualization. Two validity scales are build into the total scale, a lie scale and an infrequency of response ("none of the previous") scale. Every fifth item includes a "lie" distractor, similar to those used on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. The infrequency scale is more subtle. An occasional item contains no self-actualized response with four negative distractors forcing most high self-actualized persons occasionally to take the free alternative, "none of the previous." Selecting too many free alternatives, however, trips the "invalidity" scale.
Three additional minor scales are included to indicate types of psychopathology, authoritarianism, depression, and psychoneurotic. A "bad body concern" scale that had been a minor psychopathology scale in the original form was combined with "weirdo" items to make up the psychoneurotic scale.
This test was given extensively, and normed when N = 100 to give a profile of the test. A split-half reliability study showed an r = .80. There were indications that the self-actualization means advanced in the expected direction, from low to high: 1) random classes, 2) guidance candidates, 3) guidance students, and 4) practicum students.
During the Summer of 1972, the scale was item analyzed again by the means of eight groups of twenty tests:
TABLE IX
DEVELOPMENTAL MINITASKS OF THE 6th & 7th STAGES
.
1. High Self-Actualization (over 60)
2. Male normals S/A
3. Female normals S/A
4. Low Self-Actualization (under 30)
5. High Infrequency of response
6. High Authoritarian - Aggressive
7. High Depression
8. High Neuropsychiatric
No analysis of lie items was undertaken. As a result of the item analysis some self-actualization, authoritarian-aggressive, and infrequency items were eliminated, and a significant number of depression and neuropsychiatric items were added. The test form remains unchanged, but new answer stencils were cut, and a new profile sheet developed. This analysis and other basic statistical work on the Northridge Developmental Scale was carried out by graduate student Cora Grote. It should be noted that reliability and validity studies on this test concern only the main self-actualizing (S/A) scale. This scale contains 80 items, and is the main measure of the test. The authoritarian, depression, and neurotic scales are regarded as check indicators only to give a clue from what direction any pathology is indicated.
In the spring of 1973 two graduate students completed independent projects on the Northridge Developmental Scale. Beverly Curtis, using 31 test-retest transcendental meditation cases at six weeks intervals found a reliability coefficient of .68, comparing with the .80 reliability coefficient found for 75 guidance candidates on a splithalf analysis by the writer. In defense of the lower test-retest figure it can be argued that a significant change was occurring to these initial meditators during the six weeks period between pretest and posttest (see below). Beverly Curtis was also able to show (see Table X) that the critical ratio between control graduate students and students applying for classification was 10.3, and that between the classification students and the students in practicum (ending their studies) was 5.1 (both highly significant). In each case there was a stepwise elevation of the means on the S/A scale.
Phil Ferguson, in the other graduate project was able to demonstrate a similar significant step-wise advance of the means on the S/A scale for pre-meditators, post-meditators, and long-time meditators of Transcendental Meditation in which the meditation training period was six weeks, and the long-time meditators had been doing so an average of 43 months, - the critical ratios in these cases being respectively 2.1 and 3.97. At the same time equalized control groups were showing no change on the S/A scale. Since other TM studies have shown an increase in mental health and a decrease in anxiety as a result of TM, this study is an indication of the validity of the Northridge Developmental Scale in measuring mental health in mature adults. (See Table X).
Table X
Basic Statistics and Critical Ratio for Various Groups of Students
It is our contention that the Northridge Developmental Scale is a reliable, valid, and sensitive instrument for the measurement of progress toward self actualization represented by the kind of mental health, and an open, receptive caring attitude that would be shown by an effective non-directive counselor who was maturely adult. Table IX shows the minitasks of the sixth and seventh cognitive stages (in a first drafting) and we believe that the Northridge Developmental Scale measures the affective components facilitating the minitasks in the upper part of the sixth cognitive stage (see Table IX). At least this area is well represented in a content validity check of the self-actualizing scale answers on the test.*
*****
In this chapter, we have made an initial investigation of a very difficult subject - measurement of psychedelia and self-actualization. The writer is not more satisfied with the chapter than is the reader; but it is a beginning which must be made if satisfactory measurement devices are to be developed in the future. The two major tasks of this chapter have been to critique the Personal Orientation Inventory and to introduce a new test - The Northridge Developmental Scale - which may be found useful in this area. What is now required is extensive testing of this and other measures.
There are few conclusions to summarize in a chapter such as this, but one does stand out. The fact that the Northridge Developmental Scale and other similar tests can be used both as measures of self-actualization, and as measures of therapeutic or guidance competence, is very comforting. It suggests that progress in developmental process is progress not toward dissociation, but toward its opposite; that one becomes more mentally healthy, not less mentally healthy, in growth and in helping others. It suggests finally that the process of psychotherapy is an induction of growth and an assisted development out of dysplasia into fuller function. But for a further in-depth study of dysplasia, we turn to the next chapter.
__________________________________________
*The NORTHRIDGE DEVELOPMENTAL SCALE is given in full in Appendix A, including keys and norms. In order to encourage research and use, the copyright restrictions otherwise in force in this book are relaxed in respect to Appendix A as follows: Any researcher or institution may copy and use the test, as long as neither the test, answer sheets or keys, or service of same is sold, rented, or leased. Any use of money in connection with the test requires permission of the copyright owner.
_________________________________________
*The writer acknowledges the help of Beverly Curtis, Philip Ferguson and Cora Grote in the production of research or other material incorporated into this section.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SCORING YOUR N.D.S. SELF-TEST
(this section by Iona Miller)
You should have answered all of the 90 questions with one of the multiple
choices: 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5. Using the score-sheet, you will see that any given number,
1 through 5, corresponds with a letter, (S, A, D, I, L, or N).
These letter-number correlations come from the factors the test measures. Five
alternative scales are built into the test. These are each measured along
independent axes. The letters represent the following:
S = S/A; self-actualizing alternative; the choices
come from a postulated set of mini-tasks for the
creativity and psychedelic stages of development.
A = Auth; this is an authoritarian-aggressive
distractor, designed to show tendencies toward
aggressive or controlling behavior and
authoritarianism, which block emotional and
spiritual development.
D = Depr; a depression distractor. A high score on
this scale indicates depression is blocking
creativity by sapping energy in self-defeating or
self-destructive patterns..
I = Infr; infrequency of response. High
infrequency of response. Alternative, for "none of
the above." A high score here tends to invalidate
test results.
L = Lie; this lie distractor scale discloses a
tendency toward dishonest answers; an attempt to
out-think the test instrument.
N = NP; neuropsychiatric scale discloses the
blocking tendency of neurotic or psychotic
personality traits and a poor body image. A high
percentage on this scale indicates fundamental
work on the personality or therapy is the most
useful course, rather than attempting to scale the
heights of human development without a firm
foundation.
There are 80 self-actualizing choices, which are interspersed with suitable
distractor responses. The major scale reveals the amount of self-actualization.
The higher the number, the greater your development. High self-actualization is
shown by a total score over 60. Low Self-Actualization is indicated by a score
here under 30. Any answer to a distractor response lowers the number of
self-actualizing responses, except in the occasional item which contains no
self-actualized response. Then the self-actualizing response might be the "free
alternative," none-of-the-above. Selecting none-of-the-above too many times
invalidates your test results.
This test was devised to select candidates to becomes guidance counselors or
therapists. Results in testing showed indications of self-actualization advancing
in the expected direction from low to high. Lowest scores came from random
classes, 2). guidance candidates were higher, 3) guidance students, higher yet and,
4). practicum students highest in choices of self-actualizing alternatives. The
self-actualizing scale contains 80 items. The authoritarian, depression, and
neurotic scales are included to provide hints about where blocks originate and
why self-actualization scores might be low.
Gowan suggests that you presumably can alter your S/A scores by employing the
process of escalation and perhaps meditation to further develop altruistic and
spiritual traits leading toward emergence and stabilization of creativity and
unitive states of illumination. At some stage your interest in testing your
potential will no doubt wane. But in the meantime, this gives you an "objective"
measure of your personality and transpersonal human development, at least in
terms of the postulated creative mini-tasks leading to tapping your creative
potential.
by John Curtis Gowan
In the fall of 1971 the Guidance Master of Arts Committee (Department of Psychological Foundations, School of Education, California State University, Northridge) commissioned the writer to develop an instrument to measure and select candidates on other than an intellectual basis. At this time, he was finishing the manuscript for Development of the Creative Individual which stresses developmental process and self-actualization in adults. It appeared to him that one test might be designed to satisfy both areas.
Turning to the Personal Orientation Inventory as a likely point of departure, the author carefully read the Zimmerman factor-analysis of it, and decided to avoid time competence/incompetence, and aggression, and concentrate on the self-actualizing value scale. He averted the problems inherent in the true-false POI response, by using five alternatives for each item, 1) a self-actualizing alternative, 2) an authoritarian-aggressive distractor, 3) a depression distractor, 4) a psychoneurotic distractor, and 5) a "free" alternative - "none of the previous". The set of minitasks of the upper sixth (creativity) stage were hypothesized (see Table IX) from the descriptions of Maslow and others about self-actualizing people, and the self-actualizing scale constructed from this model.
In February 1972, a sixty item "Self Knowledge Test" emerged that would eventually be refined into the Northridge Developmental Scale. The "Self Knowledge Test" was given extensively during the 1972 Spring semester. From an item analysis, 45 valid items were selected and arranged in the order of validity to become the first 45 items of the scale.
For the last 45 items, the writer utilized the insights of colleagues, and the cooperation of about 20 people who he felt were self-actualized persons and would give self-actualizing responses to his inquiries. Eventually, the last 45 self-actualizing items were decided on, interspersed with suitable distractors, and incorporated into the developmental scale.
The major scale determines the development of self-actualization. Two validity scales are build into the total scale, a lie scale and an infrequency of response ("none of the previous") scale. Every fifth item includes a "lie" distractor, similar to those used on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. The infrequency scale is more subtle. An occasional item contains no self-actualized response with four negative distractors forcing most high self-actualized persons occasionally to take the free alternative, "none of the previous." Selecting too many free alternatives, however, trips the "invalidity" scale.
Three additional minor scales are included to indicate types of psychopathology, authoritarianism, depression, and psychoneurotic. A "bad body concern" scale that had been a minor psychopathology scale in the original form was combined with "weirdo" items to make up the psychoneurotic scale.
This test was given extensively, and normed when N = 100 to give a profile of the test. A split-half reliability study showed an r = .80. There were indications that the self-actualization means advanced in the expected direction, from low to high: 1) random classes, 2) guidance candidates, 3) guidance students, and 4) practicum students.
During the Summer of 1972, the scale was item analyzed again by the means of eight groups of twenty tests:
TABLE IX
DEVELOPMENTAL MINITASKS OF THE 6th & 7th STAGES
.
1. High Self-Actualization (over 60)
2. Male normals S/A
3. Female normals S/A
4. Low Self-Actualization (under 30)
5. High Infrequency of response
6. High Authoritarian - Aggressive
7. High Depression
8. High Neuropsychiatric
No analysis of lie items was undertaken. As a result of the item analysis some self-actualization, authoritarian-aggressive, and infrequency items were eliminated, and a significant number of depression and neuropsychiatric items were added. The test form remains unchanged, but new answer stencils were cut, and a new profile sheet developed. This analysis and other basic statistical work on the Northridge Developmental Scale was carried out by graduate student Cora Grote. It should be noted that reliability and validity studies on this test concern only the main self-actualizing (S/A) scale. This scale contains 80 items, and is the main measure of the test. The authoritarian, depression, and neurotic scales are regarded as check indicators only to give a clue from what direction any pathology is indicated.
In the spring of 1973 two graduate students completed independent projects on the Northridge Developmental Scale. Beverly Curtis, using 31 test-retest transcendental meditation cases at six weeks intervals found a reliability coefficient of .68, comparing with the .80 reliability coefficient found for 75 guidance candidates on a splithalf analysis by the writer. In defense of the lower test-retest figure it can be argued that a significant change was occurring to these initial meditators during the six weeks period between pretest and posttest (see below). Beverly Curtis was also able to show (see Table X) that the critical ratio between control graduate students and students applying for classification was 10.3, and that between the classification students and the students in practicum (ending their studies) was 5.1 (both highly significant). In each case there was a stepwise elevation of the means on the S/A scale.
Phil Ferguson, in the other graduate project was able to demonstrate a similar significant step-wise advance of the means on the S/A scale for pre-meditators, post-meditators, and long-time meditators of Transcendental Meditation in which the meditation training period was six weeks, and the long-time meditators had been doing so an average of 43 months, - the critical ratios in these cases being respectively 2.1 and 3.97. At the same time equalized control groups were showing no change on the S/A scale. Since other TM studies have shown an increase in mental health and a decrease in anxiety as a result of TM, this study is an indication of the validity of the Northridge Developmental Scale in measuring mental health in mature adults. (See Table X).
Table X
Basic Statistics and Critical Ratio for Various Groups of Students
It is our contention that the Northridge Developmental Scale is a reliable, valid, and sensitive instrument for the measurement of progress toward self actualization represented by the kind of mental health, and an open, receptive caring attitude that would be shown by an effective non-directive counselor who was maturely adult. Table IX shows the minitasks of the sixth and seventh cognitive stages (in a first drafting) and we believe that the Northridge Developmental Scale measures the affective components facilitating the minitasks in the upper part of the sixth cognitive stage (see Table IX). At least this area is well represented in a content validity check of the self-actualizing scale answers on the test.*
*****
In this chapter, we have made an initial investigation of a very difficult subject - measurement of psychedelia and self-actualization. The writer is not more satisfied with the chapter than is the reader; but it is a beginning which must be made if satisfactory measurement devices are to be developed in the future. The two major tasks of this chapter have been to critique the Personal Orientation Inventory and to introduce a new test - The Northridge Developmental Scale - which may be found useful in this area. What is now required is extensive testing of this and other measures.
There are few conclusions to summarize in a chapter such as this, but one does stand out. The fact that the Northridge Developmental Scale and other similar tests can be used both as measures of self-actualization, and as measures of therapeutic or guidance competence, is very comforting. It suggests that progress in developmental process is progress not toward dissociation, but toward its opposite; that one becomes more mentally healthy, not less mentally healthy, in growth and in helping others. It suggests finally that the process of psychotherapy is an induction of growth and an assisted development out of dysplasia into fuller function. But for a further in-depth study of dysplasia, we turn to the next chapter.
__________________________________________
*The NORTHRIDGE DEVELOPMENTAL SCALE is given in full in Appendix A, including keys and norms. In order to encourage research and use, the copyright restrictions otherwise in force in this book are relaxed in respect to Appendix A as follows: Any researcher or institution may copy and use the test, as long as neither the test, answer sheets or keys, or service of same is sold, rented, or leased. Any use of money in connection with the test requires permission of the copyright owner.
_________________________________________
*The writer acknowledges the help of Beverly Curtis, Philip Ferguson and Cora Grote in the production of research or other material incorporated into this section.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SCORING YOUR N.D.S. SELF-TEST
(this section by Iona Miller)
You should have answered all of the 90 questions with one of the multiple
choices: 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5. Using the score-sheet, you will see that any given number,
1 through 5, corresponds with a letter, (S, A, D, I, L, or N).
These letter-number correlations come from the factors the test measures. Five
alternative scales are built into the test. These are each measured along
independent axes. The letters represent the following:
S = S/A; self-actualizing alternative; the choices
come from a postulated set of mini-tasks for the
creativity and psychedelic stages of development.
A = Auth; this is an authoritarian-aggressive
distractor, designed to show tendencies toward
aggressive or controlling behavior and
authoritarianism, which block emotional and
spiritual development.
D = Depr; a depression distractor. A high score on
this scale indicates depression is blocking
creativity by sapping energy in self-defeating or
self-destructive patterns..
I = Infr; infrequency of response. High
infrequency of response. Alternative, for "none of
the above." A high score here tends to invalidate
test results.
L = Lie; this lie distractor scale discloses a
tendency toward dishonest answers; an attempt to
out-think the test instrument.
N = NP; neuropsychiatric scale discloses the
blocking tendency of neurotic or psychotic
personality traits and a poor body image. A high
percentage on this scale indicates fundamental
work on the personality or therapy is the most
useful course, rather than attempting to scale the
heights of human development without a firm
foundation.
There are 80 self-actualizing choices, which are interspersed with suitable
distractor responses. The major scale reveals the amount of self-actualization.
The higher the number, the greater your development. High self-actualization is
shown by a total score over 60. Low Self-Actualization is indicated by a score
here under 30. Any answer to a distractor response lowers the number of
self-actualizing responses, except in the occasional item which contains no
self-actualized response. Then the self-actualizing response might be the "free
alternative," none-of-the-above. Selecting none-of-the-above too many times
invalidates your test results.
This test was devised to select candidates to becomes guidance counselors or
therapists. Results in testing showed indications of self-actualization advancing
in the expected direction from low to high. Lowest scores came from random
classes, 2). guidance candidates were higher, 3) guidance students, higher yet and,
4). practicum students highest in choices of self-actualizing alternatives. The
self-actualizing scale contains 80 items. The authoritarian, depression, and
neurotic scales are included to provide hints about where blocks originate and
why self-actualization scores might be low.
Gowan suggests that you presumably can alter your S/A scores by employing the
process of escalation and perhaps meditation to further develop altruistic and
spiritual traits leading toward emergence and stabilization of creativity and
unitive states of illumination. At some stage your interest in testing your
potential will no doubt wane. But in the meantime, this gives you an "objective"
measure of your personality and transpersonal human development, at least in
terms of the postulated creative mini-tasks leading to tapping your creative
potential.
Copyright © 2010-2015 Iona Miller, All Rights Reserved.
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FAIR USE NOTICE
Educational Purposes Only
This site may contains some copyrighted material which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues. This constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law, in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107. The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
TRANCE, ART, CREATIVITY
CHAPTER I: PREFACE; INTRODUCTION; SYNOPSIS OF THE BOOK (page vi)
"The final conclusion is that we know very little, and yet it is astonishing that we know so much, and still more astonishing that so little knowledge can give us so much power."
-Walter Grierson
"Miracles do not happen in contradiction to nature, but only in contradiction to that which is known to us of nature."
-St. Augustine
"The "I" who observes the universe is the same "I" who controls it. The concept of separate "I's" is a myth."
-E. Schroedinger
"There is nothing abnormal in the world-there is only the lack of understanding the normal."
-Swami Puri
"Our unconscious existence is the real one, and the conscious world is a kind of illusion, an apparent reality constructed for a specific purpose like a dream which seems a reality as long as we are in it."
-C. Jung
"What we see is not nature, but nature exposed to our method of questioning."
-W. Heisenberg
"One conclusion was forced upon my mind at that time, and my impression of its truth has ever remained unshaken. It is that our normal waking consciousness, rational consciousness as we call it, is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the finest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness quite different. . . . No account of the universe in its totality can be final which leaves these other forms of consciousness quite disregarded. . . ."
-William James
The theme of this book quoted from page 379:
"In the juncture between the individual and the general mind, duality is abolished, and through knowledge more and more complete, the one becomes the other." The abbreviation "PA" in cites refers to Psychological Abstracts; the "DA" to Dissertation Abstracts.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(page xv)
PREFACE
The preface to a book is a device invented to allow an author to explain why he has made an ass out of himself in public. Most people are like the Roman governor in Acts who in a similar situation said to St. Paul: "Thou are beside thyself; much learning hath made thee mad." Paul, at least could plead the excuse of a theophany or what we would now call a psychedelic experience. The present author, having no such authority, has perhaps only himself to blame. Why would anyone brought up in Boston do such a thing?
There is something very therapeutic in leveling with one's readers and bearing witness to the truth as one sees it. And this is the real reason both for the book and for the candid air of this preface. The author really does not know beyond the shadow of a doubt that the wild-eyed hypotheses on page 10 are true. But time will take care of that; if they are false an already obscure career will have been further dimmed. But if by any chance they are true, or even heuristic, then the advance of behavioral science will have been at least slightly hastened. For they attempt to "explain" an increasingly embarrassing number of "exceptions" to a positivistic behavioral scientific orthodoxy which looks more and more Ptolemaic, - exceptions which many of us feel, like the Ptolemaic epicycles, foreshadow the advent of a wider and better theory.
This book is concerned with a taxonomy of the cognitive representation of experience arranged in a hierarchy from very poor to very good. The theme of the book addresses itself to the most important issue which exists for man: how to get in touch with the Ground of Being without losing ego-consciousness. The taxonomy, therefore, goes from a state of complete cognitive chaos (such as schizophrenia) through other types of dissociation and trance (which are regarded as prototaxic modes), to a middle ground of parataxic mode which involves the successive totemization of the numinous element by the conscious ego through successive stages of archetype, dreams, ritual, myth, and art, finally to the syntaxic mode in which there is some cognitive control (involving creativity, biofeedback, and meditation among others). Such an analysis is a continuation of ideas presented in Development of the Psychedelic Individual. In that volume the explication was given a developmental presentation, which is absent
(page xvi)
from the present book. Instead we have here focused on a more careful examination of the various modes of representation, which may be considered as ascending values of the main parameter.
If this seems like a freeway to Nirvana in place of the tortuous path trod by countless saints and gurus of the past ages, one can only reply that conditions have changed. It now seems more important to smooth the pathway so that multitudes of average people may start the pilgrimage, rather than to restrict it to a few daring souls. The fact that under these comfortable circumstances a smaller percentage is likely to scale heaven's pinnacles in a single lifetime seems less important than the effect on world peace and prosperity by reason of the orthocognitive lives of multitudes.
Knowing that this book endorses meditation and regards mystic experience as a goal of human development, the critical reader may ask what is new about this; religious leaders have advocated such objectives for a long time. What is new is (1) that psychological analysis is for the first time able to bring this area under some general organization so that "the average sensual man" is now offered the possibility of looking at a vista or possessing a map of a territory hitherto unknown except to saints and mystics; and (2) it now appears possible for "the average sensual man," without making a profession of sectarian belief, to make creative and meditative progress towards this goal.
What this has accomplished is, in effect, to give scholars and intellectuals binoculars to look upon reality from a distance which has hitherto prevented them from understanding its nature; or to put it another way, it has now become possible for a creative person to understand cognitively psychedelic events which previously defied rational understanding and were experienced only affectively. The saint renounced the world, became good, then wise; the psychologist still in the world, now can become wise, and hopefully good.
This book deals with some exceedingly abstruse concepts (such as those which require the use of untensed verbs for full elucidation). Because of our cultural bias, these ideas are new and difficult to understand; because of the author's recent acquaintance with them, he is often labored and difficult in his efforts to explain them. The consequence is that this is not an easy book, and any reader will find that much is demanded of him, and that it may be necessary to reread a paragraph. In some cases the author has attempted to tie down an ephemeral concept by an analogy or example. The reader should be warned that analogies are not exact, and that examples often are contaminated with the natural anthropomorphic bias of our species. We have been authoritatively cautioned about new wine
(page xvii)
in old bottles, and the Charley Brown in all of us finds it hard "to understand the new math with an old math mind."
Some readers may object that this book makes demands of them in the vocabulary of psychology, mathematics, physics, medicine, and other sciences. But it is not surprising that an explanation of ultimate reality requires more mental effort than watching a football game on TV. The price of cognition of the numinous element in the syntaxic mode is some study; but surely for a reader of your intelligence that is preferable to the paroxysms of the prototaxic or the pictorials of the parataxic.
While the reader may regret the frequency of the use of mathematical analogy in these pages, he really cannot expect an undemanding book about the most complex aspects of nature. We may expect that nature is very orderly but very complex. Surely we cannot ask that it adjusts itself to the superficialities of our little minds. Would we be content with a Creator no brighter than ourselves? As Piaget correctly observed, the most logical paradigms assume finally a mathematical form.
We do not pretend that this formulation is a complete survey of all possibilities nor do we insist that the relationship noticed here between prototaxic modes, parataxic modes, and syntaxic modes are fully comprehended. Indeed, it is obvious that they are oversimplified, for we have often caught glimpses of more complex relationships between these elements which because they were in parataxic or presentational form, we have not been able to express cognitively.
Some readers have questioned as to whether there should be any pejorative disvaluing of the prototaxic stage. We point out that this disvaluing, if any, is not that the stage is evil, but that it is a lower manifestation of the real. The universe of physical reality is somehow connected to the normal state of consciousness, perhaps being an effect of that state. When the cognitive ego is excursed from the normal state into an ASC1 (as it most completely is in prototaxic manifestations such as trance), we therefore get the clearest departures from the normal laws of physics (as in fire-walking) and the clearest examples of their supersedence by the laws of metaphysics. The spectacular effects of the prototaxic trance do not elevate it to the level of syntaxic meditation and satori, whose effects would be even more admirable were we as completely able to achieve them.
Some readers may object to the occasional use of value-laden criteria such as goodness-badness. The author confesses he was once bothered by this usage, feeling like most liberals that public display of values was only to be compared to public display of genitalia. In his case, however, discovery of the Osgood Semantic Differential (Osgood: 1957) was a great remover of guilt. Briefly, Osgood found that of all the
(page xviii)
adjectives used to describe things, events, and persons, three grand clusters were evident: (1) those relating to value (badness-goodness), (2) those relating to potency (weakness-strength), and (3) those relating to activity (activity-passivity).
Dear reader, count the adjectives on the front page of your favorite newspaper, listen if you can to a half-hour of television, or eavesdrop on the conversation of a group in the powder or locker room talking of the opposite sex, and you, too, can be cured of your intellectual horror of displayed values. For as Osgood showed, it is an existential fact that such values exist embedded in our language itself. Indeed, if these heroic measures are not enough, ask yourself the thoughtful question: "What is the order of adjectives modifying a noun in English?" and you will again come out with the Semantic Differential.
Since writing the previous book, Development of the Psychedelic Individual, the author has been given unsolicited advice by numerous well-meaning individuals of various persuasions of religious belief to the effect that his purview and constructs are lamentably narrow and short of the mark. It is very possible that these missionaries are right. We have no quarrel with those who posit grander theories; chacun a son gout. But let the reader remember that this author is writing from the point of view of a behavioral scientist, (not a religionist), who is trying to make sense out of the universe of experience with the minimal hypothesis necessary to do so.
The author wishes particularly to disavow any pretensions that the chapters on such subjects as dissociation, trance, hypnotism, dreams, myths, and art are complete or even comprehensive reviews of those fields. The author is naive in these areas, and is well aware that experts will easily be able to adduce better, later, and more complete examples than the ones cited. What he has attempted is to place this material - incomplete as it must be - into a logical framework of meaning with respect to the numinous element and its relationship to the individual consciousness, so that more complete analyses can later be carried out by those more familiar with the particular field. The value of the book, if any, rests upon the power of the general gestalt concept, not the weaknesses and lacunae in any particular example cited.
A necessary condition in establishing the validity of alleged phenomena is first to establish their reliability. Thus it is that when the same phenomena continue to be reported by different observers, with different biases, in different cultures, and under different situations, that we are bound, having established the first criterion for validity, to attend to them with increasing care.
Before proceeding further with the concept of reliability and measurement,
(page xix)
let us make a brief comment that statistical method is our tool and not our master. Quantification is a desirable goal, but it is not the only one. Consider the wise works of Daniel Yankelovich:
The first step is to measure whatever can be easily measured. This is okay as far as it goes.
The second step is to disregard that which can't be measured or give it any arbitrary quantitative value. This is artificial and misleading.
The third step is to presume that what can't be measured easily isn't very important. This is blindness.
The fourth step is to say that what can't be easily measured really doesn't exist. This is suicide.
One charge that is held out against the validity of all kinds of paranormal phenomena including creativity is that the effects are not replicable on demand. While replicability is certainly a sufficient condition for the reliability and later the validity of an alleged effect, it is by no means a necessary one. Few would care to challenge the validity of the process of human reproduction on the grounds that when a man has sexual intercourse with a woman only in a minority of instances does she thereby become pregnant.
In place of replicability one might propose:
1. Does investigation of the moot phenomena lead to useful application which cannot otherwise be easily explained? (e.g. industrial use of brainstorming) 2. If the phenomena are not replicable on demand, are they widely reported in different times and cultures?
(e.g. mystic experiences)
3. Does the theory which accounts for the phenomena possess elegance, higher meaning, or increased understanding of nature?
(e.g. synchrotron light)
4. Is the matter heuristic, that is, does it lead to further expansion and understanding of the primordial nature of things?
(e.g. collective preconscious)
Perhaps a more serious charge to be brought against the author is that he has played fast and loose with other writer's constructs and has done some violence to them in expanding them to fit his own views. Examples might include the prototaxic, parataxic, and syntaxic modes of Sullivan, the collective unconscious of Jung, the concept of dysplasia of Sheldon, the use of jhana numbers for the lower procedures of the syntaxic level to name only a few. To this the best reply that can be made is that if there is truly negative transfer in the enlargement of these concepts, then they will not prove heuristic or useful and will quickly be forgotten; on the other hand if there is positive transfer - if the two constructs reinforce
(page xx)
each other (as perhaps the junction of the Erikson affective and the Piagetian cognitive stages or the combining of the Sullivan-Van Rhijn theories may serve to illustrate), then true scientific progress has been made by the enlargement of an initial concept to explain more of nature.
The same argument and rebuttal applies to the use of mathematical and verbal analogy in many instances in the book. All analogies run the danger of doing violence to the intricacies of a new subject, but have the potential to make it more meaningful by co-opting it onto some existing knowledge. Again, only time can tell whether a particular analogy serves a useful function or not.
In physical science one frequently finds a law (such as F = ma) which can best be understood by means of a table of F for various values of m and a. In the developing behavioral sciences, things are not initially as clear; what we often find (as will be displayed on these pages) is an independent variable connected to a parameter and constant(s), where the law is obscure; but one can display the relationship in a taxonomic table of a hierarchy of change in the parameter, which results in a hierarchy of change in the independent variable. It is probable in these cases that the so- called parameter is in reality a continuous variable, and that the discrete values which it seems to assume are due to the (constant and not variable) property of modifying adjectives, in other words, due to the structure of language itself. We have emphasized the construction of such tables or taxonomies in this book for the purpose of substituting for the earlier and less useful all-or-none concept, the more useful construct of one continuous variable or parameter influencing another. Thus we go from ideographic description which often involves epithets to a nomothetic relationship which appears much like a physical law, and which can be replicated and validated.
Some positivistic readers may find it difficult to believe that the physical universe requires the adjunction of the psychic universe fully to explain it. Let such persons recall that an exactly similar situation prevails in mathematics, where the palpable domain of real numbers is best understood by the adjunction of the much less easily intuitable domain of complex-imaginary numbers. We may never be able to intuit imaginary numbers completely, but to those who understand it, the equation epii = -1 is both logically satisfying and aesthetically complete.
Even physics if deeply pursued reveals the fact that ultimate particles are of a different order of reality in time and space than the "solid" chair or table which make up the universe of "tangible" objects. For one thing, they are not "categorical" in the same sense
(page xxi)
(e.g.the complementarity principle that photons are both particles and waves). In addition they possess queer interactions (e.g. that electrons have position or momentum but not both at once). Finally they interact in space-time in a different way than macroscopic objects.
The cognitive mistake made by positivistic science is to regard the physical world as a "given," in other words, to mistake the phenomenon for the noumenon. For all phenomena are junior to the state of consciousness in which they are experienced. Consequently, instead of proceeding into a cul-de-sac by asking "Is this or that event real?" we need to ask the anterior question "In what state of consciousness are they experienced?"
In the former writings we have used "the collective preconscious" and "The Spirit of Man" to designate the "numinous element." We now feel that the latter term is better and more accurate. The numinous element is often first perceived through the collective preconscious but we seem now less sure than earlier that they are the same. While we once liked "The Spirit of Man," we have become aware that this is too anthropomorphic an appellation, and that the numinous element extends to and throughout all nature, and not just man; besides to some the word "spirit" connotes a person or a personality. We are more sure that the numinous element functions as an impersonal force. We therefore like this term because it has less loading on the word numinous (few people know what it means) and the loading on the word element is negligible, since we think of it as an object or thing.
Many people, both orthodoxly and occultly religious, may be offended that the concept is impersonal. Again, it is useful to point out that this is a hypothesis and not an article of religious belief. Saying that the numinous element acts as if it were impersonal is like saying that electricity acts as if little electron balls were running along electric wires at very high speeds: both are useful constructs (not to understand the nature or essences of either electricity or the ground of being) but to help us at the present time make intelligent use of their presently discovered properties. The author has no quarrel with those who wish to erect a Pantheon on such a scientific superstructure. But we must distinguish between a minimal acceptable hypothesis to explain natural (and paranormal) phenomena, and a religious philosophy.
It might be thought that an analysis of the prototaxic, parataxic, and syntaxic modes of contact with the numinous element would exhaust all the possibilities of such intercourse but the facts are otherwise. There appears to be a class of unusual instances where persons in the ordinary state of consciousness are jerked into an
(page xxii)
ASC merely through contact with an adept who possesses the power to effect this startling change. We have called such instances "psychic contagion." Examples given in this book include those in section 2.48. But the issue is important enough for further research.
Prospective publishers are always asking what public the author writes for, as if they could only be placated by finding that there was some large, dull, unwashed group which could be titillated, seduced, or bullied into buying it - as if an author, like an organgrinder's monkey must wait for a crowd to perform for a penny, or prostitute himself to the whims of his customers like a whore on a wharf. Well then, we write not for a public reader but for a private one, one who is inner-oriented, not swayed by the ballyhoo of the masses. This reader is intelligent enough to be a positivistic scientist, but has sense enough not to be one. He is cynical enough not to believe most advertising, but honest enough to recognize the truth when he hears it. He knows that there are more things in the world than Horatio dreamt of, and he is willing and curious to find out about them. He recognizes that man does not live by bread alone, but he would sample the added leaven. He neither distrusts quantitative science, nor does he worship it as a god; he recognizes it as a useful tool, a means to the end of understanding. He is not superstitious, but he does recognize that there are events in the world which science is still in the process of explaining. Above all, he sees meaning and order in the universe, and he seeks to conceptualize events in ways which increase that meaning and order. For such a reader, we write; he is as dear to the author as he is rare. So dear reader, know thyself by these presents.
The basic issue on which this book and all others like it must stand or fall is the alleged regnancy of the percepts. If our senses do in fact put us in touch with an ultimate reality represented by the physical world whose nature they faithfully and constantly report, then all this effort is the merest nonsense; on the other hand, if the percepts one has of any given vivency are subordinate to the state of consciousness one is in, then all is changed. This book, then, constitutes the evidence and argument that things are not "loose and separate" but are somehow related to the mind that cognizes them. Obviously the philosophical consequences of such a view are profound, but we cannot pursue them here. Instead the reader is invited to consider the evidence and make his own decision.
Some readers have complained after looking over the manuscript that the quotations are too long and dull, and things would be more entertaining and expeditious if they were relegated to footnotes or done away with altogether. But dear, intelligent reader, you are not
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here to be titillated (if that is what you want, read Playboy or Viva). You are present at a much more serious occasion; much more like a court-room trial at law than a book. The defendant is positivistic scientific materialism, the charge is fraud and conspiracy, the witnesses (and what a phalanx of experts!) are those very gentlemen whose quotations are in question, the prosecuting attorney is the author, reason is the judge, and you, dear reader, particularly those younger readers into whose hands this may perchance come someday, have already been sworn as the jury. It is a criminal trial for it is the public who is the plaintiff. Will you do your duty faithfully to listen to the evidence, the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, and make your decision thereby?
*****
Footnotes:
1. Altered State of Consciousness.
(Footnotes hereafter will be found at the end of the chapters. For the reader's convenience a short glossary of unusual words is printed on the inside front and back covers, as well as a repeat of the footnote pages above).
*****
FOOTNOTES:
to Chapter I on page 23
to Chapter II on page 172
to Chapter III on page 243
to Chapter IV on page 389
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Chapter One
1.0 INTRODUCTION
A human being is a part of the whole, called by us "Universe"; a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is, in itself, a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security.
-Albert Einstein
1. 1 SYNOPSIS
This book is concerned with a taxonomy of the cognitive representation of numinous experience arranged in a hierarchy. The theme of the book addresses itself to the most important issue which exists for man: how to get in touch with the ground of being (the numinous element) without losing ego-consciousness. The taxonomy therefore goes from a state of complete cognitive chaos (such as schizophrenia) through other types of dissociation and trance (which are regarded as prototaxic modes), to a middle ground of parataxic mode which involves some amelioration of the relationship with the conscious ego through successive stages of archetype, dreams, ritual, myth, and art, finally to the syntaxic mode, in which there is some cognitive control (involving creativity, biofeedback, and meditation) among others. Such an analysis is a continuation of ideas presented in The Development of the Psychedelic Individual. In that volume the explication was given a developmental presentation which is absent from the present book. Instead we have here focused on a more careful examination of the various modes of representation, which may be considered as ascending values of the main parameter.
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Apollonian, Faustian, and Promethean man exemplify a paradigm of relationship between the conscious ego in man and what we shall hereafter refer to as "the numinous element," which is the central thesis of this book. This historical relationship is typified in various styles of the human condition in today's world in an associated paradigm of three modes of cognitive relationship to experience. These modes were discovered independently by Sullivan (1953:xiv) and Van Rhijn (1960), and may be described using the Sullivan terminology as follows: prototaxic (experience occurring before symbols), parataxic (experience using symbols in a private or autistic way), and syntaxic (experience which can be communicated). Sullivan coined the phrase "consensual validation" to characterize the consequent validation of symbolic representation which he pointed out led to healthy development.1
Van Rhijn's theory (1960) is that the subconscious receives a mixed input of stimulus, memory, and libido loadings which is then fed to the higher areas of the cortex. Using Sullivan's terminology, it may percolate through the symbolic level into conscious thought - the most desirable result. If rejected there, it may still find expression through parataxic representation as a presentational sign which includes gesture, body language, myth, ritual, and art. If rejected there, it may still find a lower outlet through prototaxic representation which includes the symptom formation of psychosomatic illness manifestations. Thus the mental health potentiality of full cognition and the mental illness potential of less than full cognition is reinforced. Less than full symbolic cognition of experience results at best in parataxic and presentational images of art and archetype, which is the organism's way of working off the excess energy unused in full cognition, and at worst in neurosis, and psychosomatic externalization of the misspent energy onto the psyche, body, and immediate environment.
Speaking of the Van Rhijn hypothesis, Caldwell (1968:282) says:
The levels of symbolic translation are laid out in a hierarchy of sophistication. At the top . . . is direct verbal symbolization. Below it are presentational symbolizations, which include gesture, myth, ritual, and art. Below this are the more primitive "symptom formations," the term psychoanalysis uses for the psychosomatic and physiological manifestations of neurosis such as headaches, eczema, colitis, and the like.
We have elsewhere (Gowan:1974) presented in detail our thesis concerning the prototaxic, parataxic, and syntaxic modes of experience particularly in relation to the developmental characteristics of the
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numinous element. Those readers not familiar with this explication may wish to consult Development of the Psychedelic Individual for clarification. Here we give the bare outlines of the theory without the supporting evidence for our espousal of it and without any of the developmental aspects.
It appears in three modes, prototaxic, parataxic, and syntaxic, whose delineation composes the content of this volume. Each mode has a number of sub-routines to which we give the name of "procedures." These aspects take place in an altered state of consciousness,2 involving some kind of juncture or union between the individual and the general, and are often accompanied (especially in the prototaxic mode) by some dissociation or hair-raising, uncanny affect involving awe or dread in some instances. In addition, there may be psychic or psychedelic effects or manifestations. Before describing these modes in detail it is desirable to say something about the numinous element.
1.2 THE NUMINOUS ELEMENT
We start by postulating the existence of the numinous element as contrasted with, and anterior to the phenomena of nature. The numinous element has had many names throughout history, often that of some aspect of the Deity; Jung identified it as "the collective unconscious;" we have called it in earlier writings "the collective preconscious" and "The Spirit of Man." We now find the phrase "numinous element" a preferred one, partly because "numinous" describes the quality exactly. While a relatively unknown adjective, it is not tarnished with affective loading. The word "element" testified to the impersonal aspect, which we regard as so important.
It is difficult, if not impossible, to state exactly what the numinous element is.3 The Aztecs called it "Smoking Mirror" which indicates its reflective impersonal aspect.4 It appears to us as fluidic and watery, without form,5 and hence in this sense "void." The Hindus call it "the clear light of the Void." Such a difficulty in characterization is implicit in its name, for it is part of the noumenon. It is hence more easy to adopt the Eastern "neti, neti" posture, and to state what it is not, and mention some ways in which it appears. The numinous element is not personal, not individual, not finite, not mortal, not rational, not human, not limited in power or intelligence, not time or space bound. It is perhaps best regarded as a primal vis or force, like electricity.
We may like to think of the numinous element as a giant computer (which emphasizes its impersonal aspect), having access to all knowledge,
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intelligence, and power, but accessible to each of us under the proper conditions. Such conceptualizations (either Deity or machina) are only partial stereotypes for the noumenon, an entity which by definition cannot be fully cognized.
The phrase "numinous element" was coined by Otto (1928:7), who says: "I adopt a word coined from the Latin numen (to) form a word numinous. While it admits of being discussed, it cannot be strictly defined." He says (1928:6) that it is "a special term to stand for the holy minus its moral factor, . . . and minus its rational aspect altogether." And again (1928:xvii): "Numinous and Numen will then be words which bear no moral import, but which stand for the specific nonrational religious apprehension and its object." To this Otto gives the name, "numinous element" (1928:xvi).
Otto further characterized the numinous element by a Latin phrase mysterium tremendum(literally "an awe-ful mystery"), then in a Germanic thoroughness he cites (1928:13, 20, 23) three characteristics of tremendum; (1) the element of awe-fulness, (2) the element of overpoweringness, and (3) the element of energy or urgency. He also cites two characteristics of mysterium (1928:25,31); (1) the wholly other, and (2) the element of fascination. He says further of it (1928:13):
It may burst in sudden eruption up from the depths of the soul with spasms and convulsions or lead to the strangest excitements, to intoxicated frenzy, to transport and to ecstasy. It has its wild and demonic forms, and can sink to an almost grisly horrors and shuddering. It has its crude barbaric antecedents, and early manifestations, and again it may be developed into something beautiful, pure, and glorious. He continues (1928:14):
Of all modern languages English has the words awe and aweful, which in their deeper and most special sense approximate closely to our meaning. He continues (1928:15):
Its antecedent stage is demonic dread with its queer perversion, a sort of abortive offshoot, the dread of ghosts. It first begins to stay in the feeling of "something uncanny," "eerie" or "weird." And again: (1928:17):
Though the numinous element in its completest development shows a world of difference from the mere demonic dread, yet . . . the peculiar quality of the "uncanny" and the "aweful" (page 5) ... survives with the quality of exaltedness and sublimity, or is symbolized by means of it.
The Bible is full of this respect for the numinous. "The wrath of God," "The fear of the Lord" are both well known phrases frequently found in the Old Testament. Here are some other examples:
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Hebrews:x:31 I will tread them in mine anger and trample them in my fury. Isaiah:53:3
He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. Rev:19:15
It is important that we recognize the overwhelming aspect of the numinous element, whose approach to man can be as awe-ful and dangerous as high voltage electricity. Indeed, as a plenary elemental force, which appears as a daimonic element, it has many aspects of high voltage electricity - such as lightning. One would never think of playing with high voltage electricity without the most careful insulation preparations, and a similar precaution is necessary with the numinous element. All people who have written about it have emphasized this aspect, for one would be foolhardy not to.
This book is concerned with how to get in touch with this ground of being without exposing oneself to these dangers. In the prototaxic mode, the price of admission is simply no less than the excursion of ego-consciousness and the loss of memory of the encounter. In the parataxic mode, the matter is handled through ritual and images. Even the fuller understanding of the syntaxic mode does not allow (in its lower manifestations) complete absence of this negative aspect, as carried on through the osmosis of creativity, the self-reference of orthocognition, and the passivity of meditation.
It goes without saying that any approach by the conscious mind to the numinous element is not without its dangers. Elsewhere (Gowan 1974:134) we have seen the traumatizing effect of the "not-me" on the young child at stage three, and we have detailed the dissociation occasioned by the premature rupture of the conscious overlay, exposing the collective preconscious in our discussion of developmental forcing (Gowan 1974:187). But as Jung (1971:123) points out, the juncture between the conscious ego and the numinous element must be effected with some care so that the latter does not take over. In discussing individuation (which is his word for self-actualization) he has this to say (1971:123):
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The aim of individuation is nothing less than to divest the self of the false wrappings of the persona on the one hand and of the suggestive power of primordial images on the other . . . But when we turn to . . . the influence of the collective unconscious, we find we are moving in a dark interior world that is vastly more difficult to understand than the psychology of the persona, which is accessible to everyone . . . It is another thing to describe . . . those subtle inner processes which invade the conscious mind with such suggestive force. Perhaps we can best portray these influences with the help of examples of mental illness, creative inspiration, and religious conversion.
In a previous passage (1971:118) Jung points out that individuation is not identification with the collective unconscious, for this leads to a naive megalomania "in the form of prophetic inspiration and desire for martyrdom." Considering all this, it is not surprising that the path of the mystic has been called "the razor's edge."
Wherever in the world of man or nature one finds insulation, it is there for a reason. No less necessary is the insulation which separates the conscious mind from the generalized preconscious, for if it were not there, the ego would be overwhelmed and driven to madness by the superordinate and chaotic aspect of the numinous element. For the conscious mind is a finite tool, encased in space and time, and it can make sense of only a small amount of the universe at a given time. This situation again suggests that care should be taken in so important an undertaking and that efforts to contact the numinous element should proceed from pure motives, lofty ideals, and a firm resolution never to bring harm to others or to nature as a result of our actions.
The integrity of the ego is preserved by a rather narrowly defined channel in the volume of perceptual intake. It is this well-defined band that actually sustains the ego. Take it away and we lose consciousness (as in sleep or other altered states); increase it with perceptual overload or percepts which cannot be cognitively assimilated syntaxically and we have the trauma usually induced by a numinous experience. The so-called continuity of the ego is not independent but is the resultant of a carefully balanced perceptual intake.
Troward (1909), among the earliest writers, has the clearest picture of the preconscious mind or "The Spirit of Man," which he terms the "subjective mind." He notes that it has powers far transcending those of the conscious mind, including what we would now call psychedelic. He also declares it to be the builder and protector of the body and states (1909:26), "In other words it is the creative power
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in the individual." He says further (1909:29), regarding hypnosis, it "is the normal state of the subjective mind," mentioning that, "wherever we find creative power at work, we are in its presence" (p. 30). He concludes with this remarkable declaration (1909:31):
The subjective mind in ourselves is the same subjective mind at work in the universe giving rise to the infinitude of natural forms with which we are surrounded, and in like manner giving rise to ourselves also.
Despite the power of the subjective mind, its natural state of suggestibility makes it infinitely suggestible to the will of the conscious mind when properly impressed, Troward tells us, and consequently, it (like a genie) places all its power at the disposal of our conscious mind provided we think of the condition we wish to produce "as already in existence" (p. 34) in the realm of the ideal.
The remarkable advance of Troward's thought is that he places the limitation of suggestibility on an entity formerly regarded as either the Deity or some tutelary manifestation. Consider the following:
Your object is not to run the whole cosmos, but to draw particular benefits, physical, mental, moral, or financial into your own or someone else's life. From this individual point of view, the universal creative power has no mind of its own, and therefore, you can make up its mind for it. When its mind is thus made up for it, it never abrogates its place as the creative power, but at once sets to work to carry out the purpose for which it has thus been concentrated and unless this concentration is dissipated by the same agency (yourself) which first produced it, it will work on by the law of growth to complete manifestation on the outward plane. (Troward 1909:60)
Troward (1909:85) tells us exactly how this is to be done:
1. There is some emotion, which gives rise to 2. A desire;
3. Judgment determines if we shall externalize this desire; if approved,
4. The will directs the imagination to form the necessary spiritual prototype;
5. The imagination thus centered creates the spiritual nucleus;
6. This prototype acts as a center around which the forces of attraction begin to work, and continue until
7. The concrete result is manifested and becomes perceptible.
Troward (1909) identified the numinous element as "subjective mind," having the dual properties of unlimited intelligence and power,
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but without personality, hence subject to the will of each of us when properly related to it. This same entity is the protector and maintainer of man's health and vitality, and hence the source of his creativity and psychedelic experiences. Powerful as it is, it is within conscious control, and the regnancy of man over nature resides in this potential control he may exercise over the genius of his species. Such a concept lifts man to a new level of thought and action, and gives to him godlike qualities and responsibilities.
This concept can be summarized as follows. That the numinous element which we know as the preconscious:
1. is a unity, and a plenum;
2. exists in a state of complete suggestibility;
3. has memory of all matters, past, present, and future, and
4. is able to control, maintain, and safeguard the body and its health, and influences conditions and events.
Regarding this impersonal character of the numinous element, Pearce (1971:46) says:
Attributing characteristics of personality to this function is a projection device which turns the open end into a mirror of ourselves trapping us in our own logical devices.
Singer (1972:83) says:
The collective unconscious may be thought of as an impersonal or transpersonal consciousness because as Jung says: "It is detached from anything personal and is entirely universal .
Singer (1972:84) adds:
The wonder of the collective unconscious is that it is all there, all the legend and history of the human race, with its unexorcised demons and its gentle saints, its mysteries and its wisdom, all within each one of us . . .
One of the difficulties with religious belief has been that man has tended to ascribe deity to any example of infinitude. But this problem can be looked at more scientifically. Mathematically, for example, we know that there is a difference between aleph null (the smallest transfinite number), and aleph one (the number of all real numbers). Both are infinite, but one is infinitely greater than the other. This may be a helpful paradigm to apply to the relation of the collective preconscious, and some possible Ultimate Reality beyond it. We prefer to look at the numinous element from an operational viewpoint in its relations with the individual consciousness, without
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speculating on more philosophical and teleological aspects.
Since mankind never seems to cease trying to personalize the numinous element, and to stereotype it with various aspects of personality, we shall try to avoid such behavior, since we consider it an impersonal force. But if we were to give it a quality of personality, surely one of the priorities would be a sense of the comic. This may seem strange to those who regard the numinosum as the "mysterium tremendum" of Otto, but one cannot look at the world of experience without seeing aspects of this high comedy in action. Keel (1971) feels that the UFO's represent a hostile trojan-horse type of activity. We would read the same data as cosmic buffoonery. The trickster archetype of Jung is a fundamental one. Even the close relationship between humor and creativity is suggestive. The universe of non-ordinary reality may contain many frightening and inscrutable aspects, but it also contains two things with which we are familiar here and now - comedy and music.6
Because we look upon the numinous element as vastly powerful, or consider the preconscious mysterious, or the "not-me" terrifying, or, as a result of our religious upbringing, impute Divine qualities to this entity, we fail to note one of its great limitations and hence needs. It is constrained always to act in accordance with whatever suggestions are made to it, that is as if it were permanently hypnotized. In other words it is truly like a genie of the Aladdin tale, very powerful but completely ready to carry out ours, or anyone else's will. This limitation leads at once into its constant need, a perfected will to direct it. And indeed it is the lack of this will in ourselves and others that often leads to the flighty accident-prone nature of history, which is full of mishaps and casualties because it has not been consciously designed and directed by man.
The concept that the numinous element, (the collective preconscious), needs help from the rational consciousness in perfecting its manifestation in the world of experience, may seem strange to many people, but this view of reality, which makes man a co-creator, may actually be nearer the truth than the superseded idea that he is a reactive creature in a universe already created. For such an explanation contains a plausible hypothesis for the existence of evil as a lack of complete manifestation of the good, brought on not by a captious or wrathful deity but by the omission of psychedelic control and co-creation by man himself.
Because we have been conditioned to think of "God" as "He" and not "it," and as perfected and completed instead of being in the process, we find it difficult to imagine a numinous entity which changes and becomes more complete with our own developmental stages. Yet that
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developmental process in the individual is in one sense the effort of the numinous element to perfect and complete itself, rising to the level of rational will and consciousness through the developing life experience of each one of us. We thus experience in each successive developmental stage of our lives a more completed and developed numinous element and hence are more continually comfortable with it. This comfort increases as we gradually learn how in some measure to control the preconscious. The "not-me" which, through various kinds of dissociated experiences (such as night terrors), frightens the child, is an almost completely chaotic manifestation of experience. The preconscious experienced through alpha biofeedback is more tractable and more in rapport with, and in control of, the external environment.
The function of rational consciousness, and particularly the will which results from self-conscious involvement in the world of nature, is not for just the experiencing of nature, but for its understanding and control. If man does not use his self-consciousness to harness and employ the preconscious he wastes his own opportunity and also deprives the numinous element from rising in this one instance to the self-conscious level. Man is necessary for the evolution of the universe! Indeed, he is inevitable!
1.3 THE THREE ILLUSIONS
As we are concerned with the relationship of consciousness to reality, we advocate three hypotheses as educated guesses. They are:
1. The physical universe is associated with our ordinary state of consciousness (OSC), and does not represent ultimate reality; 2. Ultimate reality is also outside time, as it is outside space;
3. Ultimate reality also transcends our sense of separate personal consciousness.
Space, time, and personal consciousness, hence are the three illusions.
Remarkable and outrageous as these postulates may seem, there is considerable evidence to support their possibility. Let us remember that since we have no knowledge of the physical universe except through the sensorium associated with our normal state of consciousness, the whole physical universe and hence all the laws of physics are subordinate to that state. This, of course, is the position of the phenomenologists. But once this possibility is granted, one gets an entirely different look at the human condition, for it is possible that we are imprisoned in space, time, and personality, "shut from
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heaven with a dome more vast," or as Maxwell Anderson so well put it "Lost in the Stars."
For further understanding of this curious situation, we revive an archaic word "vivency" and define it as: "The apparent reality associated with a certain state of consciousness." In our OSC7 this vivency includes the physical universe. While, compared to ultimate reality, a vivency is an illusion of the associated state of consciousness, it is not a chaotic or illogical dream. It possesses laws, properties, and predictable characteristics, and while it is not a plenum or complete set, in that its laws, etc. are but special cases of higher laws, it does represent certain aspects of reality, and to those immersed in our vivency some of the benefits are cognition, causality, orientation, time sequence, stability, safety, etc.
Furthermore, the word "illusion" is perhaps too strong in expressing the exact relationship, and needs qualification. For each state represents reality according to its associated state of consciousness, being but the externalization of that consciousness, and the laws and properties of that external state are hence one with the laws of that state of consciousness. But as each state of consciousness may have differing properties, so the laws and properties of each external state of nature may vary. The error is to assume that the external physical universe (the natural environment of the OSC) represents "ultimate reality" and that all other apparent external vivencies are illusions. In actuality, the external physical universe is the vivency of the OSC, and its laws are those of the OSC. When we enter an ASC8 we enter some vivency of the NOR,9 of which the laws of our external universe are only special cases. It is more correct to say that in such an instance the laws of our external physical universe are "extended" rather than that they are "suspended." It is very important to insist that the laws and properties of any vivency are one with the laws of the associated state of consciousness, for it at once follows that when any part of the OSC is in operation, to that degree we are in the vivency of ordinary reality and under its laws. This effect is universally seen in "miracles," when whereas a specific and particular natural law may have been set aside (or better "extended" as in firewalking, for example), the other laws and properties of physics of the natural external universe do not dissolve in chaos, but continue to be observed10.
In attempting to assess the importance of these principles upon one's everyday experience, it is useful to discriminate between the theoretical and the practical. A helpful analogy may be drawn in this regard from the effect of Einsteinian relativity on classical
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physics. The effect was profound theoretically, since it opened our concepts to a grander view of the universe than before. Practically, however, the Einsteinian universe was so little different from the Newtonian universe that the most careful experiments had to be designed to measure the differences. We feel that the same considerations apply in this instance. The physical effects of annexing the psychic realm may be relatively minor; but the expansion of purview is profound.
To summarize: briefly the illusion is that consciousness is localized in space, in time, and in personality.11 In reality it extends beyond space, beyond time, and beyond individual personality. For theater to simulate life most effectively requires the classic unities of time, place and ego-action. But no one would claim that the reality of life does not extend beyond these. But as the dramatic unities are helpful in reducing the scale of life to a stage play, they are also useful in reducing the scale of the cosmos to that of our understanding.
1.31 Space: The Physical Universe
Ultimate reality is not represented by the physical world. The physical universe and its percepts are an illusion much like a dream, which seems real in our state of consciousness being a property of that state. The laws of the physical universe are also properties of the normal state, and are but special cases of larger laws which pertain to the metaphysical world. The way of reaching this metaphysical world, that is of liberation from the physical universe and its percepts, is through an altered state of consciousness. In this altered state of consciousness the larger laws are seen to operate.
Much as positivistic science may promulgate the regnancy of the physical world and the immutability of its laws, the facts of the matter are (as have been well understood by the Phenomenologists and Existentialists), that the sensory data of the physical world are subordinate to our normal state of consciousness. Since we do not have perception of the physical universe except through our sensorium, we have no knowledge of the state, if any, in which it exists when unperceived by our senses. We can deal only with the "appearance," the phenomenon. This table appears "hard and durable." Even physics tells us that it is a mighty constellation of electromagnetic vortices moving at incredible speeds. The concept of hardness and durability is a myth of our sensorium; it is not a property of whatever aggregation of electronic force represents a table to us.
Jung ( Works:8:353) makes plain the primacy of psychic experience:
All that I experience is psychic. Even physical pain is a psychic (page 13) image which I experience; my sense impressions - for all that they force upon me a world of impenetrable objects occupying space - are psychic images, and these alone constitute my immediate experience, for they alone are the immediate objects of my consciousness. My own psyche even transforms and falsifies reality, and it does this to such a degree that I must resort to artificial means to determine what things are like apart from myself. Then I discover that a sound is a vibration of air of such and such a frequency, or that a colour is a wave of light of such and such a length. We are in truth so wrapped about by psychic images that we cannot penetrate at all to the essence of things external to ourselves. All our knowledge consists of the stuff of the psyche which, because it alone is immediate, is superlatively real.
In postulating that the physical universe is an illusion we do not mean that it is a chaotic dream without law. A better analogy would be to state that its laws are but special cases of larger laws (as plane trigonometry is of spherical trigonometry, or metric geometry of projective). The universe of events appears "frozen" into time, space, and personal consciousness as a peculiar property of what we call the ordinary state of consciousness (OSC). Within this domain the ordinary laws with which science is familiar hold, but the domain is a subset of a larger plenum, the universe of non-ordinary reality (NOR). It follows that so long as any part of OSC remains, we appear locked into the physical world. This at once indicates that the most efficacious way to enter NOR is to do away with OSC and enter an ASC, such as trance. But even with this happening the OSC does not fall apart but only starts to "melt around the edges." Thus fluidity and flux comprise the miracles of ASC and trance.
Let us try to imagine for a moment how a superordinate reality existing outside the spatial universe would be manifested to those of us in it. While it is extremely difficult to intuit such matters, a few speculations may be useful. In the first place the full aspect of such a plenum could not be expressed by any given set of coordinates (that is by any given place), for this locus would be a mere trace. In a manner similar to the situation in time, it is very possible that the resultant manifestation would be a spatial cyclical property (something for which we have no word in English) in which various loci (places) would possess similar numinous characteristics in much the same manner as the nodes on a long vibrating string.12 These favored locations would become the sites of temples or other forms of invocations of the ASC of NOR ( in other words, holy sites).
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1.32 Time17
The second illusion is that ultimate reality is bounded or comprised in time. Actually ultimate reality is outside space-time. Time, like the universe of physics, is an illusion, much like a dream which seems real to our normal state of consciousness, being a property of that state. The way of reaching outside this continuum, that is of liberation from space-time, is likewise through an altered state of consciousness. In such an altered state one enters the "Eternal" now and leaves space and time behind.
Let us try to imagine for a moment how a superordinate reality existing outside of time would be manifested to those of us in a time-bound universe. While it is extremely difficult to intuit such matters, a few speculations may be useful. In the first place the full aspect of such a plenum could not be expressed by any given value of t, for this event would be a mere trace (as when a line intersects a plane in a point). In the second place, it is very possible that this trace-event would have a cyclical or recurrent property, for the integral (or summation) of such anniversaries or recurrences would constitute the best manifestation of the plenum which could be expected in time.
Such recurrences would appear to us to take a wave form, most probably a sinusoidal or sine-curve form (although the occasional possibility of an exponential form which builds to infinity, vanishes, and then builds again in recurrent cycles should not be discarded). It is interesting that we find these "carrier" sine-curve type waves in many aspects of natural phenomena.
But in addition to this annual festival aspect, of which we shall hear further in the section on myth and ritual, there is another possibility. It is that in those areas accessible both to the superordinate plenum and to the time-bound ego, there might well exist a kind of mythic time, in which "events never were, but were constantly recurring." We find this very property in myth. It is the property which makes Merlin speak of Arthur as the "once and future king."13
In the manner of a partial derivative, let us hold a given action of space constant, and integrate over time. We then have what we call "the durative topocosm," the cosmos of a given location over time, as in the example "the Golden Age of Athens." Because we are clutched into experiencing time as a series of successive instants, it is very difficult for us to intuit the concept of the durative topocosm as extending over time. Perhaps a useful analogy would be that the climate of a given locality is part of the durative topocosm, but we experience the climate serially as a series of undulating weather fronts with alternating highs and lows, which are but waves in a durative medium which we call "climate"16.
(page 15)
We would laugh at an individual who, during a rainstorm would say "the climate is changing; it does nothing but rain." or who would perhaps remark at the onset of evening: "It is growing dark, the sun is extinguished." We know enough to know that day succeeds night just as sunshine does rain. These undulations in the day and in the weather are to be expected and do not affect adversely our lives or the climate. There is similarly psychic weather, and psychic undulations in energy; there are times to be creative and times to rest from creativity. But these, like the weather and day and night, are phases of the wavelike aspect with which we perceive the durative topocosm which is our psychic climate. And as we exist and are greatly affected by the physical climate, we also exist and are greatly affected by the durative topocosm. This is the realm in which our orthocognitive14 visualizations occur. And because they exist here (outside of time), they appear to us as "untensed," that is of having been perfected, of being perfected, and as about to be perfected. When one visualizes one's body as being healthy, it is in the same tense as "the sun shine" - the absolute. "The sun shine" means the sun shone yesterday, shines now (perhaps up above the clouds), and will shine tomorrow. This is the difficulty of expressing concepts in the durative topocosm in our language of tensed verbs.
As T. S. Eliot (1943) tells us in "Burnt Norton":
Human kind
Cannot bear very much reality.
Time past and time future
what might have been and what has been
Point to one end which is time present. While the concept that the numinous element exists outside of time is often portrayed in parataxic form, it is (because of the tensed-verb structure of our language), very difficult to bring it through to syntaxic expression. But we must never forget that the numinous element exists outside time and space, and is in the Eternal Now - a universal present which is the envelope of action as we conceive it, and which embraces what we call past, present, and future. Hence that aspect of it which we are able to perceive, clutched into the time-illusion of our ordinary state, is but a surface or intersection of our time consciousness with an entity which exists in a higher dimension much as a silhouette or shadow of an object crosses our path when we are near the object. The real substance of the numinous element is not projected and hence not perceived; only its trace is available to our senses (although in psychedelic experiences we may have
(page 16)
intimations of the essence). Even when we intuit its unpercepted properties, they appear to our time-clutched minds as having happened before, or bound to happen again, or some other aspect of eternal recurrence.15 Such characteristics, together with the precognitive effect, when met in our experience should alert us to the presence of the numinous element. To the degree that our individual egos effect juncture with it, we may (temporarily) gain these powers, such as profiting from precognitive safeguards, or being able to snatch nascent ideas from the breaking curl of the Zeitgeist wave as they form in the cultural consciousness; others will call this creativity.
It may be that the numinous element exists in four dimensions of hyperspace. The one we cannot intuit, we experience as time, hence in our individual lives it seems to us that time is always growing later, and we cannot intuit reality as existing at other times than the present. But the mnemonic and precognitive aspects of the preconscious make it obvious that it does so exist.
The numinous element from its very nature is plenary. But a plenum is a set which is full, so that as Crovitz (1971:7) points out, the only movement in it must be a kind of circular permutation. (If a room is full of people playing musical chairs, the people will have to move in circular fashion to change chairs.) Since cyclic motion is the only possibility in a plenum, eternal recurrence would appear as a property of the numinous element when expressed in time, one periodic manifestation of which would be the Zeitgeist.
1.33 Ego
The third illusion is that the separate self, the ego, is real. Actually the concept of the ego, of the separate self, is also a dream which seems real to our normal state of consciousness being a property of that state. The way of reaching outside ourselves, that is, of liberation from this divided state is also through an altered state of consciousness wherein all things are seen "to have a non-sensuous unity."
Let us try to imagine for a moment how a superordinate reality existing outside of our individual egos would be manifested to us in this separate ego-bound state. While it is extremely difficult to intuit such matters, a few speculations may be useful. In the first place, the full aspect of such a plenum could not be expressed by the person at any given time, for his conscious understanding at such a time would be only a trace of the totality. In order therefore for integration to occur, it would be necessary for the ego to go through a series of steps or stages of a cyclical nature in which attention was successively focused on the world of experience, the ego itself, and other egos. Actually, this is precisely what we find to be the case, and we have explored this developmental process in detail in our two previous books, Development of the Creative Individualand Development of the Psychedelic Individual.Periodicity in personality might also require the concept of reincarnation.
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1.34 Conclusion
If all this is illusion, it is only fair to ask why we appear to be in such a dream state. While it is not possible to answer this question fully in our present state of partiality, it does seem plausible that:
(1) the partition of the noumenon into separate selves,
(2) immersing it in space and time, and
(3) consigning it to a universe of physical percepts, must in some way be beneficial or conducive to a sense of (1) free will,
(2) developmental progress, and
(3) cognitive or syntaxic representation. These three tasks, accomplished in the course of human life must in turn have some bearing on the main business of the metaphysical universe, which appears to be a full cognition of the All by the All. Psychologists have defined a "lucid" dream as one in which the individual knows that he is dreaming. But the step from dream to waking is simply a step up the stages of consciousness. So we should recognize and define as "lucid livers" those who in our ordinary state of consciousness know that they are also in a dream from which they will sometime awaken to a higher state. Even the knowledge of the possibility that one is dreaming in the ordinary state of consciousness (as compared to a higher state) is very freeing in the ability of the individual to imagine other possibilities and vivencies. This, in turn, if it does nothing else, elevates life from a mere animal grubbing for food and survival, to something more in keeping with the dignity of the human being, animal enough in that he eats and excretes, but also godlike in that his mind soars to the stars.
But in the smoke of battle, it is difficult to see all things clearly. So the reader must be contented if we end this chapter with a series of parables, designed to lift by stages the author's and the reader's purview to higher potentialities without disturbing either to the extent that the new ideas are rejected as "crazy." Mark Twain once said that every new idea goes through three stages: First people say it is impossible, then they say it conflicts with the Bible, and finally they end up believing it.
Imagine a garden hose with an adjustable nozzle, and the water pressure turned on at the spigot. Will water come out of the nozzle? This depends on the adjustment of the nozzle. I think we have a good analogue of the relationship of individual intelligence to the collective energy; it is the nozzle adjustment which results in a drip
(page 18)
or a torrent. Furthermore, although it is not usual, the nozzle adjustment can be changed (karma).
To explain the Buddha's saying that the soul neither exists nor does not exist after death, let us imagine a rabid basketball player named Joe, who thinks that playing basketball is the be-all of existence, and feels alive only when in a game. Joe has a teammate, Charlie, who is playing with him in a game, and who gets out on fouls. Suppose Joe now asks: "Is Charlie still around?" The answer is both yes and no. It is yes if Joe means, does Charlie still exist; it is no if Joe means is Charlie still in the game and able to make points. The fact is that time is like the time of a basketball game, an arbitrary measurement set in the Universal Now. While we are clutched into time, we can score points (make merit). When we get pulled out of the game, we are out of time, but we are still in the Eternal Now of the collective preconscious.
Imagine a rural railroad line which runs through a series of deserted towns and stations. Trains continue to traverse the wilderness route however, leaving and picking up freight and baggage which accumulates at the way stations and is then removed in a random and haphazard fashion. Now imagine that in each town there lives in solitude one rather paranoid hermit who believes he is alone in the world, and regards the station with its piled up wares, which keep appearing and disappearing, as a nightmarish situation which had best be avoided. Let us further imagine, however, that one hermit, braver than the rest and more innovative, explores the station in his town, and begins to realize that instead of being an object of dread and superstition, it is actually a station on a railroad which runs on a schedule, and hence can become both a communication facility to the outer world and a source of goods and services to him. He cleans up and organizes the premises and regularly makes shipments and requests supplies which are delivered in due course.As a resulthe becomes happy, prosperous and sophisticated, in a word, completely in command of his environment. The other hermits having somehow heard about this man's good fortune regard him either as very lucky or very wicked. Actually he has only succeeded in conquering superstition and in making the best of his situation. The parallel here between this story and the creative individual's use of his preconscious mind is very striking. The conscious mind represents the hermit, an ego which does not realize its power to control the environment through the preconscious. The preconscious
(page 19)
is represented by the railroad station, at first a source of anxiety and dread, but later one of abundance. Unlike the separate hermits, the stations are connected by a railroad, and it is this fact in regard to the collective preconscious which is the key point in our metaphor. Because of this connection, goods and services of the whole system are available at any station where the hermit has the courage and sense to order them.
The preconscious in each individual is a manifestation of a "collective preconscious" or "not-me" which is the same essence in different individuals, and therefore forms a common bond or connection between them like blood in different organs of the body. Furthermore this essence is totally responsive to the will of the conscious mind which can learn to control it and create out of it anything necessary, useful, or desirable. We order the goods by telling the preconscious what we want, and by keeping in thought the realization that the order or archetype thought has already been accomplished. We imagine or see the outcome of our unspoken thought. We can do this for ourselves or others with regard to health, environmental events, or any other condition or situation in which we are involved. The power of consciousness is the power to impress our will on the preconscious and fertilize it so that it will produce the situation we have willed.
1.4 THE THREE MODES: PROTOTAXIC, PARATAXIC and SYNTAXIC
In pursuit of our theme that the central business of life is contact of the individual ego with the numinous element, we have introduced the issue, defined the numinous element, and discussed the tripartite illusion that consciousness is bounded by space, time, or personality. As a conclusion, and practical corollary to all this, we find that in our vivency, there appear to be three modes of contact between the individual ego and the numinous element. These have been named (using Sullivan's terminology) as prototaxic, parataxic, and syntaxic. This theme is diagrammed in Figure I. The diagram is divided into three parts:
a) prototaxic experience (characterized by loss of ego); b) parataxic experience (characterized by the production of images whose meaning is not clear or categorical);
c) syntaxic experience (where meaning is more or less fully cognized symbolically, with ego present).
Three popular names for these three modes form the title of this book, namely trance, art, and creativity, respectively. Within these (page 20)
(page 21)
modes there are various methods of contacting the collective preconscious, which we shall refer to as "procedures." These range from schizophrenia at one end, to satori at the other. A systematic discussion of these procedures forms the remaining bulk of the book.
The diagram details the relationship between the cognitive, individual ego and the numinous element as appearing in the generalized collective preconscious. It is arranged in a stepwise hierarchy from "lower" (left) to "upper" (right). (A child would stereotype this hierarchy as from "bad" to "good.") More accurately, as one goes from left to right, one ascends a parameter which appears to have the following characteristics (see table):
table21.html
Inspection of these descriptions reveals that the parameter is really developmental process in the individual and the species, but as that task has been explicated elsewhere (Gowan 1972, 1974), we shall turn here to a detailed explication of the modes and procedures.
Before so doing, it is necessary to note, however, than even this more precise statement does not completely clarify the nuances of the differences between the modes. This will be left for more careful explication in the chapters to follow. While readers may generally agree with the placement of the various procedures into the three broad modes, there will doubtless be some argument about their relative positions. The author grants this placement as arbitrary,
(page 22)
for example, the order as between myth and ritual.
No individual can be in touch with the generalized numinous element without some dissociation from ordinary state of consciousness. Hence the reader should not infer that in the paradigm where the hierarchy is said to go from lack of ego control to ego control that there is a normal state of consciousness with normal ego function in the highest (right hand side) experiences. Certainly this is not the case, for one of the main characteristics of these higher altered states is the change in ego function; in fact the very name "altered state" indicates that this change has taken place. It may very properly be asked then, if ego function is altered in all altered states, from highest to lowest, what is the difference between the higher states and the lower ones. This difference which exists as a taxonomic hierarchy or gradation of different levels of the parameter can be spelled out with the following characteristics:
a) will: in the higher states there is evidence of will; the individual will has been carried out by the numinous element (as in a creative product); in the lower states there is no such evidence, the preconscious seems to spew out whatever material adventitiously comes; will is hence like the hand on the tiller. b) memorability: in the higher states there is generally memory of the experience; in the lower states there most usually is not.
c) ego function: in the lower states the ego seems to disappear (there is excursus); in the higher states the ego is changed but does not seem to vanish in the same way.
d) crudity-refinement: in the lower states the character of the experience appears crude (dissociative ramblings, psychic tricks such as poltergeist phenomenons, half formed words, glossolalia); in the higher levels we get works of art or other creative products; high level ideas, etc.
The process of development in our individual lives and the process of evolutionary development for our species is simply an "immense journey" from the prototaxic through the parataxic and eventually to the syntaxic mode of representation of the numinous element, or the movement from trance, through art to creativity.
One finds an intuitive awareness of the relationship between developmental process and mystical unity in Teilhard de Chardin's writings, especially in The Phenomenon of Man (1960). He avers that all matter has a psychic aspect - that consciousness is universal in all life. Evolution is the ascent of this consciousness, and this ascent of life is a movement veiled by morphism. Evolution presents growth in complexity of forms, not mere proliferation; this, the qualitative law of development, culminates in the development of the brain. He
(page 23)
sees development as discontinuous with stage leaps producing differences in kind. He refers to a planetization of consciousness - a superconscious entity based on the unanimous collection of individuals, and his "omega point" is this conscious union. The cognitive aspect of this is knowledge, but the affective aspect is love,in his terms "amorizing" the universe.
FOOTNOTES
1. (see Bloom 1954, Frank (Kepes 1966:3-5).
Prototaxic trance psychomotor signs Parataxic art affective images Syntaxic creativity cognitive symbols 2. "Consciousness" is regarded as an undefinable "given"; for "altered state of consciousness," (ASC), see Tart 1969.
3. since it is an impersonal, ineffable Absolute.
4. The other Aztec deity, Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent, typifies the ripple born of wind and water: hence "the breath of life" (Radin 1927:61).
5. The occultist will recognize this description of the numinous element as applicable to mercury, as "having no qualities of itself", but "able to assume any form" (Mitchell 1972:147).
6. Satprem (1968:15) quotes Sri Aurobindo as saying: "A God who cannot smile could not have created this humorous universe."
7. OSC = ordinary state of consciousness.
8. ASC = altered state of consciousness.
9. NOR = non-ordinary reality.
10. It is suggestive that in any ASC, there is characteristic distortion of time, space, and ego, the psychedelic drug experience being an excellent example.
11. Satprem (1968:196) puts the same idea thus: "We are shut up in a personal body only through a tenacious visual derangement."
12. This sort of thing is curiously reminiscent of the Watkins ley lines of England (Mitchell, 1973) and other prehistoric straight lines drawn for unknown purposes on the earth's surface.
13. And reminds one of T. S. Eliot's phrase: "My end is my beginning."
14. See Chapter IV, page 320, also glossary.
15. A good example is the Adamic ecstasy of Chapter IV.
16. "Durative topocosm" is defined on page 206.
17. See Ornstein R. On the Experience of Time, Penguin, 1969.
CHAPTER I: PREFACE; INTRODUCTION; SYNOPSIS OF THE BOOK (page vi)
"The final conclusion is that we know very little, and yet it is astonishing that we know so much, and still more astonishing that so little knowledge can give us so much power."
-Walter Grierson
"Miracles do not happen in contradiction to nature, but only in contradiction to that which is known to us of nature."
-St. Augustine
"The "I" who observes the universe is the same "I" who controls it. The concept of separate "I's" is a myth."
-E. Schroedinger
"There is nothing abnormal in the world-there is only the lack of understanding the normal."
-Swami Puri
"Our unconscious existence is the real one, and the conscious world is a kind of illusion, an apparent reality constructed for a specific purpose like a dream which seems a reality as long as we are in it."
-C. Jung
"What we see is not nature, but nature exposed to our method of questioning."
-W. Heisenberg
"One conclusion was forced upon my mind at that time, and my impression of its truth has ever remained unshaken. It is that our normal waking consciousness, rational consciousness as we call it, is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the finest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness quite different. . . . No account of the universe in its totality can be final which leaves these other forms of consciousness quite disregarded. . . ."
-William James
The theme of this book quoted from page 379:
"In the juncture between the individual and the general mind, duality is abolished, and through knowledge more and more complete, the one becomes the other." The abbreviation "PA" in cites refers to Psychological Abstracts; the "DA" to Dissertation Abstracts.
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(page xv)
PREFACE
The preface to a book is a device invented to allow an author to explain why he has made an ass out of himself in public. Most people are like the Roman governor in Acts who in a similar situation said to St. Paul: "Thou are beside thyself; much learning hath made thee mad." Paul, at least could plead the excuse of a theophany or what we would now call a psychedelic experience. The present author, having no such authority, has perhaps only himself to blame. Why would anyone brought up in Boston do such a thing?
There is something very therapeutic in leveling with one's readers and bearing witness to the truth as one sees it. And this is the real reason both for the book and for the candid air of this preface. The author really does not know beyond the shadow of a doubt that the wild-eyed hypotheses on page 10 are true. But time will take care of that; if they are false an already obscure career will have been further dimmed. But if by any chance they are true, or even heuristic, then the advance of behavioral science will have been at least slightly hastened. For they attempt to "explain" an increasingly embarrassing number of "exceptions" to a positivistic behavioral scientific orthodoxy which looks more and more Ptolemaic, - exceptions which many of us feel, like the Ptolemaic epicycles, foreshadow the advent of a wider and better theory.
This book is concerned with a taxonomy of the cognitive representation of experience arranged in a hierarchy from very poor to very good. The theme of the book addresses itself to the most important issue which exists for man: how to get in touch with the Ground of Being without losing ego-consciousness. The taxonomy, therefore, goes from a state of complete cognitive chaos (such as schizophrenia) through other types of dissociation and trance (which are regarded as prototaxic modes), to a middle ground of parataxic mode which involves the successive totemization of the numinous element by the conscious ego through successive stages of archetype, dreams, ritual, myth, and art, finally to the syntaxic mode in which there is some cognitive control (involving creativity, biofeedback, and meditation among others). Such an analysis is a continuation of ideas presented in Development of the Psychedelic Individual. In that volume the explication was given a developmental presentation, which is absent
(page xvi)
from the present book. Instead we have here focused on a more careful examination of the various modes of representation, which may be considered as ascending values of the main parameter.
If this seems like a freeway to Nirvana in place of the tortuous path trod by countless saints and gurus of the past ages, one can only reply that conditions have changed. It now seems more important to smooth the pathway so that multitudes of average people may start the pilgrimage, rather than to restrict it to a few daring souls. The fact that under these comfortable circumstances a smaller percentage is likely to scale heaven's pinnacles in a single lifetime seems less important than the effect on world peace and prosperity by reason of the orthocognitive lives of multitudes.
Knowing that this book endorses meditation and regards mystic experience as a goal of human development, the critical reader may ask what is new about this; religious leaders have advocated such objectives for a long time. What is new is (1) that psychological analysis is for the first time able to bring this area under some general organization so that "the average sensual man" is now offered the possibility of looking at a vista or possessing a map of a territory hitherto unknown except to saints and mystics; and (2) it now appears possible for "the average sensual man," without making a profession of sectarian belief, to make creative and meditative progress towards this goal.
What this has accomplished is, in effect, to give scholars and intellectuals binoculars to look upon reality from a distance which has hitherto prevented them from understanding its nature; or to put it another way, it has now become possible for a creative person to understand cognitively psychedelic events which previously defied rational understanding and were experienced only affectively. The saint renounced the world, became good, then wise; the psychologist still in the world, now can become wise, and hopefully good.
This book deals with some exceedingly abstruse concepts (such as those which require the use of untensed verbs for full elucidation). Because of our cultural bias, these ideas are new and difficult to understand; because of the author's recent acquaintance with them, he is often labored and difficult in his efforts to explain them. The consequence is that this is not an easy book, and any reader will find that much is demanded of him, and that it may be necessary to reread a paragraph. In some cases the author has attempted to tie down an ephemeral concept by an analogy or example. The reader should be warned that analogies are not exact, and that examples often are contaminated with the natural anthropomorphic bias of our species. We have been authoritatively cautioned about new wine
(page xvii)
in old bottles, and the Charley Brown in all of us finds it hard "to understand the new math with an old math mind."
Some readers may object that this book makes demands of them in the vocabulary of psychology, mathematics, physics, medicine, and other sciences. But it is not surprising that an explanation of ultimate reality requires more mental effort than watching a football game on TV. The price of cognition of the numinous element in the syntaxic mode is some study; but surely for a reader of your intelligence that is preferable to the paroxysms of the prototaxic or the pictorials of the parataxic.
While the reader may regret the frequency of the use of mathematical analogy in these pages, he really cannot expect an undemanding book about the most complex aspects of nature. We may expect that nature is very orderly but very complex. Surely we cannot ask that it adjusts itself to the superficialities of our little minds. Would we be content with a Creator no brighter than ourselves? As Piaget correctly observed, the most logical paradigms assume finally a mathematical form.
We do not pretend that this formulation is a complete survey of all possibilities nor do we insist that the relationship noticed here between prototaxic modes, parataxic modes, and syntaxic modes are fully comprehended. Indeed, it is obvious that they are oversimplified, for we have often caught glimpses of more complex relationships between these elements which because they were in parataxic or presentational form, we have not been able to express cognitively.
Some readers have questioned as to whether there should be any pejorative disvaluing of the prototaxic stage. We point out that this disvaluing, if any, is not that the stage is evil, but that it is a lower manifestation of the real. The universe of physical reality is somehow connected to the normal state of consciousness, perhaps being an effect of that state. When the cognitive ego is excursed from the normal state into an ASC1 (as it most completely is in prototaxic manifestations such as trance), we therefore get the clearest departures from the normal laws of physics (as in fire-walking) and the clearest examples of their supersedence by the laws of metaphysics. The spectacular effects of the prototaxic trance do not elevate it to the level of syntaxic meditation and satori, whose effects would be even more admirable were we as completely able to achieve them.
Some readers may object to the occasional use of value-laden criteria such as goodness-badness. The author confesses he was once bothered by this usage, feeling like most liberals that public display of values was only to be compared to public display of genitalia. In his case, however, discovery of the Osgood Semantic Differential (Osgood: 1957) was a great remover of guilt. Briefly, Osgood found that of all the
(page xviii)
adjectives used to describe things, events, and persons, three grand clusters were evident: (1) those relating to value (badness-goodness), (2) those relating to potency (weakness-strength), and (3) those relating to activity (activity-passivity).
Dear reader, count the adjectives on the front page of your favorite newspaper, listen if you can to a half-hour of television, or eavesdrop on the conversation of a group in the powder or locker room talking of the opposite sex, and you, too, can be cured of your intellectual horror of displayed values. For as Osgood showed, it is an existential fact that such values exist embedded in our language itself. Indeed, if these heroic measures are not enough, ask yourself the thoughtful question: "What is the order of adjectives modifying a noun in English?" and you will again come out with the Semantic Differential.
Since writing the previous book, Development of the Psychedelic Individual, the author has been given unsolicited advice by numerous well-meaning individuals of various persuasions of religious belief to the effect that his purview and constructs are lamentably narrow and short of the mark. It is very possible that these missionaries are right. We have no quarrel with those who posit grander theories; chacun a son gout. But let the reader remember that this author is writing from the point of view of a behavioral scientist, (not a religionist), who is trying to make sense out of the universe of experience with the minimal hypothesis necessary to do so.
The author wishes particularly to disavow any pretensions that the chapters on such subjects as dissociation, trance, hypnotism, dreams, myths, and art are complete or even comprehensive reviews of those fields. The author is naive in these areas, and is well aware that experts will easily be able to adduce better, later, and more complete examples than the ones cited. What he has attempted is to place this material - incomplete as it must be - into a logical framework of meaning with respect to the numinous element and its relationship to the individual consciousness, so that more complete analyses can later be carried out by those more familiar with the particular field. The value of the book, if any, rests upon the power of the general gestalt concept, not the weaknesses and lacunae in any particular example cited.
A necessary condition in establishing the validity of alleged phenomena is first to establish their reliability. Thus it is that when the same phenomena continue to be reported by different observers, with different biases, in different cultures, and under different situations, that we are bound, having established the first criterion for validity, to attend to them with increasing care.
Before proceeding further with the concept of reliability and measurement,
(page xix)
let us make a brief comment that statistical method is our tool and not our master. Quantification is a desirable goal, but it is not the only one. Consider the wise works of Daniel Yankelovich:
The first step is to measure whatever can be easily measured. This is okay as far as it goes.
The second step is to disregard that which can't be measured or give it any arbitrary quantitative value. This is artificial and misleading.
The third step is to presume that what can't be measured easily isn't very important. This is blindness.
The fourth step is to say that what can't be easily measured really doesn't exist. This is suicide.
One charge that is held out against the validity of all kinds of paranormal phenomena including creativity is that the effects are not replicable on demand. While replicability is certainly a sufficient condition for the reliability and later the validity of an alleged effect, it is by no means a necessary one. Few would care to challenge the validity of the process of human reproduction on the grounds that when a man has sexual intercourse with a woman only in a minority of instances does she thereby become pregnant.
In place of replicability one might propose:
1. Does investigation of the moot phenomena lead to useful application which cannot otherwise be easily explained? (e.g. industrial use of brainstorming) 2. If the phenomena are not replicable on demand, are they widely reported in different times and cultures?
(e.g. mystic experiences)
3. Does the theory which accounts for the phenomena possess elegance, higher meaning, or increased understanding of nature?
(e.g. synchrotron light)
4. Is the matter heuristic, that is, does it lead to further expansion and understanding of the primordial nature of things?
(e.g. collective preconscious)
Perhaps a more serious charge to be brought against the author is that he has played fast and loose with other writer's constructs and has done some violence to them in expanding them to fit his own views. Examples might include the prototaxic, parataxic, and syntaxic modes of Sullivan, the collective unconscious of Jung, the concept of dysplasia of Sheldon, the use of jhana numbers for the lower procedures of the syntaxic level to name only a few. To this the best reply that can be made is that if there is truly negative transfer in the enlargement of these concepts, then they will not prove heuristic or useful and will quickly be forgotten; on the other hand if there is positive transfer - if the two constructs reinforce
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each other (as perhaps the junction of the Erikson affective and the Piagetian cognitive stages or the combining of the Sullivan-Van Rhijn theories may serve to illustrate), then true scientific progress has been made by the enlargement of an initial concept to explain more of nature.
The same argument and rebuttal applies to the use of mathematical and verbal analogy in many instances in the book. All analogies run the danger of doing violence to the intricacies of a new subject, but have the potential to make it more meaningful by co-opting it onto some existing knowledge. Again, only time can tell whether a particular analogy serves a useful function or not.
In physical science one frequently finds a law (such as F = ma) which can best be understood by means of a table of F for various values of m and a. In the developing behavioral sciences, things are not initially as clear; what we often find (as will be displayed on these pages) is an independent variable connected to a parameter and constant(s), where the law is obscure; but one can display the relationship in a taxonomic table of a hierarchy of change in the parameter, which results in a hierarchy of change in the independent variable. It is probable in these cases that the so- called parameter is in reality a continuous variable, and that the discrete values which it seems to assume are due to the (constant and not variable) property of modifying adjectives, in other words, due to the structure of language itself. We have emphasized the construction of such tables or taxonomies in this book for the purpose of substituting for the earlier and less useful all-or-none concept, the more useful construct of one continuous variable or parameter influencing another. Thus we go from ideographic description which often involves epithets to a nomothetic relationship which appears much like a physical law, and which can be replicated and validated.
Some positivistic readers may find it difficult to believe that the physical universe requires the adjunction of the psychic universe fully to explain it. Let such persons recall that an exactly similar situation prevails in mathematics, where the palpable domain of real numbers is best understood by the adjunction of the much less easily intuitable domain of complex-imaginary numbers. We may never be able to intuit imaginary numbers completely, but to those who understand it, the equation epii = -1 is both logically satisfying and aesthetically complete.
Even physics if deeply pursued reveals the fact that ultimate particles are of a different order of reality in time and space than the "solid" chair or table which make up the universe of "tangible" objects. For one thing, they are not "categorical" in the same sense
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(e.g.the complementarity principle that photons are both particles and waves). In addition they possess queer interactions (e.g. that electrons have position or momentum but not both at once). Finally they interact in space-time in a different way than macroscopic objects.
The cognitive mistake made by positivistic science is to regard the physical world as a "given," in other words, to mistake the phenomenon for the noumenon. For all phenomena are junior to the state of consciousness in which they are experienced. Consequently, instead of proceeding into a cul-de-sac by asking "Is this or that event real?" we need to ask the anterior question "In what state of consciousness are they experienced?"
In the former writings we have used "the collective preconscious" and "The Spirit of Man" to designate the "numinous element." We now feel that the latter term is better and more accurate. The numinous element is often first perceived through the collective preconscious but we seem now less sure than earlier that they are the same. While we once liked "The Spirit of Man," we have become aware that this is too anthropomorphic an appellation, and that the numinous element extends to and throughout all nature, and not just man; besides to some the word "spirit" connotes a person or a personality. We are more sure that the numinous element functions as an impersonal force. We therefore like this term because it has less loading on the word numinous (few people know what it means) and the loading on the word element is negligible, since we think of it as an object or thing.
Many people, both orthodoxly and occultly religious, may be offended that the concept is impersonal. Again, it is useful to point out that this is a hypothesis and not an article of religious belief. Saying that the numinous element acts as if it were impersonal is like saying that electricity acts as if little electron balls were running along electric wires at very high speeds: both are useful constructs (not to understand the nature or essences of either electricity or the ground of being) but to help us at the present time make intelligent use of their presently discovered properties. The author has no quarrel with those who wish to erect a Pantheon on such a scientific superstructure. But we must distinguish between a minimal acceptable hypothesis to explain natural (and paranormal) phenomena, and a religious philosophy.
It might be thought that an analysis of the prototaxic, parataxic, and syntaxic modes of contact with the numinous element would exhaust all the possibilities of such intercourse but the facts are otherwise. There appears to be a class of unusual instances where persons in the ordinary state of consciousness are jerked into an
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ASC merely through contact with an adept who possesses the power to effect this startling change. We have called such instances "psychic contagion." Examples given in this book include those in section 2.48. But the issue is important enough for further research.
Prospective publishers are always asking what public the author writes for, as if they could only be placated by finding that there was some large, dull, unwashed group which could be titillated, seduced, or bullied into buying it - as if an author, like an organgrinder's monkey must wait for a crowd to perform for a penny, or prostitute himself to the whims of his customers like a whore on a wharf. Well then, we write not for a public reader but for a private one, one who is inner-oriented, not swayed by the ballyhoo of the masses. This reader is intelligent enough to be a positivistic scientist, but has sense enough not to be one. He is cynical enough not to believe most advertising, but honest enough to recognize the truth when he hears it. He knows that there are more things in the world than Horatio dreamt of, and he is willing and curious to find out about them. He recognizes that man does not live by bread alone, but he would sample the added leaven. He neither distrusts quantitative science, nor does he worship it as a god; he recognizes it as a useful tool, a means to the end of understanding. He is not superstitious, but he does recognize that there are events in the world which science is still in the process of explaining. Above all, he sees meaning and order in the universe, and he seeks to conceptualize events in ways which increase that meaning and order. For such a reader, we write; he is as dear to the author as he is rare. So dear reader, know thyself by these presents.
The basic issue on which this book and all others like it must stand or fall is the alleged regnancy of the percepts. If our senses do in fact put us in touch with an ultimate reality represented by the physical world whose nature they faithfully and constantly report, then all this effort is the merest nonsense; on the other hand, if the percepts one has of any given vivency are subordinate to the state of consciousness one is in, then all is changed. This book, then, constitutes the evidence and argument that things are not "loose and separate" but are somehow related to the mind that cognizes them. Obviously the philosophical consequences of such a view are profound, but we cannot pursue them here. Instead the reader is invited to consider the evidence and make his own decision.
Some readers have complained after looking over the manuscript that the quotations are too long and dull, and things would be more entertaining and expeditious if they were relegated to footnotes or done away with altogether. But dear, intelligent reader, you are not
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here to be titillated (if that is what you want, read Playboy or Viva). You are present at a much more serious occasion; much more like a court-room trial at law than a book. The defendant is positivistic scientific materialism, the charge is fraud and conspiracy, the witnesses (and what a phalanx of experts!) are those very gentlemen whose quotations are in question, the prosecuting attorney is the author, reason is the judge, and you, dear reader, particularly those younger readers into whose hands this may perchance come someday, have already been sworn as the jury. It is a criminal trial for it is the public who is the plaintiff. Will you do your duty faithfully to listen to the evidence, the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, and make your decision thereby?
*****
Footnotes:
1. Altered State of Consciousness.
(Footnotes hereafter will be found at the end of the chapters. For the reader's convenience a short glossary of unusual words is printed on the inside front and back covers, as well as a repeat of the footnote pages above).
*****
FOOTNOTES:
to Chapter I on page 23
to Chapter II on page 172
to Chapter III on page 243
to Chapter IV on page 389
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Chapter One
1.0 INTRODUCTION
A human being is a part of the whole, called by us "Universe"; a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is, in itself, a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security.
-Albert Einstein
1. 1 SYNOPSIS
This book is concerned with a taxonomy of the cognitive representation of numinous experience arranged in a hierarchy. The theme of the book addresses itself to the most important issue which exists for man: how to get in touch with the ground of being (the numinous element) without losing ego-consciousness. The taxonomy therefore goes from a state of complete cognitive chaos (such as schizophrenia) through other types of dissociation and trance (which are regarded as prototaxic modes), to a middle ground of parataxic mode which involves some amelioration of the relationship with the conscious ego through successive stages of archetype, dreams, ritual, myth, and art, finally to the syntaxic mode, in which there is some cognitive control (involving creativity, biofeedback, and meditation) among others. Such an analysis is a continuation of ideas presented in The Development of the Psychedelic Individual. In that volume the explication was given a developmental presentation which is absent from the present book. Instead we have here focused on a more careful examination of the various modes of representation, which may be considered as ascending values of the main parameter.
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Apollonian, Faustian, and Promethean man exemplify a paradigm of relationship between the conscious ego in man and what we shall hereafter refer to as "the numinous element," which is the central thesis of this book. This historical relationship is typified in various styles of the human condition in today's world in an associated paradigm of three modes of cognitive relationship to experience. These modes were discovered independently by Sullivan (1953:xiv) and Van Rhijn (1960), and may be described using the Sullivan terminology as follows: prototaxic (experience occurring before symbols), parataxic (experience using symbols in a private or autistic way), and syntaxic (experience which can be communicated). Sullivan coined the phrase "consensual validation" to characterize the consequent validation of symbolic representation which he pointed out led to healthy development.1
Van Rhijn's theory (1960) is that the subconscious receives a mixed input of stimulus, memory, and libido loadings which is then fed to the higher areas of the cortex. Using Sullivan's terminology, it may percolate through the symbolic level into conscious thought - the most desirable result. If rejected there, it may still find expression through parataxic representation as a presentational sign which includes gesture, body language, myth, ritual, and art. If rejected there, it may still find a lower outlet through prototaxic representation which includes the symptom formation of psychosomatic illness manifestations. Thus the mental health potentiality of full cognition and the mental illness potential of less than full cognition is reinforced. Less than full symbolic cognition of experience results at best in parataxic and presentational images of art and archetype, which is the organism's way of working off the excess energy unused in full cognition, and at worst in neurosis, and psychosomatic externalization of the misspent energy onto the psyche, body, and immediate environment.
Speaking of the Van Rhijn hypothesis, Caldwell (1968:282) says:
The levels of symbolic translation are laid out in a hierarchy of sophistication. At the top . . . is direct verbal symbolization. Below it are presentational symbolizations, which include gesture, myth, ritual, and art. Below this are the more primitive "symptom formations," the term psychoanalysis uses for the psychosomatic and physiological manifestations of neurosis such as headaches, eczema, colitis, and the like.
We have elsewhere (Gowan:1974) presented in detail our thesis concerning the prototaxic, parataxic, and syntaxic modes of experience particularly in relation to the developmental characteristics of the
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numinous element. Those readers not familiar with this explication may wish to consult Development of the Psychedelic Individual for clarification. Here we give the bare outlines of the theory without the supporting evidence for our espousal of it and without any of the developmental aspects.
It appears in three modes, prototaxic, parataxic, and syntaxic, whose delineation composes the content of this volume. Each mode has a number of sub-routines to which we give the name of "procedures." These aspects take place in an altered state of consciousness,2 involving some kind of juncture or union between the individual and the general, and are often accompanied (especially in the prototaxic mode) by some dissociation or hair-raising, uncanny affect involving awe or dread in some instances. In addition, there may be psychic or psychedelic effects or manifestations. Before describing these modes in detail it is desirable to say something about the numinous element.
1.2 THE NUMINOUS ELEMENT
We start by postulating the existence of the numinous element as contrasted with, and anterior to the phenomena of nature. The numinous element has had many names throughout history, often that of some aspect of the Deity; Jung identified it as "the collective unconscious;" we have called it in earlier writings "the collective preconscious" and "The Spirit of Man." We now find the phrase "numinous element" a preferred one, partly because "numinous" describes the quality exactly. While a relatively unknown adjective, it is not tarnished with affective loading. The word "element" testified to the impersonal aspect, which we regard as so important.
It is difficult, if not impossible, to state exactly what the numinous element is.3 The Aztecs called it "Smoking Mirror" which indicates its reflective impersonal aspect.4 It appears to us as fluidic and watery, without form,5 and hence in this sense "void." The Hindus call it "the clear light of the Void." Such a difficulty in characterization is implicit in its name, for it is part of the noumenon. It is hence more easy to adopt the Eastern "neti, neti" posture, and to state what it is not, and mention some ways in which it appears. The numinous element is not personal, not individual, not finite, not mortal, not rational, not human, not limited in power or intelligence, not time or space bound. It is perhaps best regarded as a primal vis or force, like electricity.
We may like to think of the numinous element as a giant computer (which emphasizes its impersonal aspect), having access to all knowledge,
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intelligence, and power, but accessible to each of us under the proper conditions. Such conceptualizations (either Deity or machina) are only partial stereotypes for the noumenon, an entity which by definition cannot be fully cognized.
The phrase "numinous element" was coined by Otto (1928:7), who says: "I adopt a word coined from the Latin numen (to) form a word numinous. While it admits of being discussed, it cannot be strictly defined." He says (1928:6) that it is "a special term to stand for the holy minus its moral factor, . . . and minus its rational aspect altogether." And again (1928:xvii): "Numinous and Numen will then be words which bear no moral import, but which stand for the specific nonrational religious apprehension and its object." To this Otto gives the name, "numinous element" (1928:xvi).
Otto further characterized the numinous element by a Latin phrase mysterium tremendum(literally "an awe-ful mystery"), then in a Germanic thoroughness he cites (1928:13, 20, 23) three characteristics of tremendum; (1) the element of awe-fulness, (2) the element of overpoweringness, and (3) the element of energy or urgency. He also cites two characteristics of mysterium (1928:25,31); (1) the wholly other, and (2) the element of fascination. He says further of it (1928:13):
It may burst in sudden eruption up from the depths of the soul with spasms and convulsions or lead to the strangest excitements, to intoxicated frenzy, to transport and to ecstasy. It has its wild and demonic forms, and can sink to an almost grisly horrors and shuddering. It has its crude barbaric antecedents, and early manifestations, and again it may be developed into something beautiful, pure, and glorious. He continues (1928:14):
Of all modern languages English has the words awe and aweful, which in their deeper and most special sense approximate closely to our meaning. He continues (1928:15):
Its antecedent stage is demonic dread with its queer perversion, a sort of abortive offshoot, the dread of ghosts. It first begins to stay in the feeling of "something uncanny," "eerie" or "weird." And again: (1928:17):
Though the numinous element in its completest development shows a world of difference from the mere demonic dread, yet . . . the peculiar quality of the "uncanny" and the "aweful" (page 5) ... survives with the quality of exaltedness and sublimity, or is symbolized by means of it.
The Bible is full of this respect for the numinous. "The wrath of God," "The fear of the Lord" are both well known phrases frequently found in the Old Testament. Here are some other examples:
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Hebrews:x:31 I will tread them in mine anger and trample them in my fury. Isaiah:53:3
He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. Rev:19:15
It is important that we recognize the overwhelming aspect of the numinous element, whose approach to man can be as awe-ful and dangerous as high voltage electricity. Indeed, as a plenary elemental force, which appears as a daimonic element, it has many aspects of high voltage electricity - such as lightning. One would never think of playing with high voltage electricity without the most careful insulation preparations, and a similar precaution is necessary with the numinous element. All people who have written about it have emphasized this aspect, for one would be foolhardy not to.
This book is concerned with how to get in touch with this ground of being without exposing oneself to these dangers. In the prototaxic mode, the price of admission is simply no less than the excursion of ego-consciousness and the loss of memory of the encounter. In the parataxic mode, the matter is handled through ritual and images. Even the fuller understanding of the syntaxic mode does not allow (in its lower manifestations) complete absence of this negative aspect, as carried on through the osmosis of creativity, the self-reference of orthocognition, and the passivity of meditation.
It goes without saying that any approach by the conscious mind to the numinous element is not without its dangers. Elsewhere (Gowan 1974:134) we have seen the traumatizing effect of the "not-me" on the young child at stage three, and we have detailed the dissociation occasioned by the premature rupture of the conscious overlay, exposing the collective preconscious in our discussion of developmental forcing (Gowan 1974:187). But as Jung (1971:123) points out, the juncture between the conscious ego and the numinous element must be effected with some care so that the latter does not take over. In discussing individuation (which is his word for self-actualization) he has this to say (1971:123):
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The aim of individuation is nothing less than to divest the self of the false wrappings of the persona on the one hand and of the suggestive power of primordial images on the other . . . But when we turn to . . . the influence of the collective unconscious, we find we are moving in a dark interior world that is vastly more difficult to understand than the psychology of the persona, which is accessible to everyone . . . It is another thing to describe . . . those subtle inner processes which invade the conscious mind with such suggestive force. Perhaps we can best portray these influences with the help of examples of mental illness, creative inspiration, and religious conversion.
In a previous passage (1971:118) Jung points out that individuation is not identification with the collective unconscious, for this leads to a naive megalomania "in the form of prophetic inspiration and desire for martyrdom." Considering all this, it is not surprising that the path of the mystic has been called "the razor's edge."
Wherever in the world of man or nature one finds insulation, it is there for a reason. No less necessary is the insulation which separates the conscious mind from the generalized preconscious, for if it were not there, the ego would be overwhelmed and driven to madness by the superordinate and chaotic aspect of the numinous element. For the conscious mind is a finite tool, encased in space and time, and it can make sense of only a small amount of the universe at a given time. This situation again suggests that care should be taken in so important an undertaking and that efforts to contact the numinous element should proceed from pure motives, lofty ideals, and a firm resolution never to bring harm to others or to nature as a result of our actions.
The integrity of the ego is preserved by a rather narrowly defined channel in the volume of perceptual intake. It is this well-defined band that actually sustains the ego. Take it away and we lose consciousness (as in sleep or other altered states); increase it with perceptual overload or percepts which cannot be cognitively assimilated syntaxically and we have the trauma usually induced by a numinous experience. The so-called continuity of the ego is not independent but is the resultant of a carefully balanced perceptual intake.
Troward (1909), among the earliest writers, has the clearest picture of the preconscious mind or "The Spirit of Man," which he terms the "subjective mind." He notes that it has powers far transcending those of the conscious mind, including what we would now call psychedelic. He also declares it to be the builder and protector of the body and states (1909:26), "In other words it is the creative power
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in the individual." He says further (1909:29), regarding hypnosis, it "is the normal state of the subjective mind," mentioning that, "wherever we find creative power at work, we are in its presence" (p. 30). He concludes with this remarkable declaration (1909:31):
The subjective mind in ourselves is the same subjective mind at work in the universe giving rise to the infinitude of natural forms with which we are surrounded, and in like manner giving rise to ourselves also.
Despite the power of the subjective mind, its natural state of suggestibility makes it infinitely suggestible to the will of the conscious mind when properly impressed, Troward tells us, and consequently, it (like a genie) places all its power at the disposal of our conscious mind provided we think of the condition we wish to produce "as already in existence" (p. 34) in the realm of the ideal.
The remarkable advance of Troward's thought is that he places the limitation of suggestibility on an entity formerly regarded as either the Deity or some tutelary manifestation. Consider the following:
Your object is not to run the whole cosmos, but to draw particular benefits, physical, mental, moral, or financial into your own or someone else's life. From this individual point of view, the universal creative power has no mind of its own, and therefore, you can make up its mind for it. When its mind is thus made up for it, it never abrogates its place as the creative power, but at once sets to work to carry out the purpose for which it has thus been concentrated and unless this concentration is dissipated by the same agency (yourself) which first produced it, it will work on by the law of growth to complete manifestation on the outward plane. (Troward 1909:60)
Troward (1909:85) tells us exactly how this is to be done:
1. There is some emotion, which gives rise to 2. A desire;
3. Judgment determines if we shall externalize this desire; if approved,
4. The will directs the imagination to form the necessary spiritual prototype;
5. The imagination thus centered creates the spiritual nucleus;
6. This prototype acts as a center around which the forces of attraction begin to work, and continue until
7. The concrete result is manifested and becomes perceptible.
Troward (1909) identified the numinous element as "subjective mind," having the dual properties of unlimited intelligence and power,
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but without personality, hence subject to the will of each of us when properly related to it. This same entity is the protector and maintainer of man's health and vitality, and hence the source of his creativity and psychedelic experiences. Powerful as it is, it is within conscious control, and the regnancy of man over nature resides in this potential control he may exercise over the genius of his species. Such a concept lifts man to a new level of thought and action, and gives to him godlike qualities and responsibilities.
This concept can be summarized as follows. That the numinous element which we know as the preconscious:
1. is a unity, and a plenum;
2. exists in a state of complete suggestibility;
3. has memory of all matters, past, present, and future, and
4. is able to control, maintain, and safeguard the body and its health, and influences conditions and events.
Regarding this impersonal character of the numinous element, Pearce (1971:46) says:
Attributing characteristics of personality to this function is a projection device which turns the open end into a mirror of ourselves trapping us in our own logical devices.
Singer (1972:83) says:
The collective unconscious may be thought of as an impersonal or transpersonal consciousness because as Jung says: "It is detached from anything personal and is entirely universal .
Singer (1972:84) adds:
The wonder of the collective unconscious is that it is all there, all the legend and history of the human race, with its unexorcised demons and its gentle saints, its mysteries and its wisdom, all within each one of us . . .
One of the difficulties with religious belief has been that man has tended to ascribe deity to any example of infinitude. But this problem can be looked at more scientifically. Mathematically, for example, we know that there is a difference between aleph null (the smallest transfinite number), and aleph one (the number of all real numbers). Both are infinite, but one is infinitely greater than the other. This may be a helpful paradigm to apply to the relation of the collective preconscious, and some possible Ultimate Reality beyond it. We prefer to look at the numinous element from an operational viewpoint in its relations with the individual consciousness, without
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speculating on more philosophical and teleological aspects.
Since mankind never seems to cease trying to personalize the numinous element, and to stereotype it with various aspects of personality, we shall try to avoid such behavior, since we consider it an impersonal force. But if we were to give it a quality of personality, surely one of the priorities would be a sense of the comic. This may seem strange to those who regard the numinosum as the "mysterium tremendum" of Otto, but one cannot look at the world of experience without seeing aspects of this high comedy in action. Keel (1971) feels that the UFO's represent a hostile trojan-horse type of activity. We would read the same data as cosmic buffoonery. The trickster archetype of Jung is a fundamental one. Even the close relationship between humor and creativity is suggestive. The universe of non-ordinary reality may contain many frightening and inscrutable aspects, but it also contains two things with which we are familiar here and now - comedy and music.6
Because we look upon the numinous element as vastly powerful, or consider the preconscious mysterious, or the "not-me" terrifying, or, as a result of our religious upbringing, impute Divine qualities to this entity, we fail to note one of its great limitations and hence needs. It is constrained always to act in accordance with whatever suggestions are made to it, that is as if it were permanently hypnotized. In other words it is truly like a genie of the Aladdin tale, very powerful but completely ready to carry out ours, or anyone else's will. This limitation leads at once into its constant need, a perfected will to direct it. And indeed it is the lack of this will in ourselves and others that often leads to the flighty accident-prone nature of history, which is full of mishaps and casualties because it has not been consciously designed and directed by man.
The concept that the numinous element, (the collective preconscious), needs help from the rational consciousness in perfecting its manifestation in the world of experience, may seem strange to many people, but this view of reality, which makes man a co-creator, may actually be nearer the truth than the superseded idea that he is a reactive creature in a universe already created. For such an explanation contains a plausible hypothesis for the existence of evil as a lack of complete manifestation of the good, brought on not by a captious or wrathful deity but by the omission of psychedelic control and co-creation by man himself.
Because we have been conditioned to think of "God" as "He" and not "it," and as perfected and completed instead of being in the process, we find it difficult to imagine a numinous entity which changes and becomes more complete with our own developmental stages. Yet that
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developmental process in the individual is in one sense the effort of the numinous element to perfect and complete itself, rising to the level of rational will and consciousness through the developing life experience of each one of us. We thus experience in each successive developmental stage of our lives a more completed and developed numinous element and hence are more continually comfortable with it. This comfort increases as we gradually learn how in some measure to control the preconscious. The "not-me" which, through various kinds of dissociated experiences (such as night terrors), frightens the child, is an almost completely chaotic manifestation of experience. The preconscious experienced through alpha biofeedback is more tractable and more in rapport with, and in control of, the external environment.
The function of rational consciousness, and particularly the will which results from self-conscious involvement in the world of nature, is not for just the experiencing of nature, but for its understanding and control. If man does not use his self-consciousness to harness and employ the preconscious he wastes his own opportunity and also deprives the numinous element from rising in this one instance to the self-conscious level. Man is necessary for the evolution of the universe! Indeed, he is inevitable!
1.3 THE THREE ILLUSIONS
As we are concerned with the relationship of consciousness to reality, we advocate three hypotheses as educated guesses. They are:
1. The physical universe is associated with our ordinary state of consciousness (OSC), and does not represent ultimate reality; 2. Ultimate reality is also outside time, as it is outside space;
3. Ultimate reality also transcends our sense of separate personal consciousness.
Space, time, and personal consciousness, hence are the three illusions.
Remarkable and outrageous as these postulates may seem, there is considerable evidence to support their possibility. Let us remember that since we have no knowledge of the physical universe except through the sensorium associated with our normal state of consciousness, the whole physical universe and hence all the laws of physics are subordinate to that state. This, of course, is the position of the phenomenologists. But once this possibility is granted, one gets an entirely different look at the human condition, for it is possible that we are imprisoned in space, time, and personality, "shut from
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heaven with a dome more vast," or as Maxwell Anderson so well put it "Lost in the Stars."
For further understanding of this curious situation, we revive an archaic word "vivency" and define it as: "The apparent reality associated with a certain state of consciousness." In our OSC7 this vivency includes the physical universe. While, compared to ultimate reality, a vivency is an illusion of the associated state of consciousness, it is not a chaotic or illogical dream. It possesses laws, properties, and predictable characteristics, and while it is not a plenum or complete set, in that its laws, etc. are but special cases of higher laws, it does represent certain aspects of reality, and to those immersed in our vivency some of the benefits are cognition, causality, orientation, time sequence, stability, safety, etc.
Furthermore, the word "illusion" is perhaps too strong in expressing the exact relationship, and needs qualification. For each state represents reality according to its associated state of consciousness, being but the externalization of that consciousness, and the laws and properties of that external state are hence one with the laws of that state of consciousness. But as each state of consciousness may have differing properties, so the laws and properties of each external state of nature may vary. The error is to assume that the external physical universe (the natural environment of the OSC) represents "ultimate reality" and that all other apparent external vivencies are illusions. In actuality, the external physical universe is the vivency of the OSC, and its laws are those of the OSC. When we enter an ASC8 we enter some vivency of the NOR,9 of which the laws of our external universe are only special cases. It is more correct to say that in such an instance the laws of our external physical universe are "extended" rather than that they are "suspended." It is very important to insist that the laws and properties of any vivency are one with the laws of the associated state of consciousness, for it at once follows that when any part of the OSC is in operation, to that degree we are in the vivency of ordinary reality and under its laws. This effect is universally seen in "miracles," when whereas a specific and particular natural law may have been set aside (or better "extended" as in firewalking, for example), the other laws and properties of physics of the natural external universe do not dissolve in chaos, but continue to be observed10.
In attempting to assess the importance of these principles upon one's everyday experience, it is useful to discriminate between the theoretical and the practical. A helpful analogy may be drawn in this regard from the effect of Einsteinian relativity on classical
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physics. The effect was profound theoretically, since it opened our concepts to a grander view of the universe than before. Practically, however, the Einsteinian universe was so little different from the Newtonian universe that the most careful experiments had to be designed to measure the differences. We feel that the same considerations apply in this instance. The physical effects of annexing the psychic realm may be relatively minor; but the expansion of purview is profound.
To summarize: briefly the illusion is that consciousness is localized in space, in time, and in personality.11 In reality it extends beyond space, beyond time, and beyond individual personality. For theater to simulate life most effectively requires the classic unities of time, place and ego-action. But no one would claim that the reality of life does not extend beyond these. But as the dramatic unities are helpful in reducing the scale of life to a stage play, they are also useful in reducing the scale of the cosmos to that of our understanding.
1.31 Space: The Physical Universe
Ultimate reality is not represented by the physical world. The physical universe and its percepts are an illusion much like a dream, which seems real in our state of consciousness being a property of that state. The laws of the physical universe are also properties of the normal state, and are but special cases of larger laws which pertain to the metaphysical world. The way of reaching this metaphysical world, that is of liberation from the physical universe and its percepts, is through an altered state of consciousness. In this altered state of consciousness the larger laws are seen to operate.
Much as positivistic science may promulgate the regnancy of the physical world and the immutability of its laws, the facts of the matter are (as have been well understood by the Phenomenologists and Existentialists), that the sensory data of the physical world are subordinate to our normal state of consciousness. Since we do not have perception of the physical universe except through our sensorium, we have no knowledge of the state, if any, in which it exists when unperceived by our senses. We can deal only with the "appearance," the phenomenon. This table appears "hard and durable." Even physics tells us that it is a mighty constellation of electromagnetic vortices moving at incredible speeds. The concept of hardness and durability is a myth of our sensorium; it is not a property of whatever aggregation of electronic force represents a table to us.
Jung ( Works:8:353) makes plain the primacy of psychic experience:
All that I experience is psychic. Even physical pain is a psychic (page 13) image which I experience; my sense impressions - for all that they force upon me a world of impenetrable objects occupying space - are psychic images, and these alone constitute my immediate experience, for they alone are the immediate objects of my consciousness. My own psyche even transforms and falsifies reality, and it does this to such a degree that I must resort to artificial means to determine what things are like apart from myself. Then I discover that a sound is a vibration of air of such and such a frequency, or that a colour is a wave of light of such and such a length. We are in truth so wrapped about by psychic images that we cannot penetrate at all to the essence of things external to ourselves. All our knowledge consists of the stuff of the psyche which, because it alone is immediate, is superlatively real.
In postulating that the physical universe is an illusion we do not mean that it is a chaotic dream without law. A better analogy would be to state that its laws are but special cases of larger laws (as plane trigonometry is of spherical trigonometry, or metric geometry of projective). The universe of events appears "frozen" into time, space, and personal consciousness as a peculiar property of what we call the ordinary state of consciousness (OSC). Within this domain the ordinary laws with which science is familiar hold, but the domain is a subset of a larger plenum, the universe of non-ordinary reality (NOR). It follows that so long as any part of OSC remains, we appear locked into the physical world. This at once indicates that the most efficacious way to enter NOR is to do away with OSC and enter an ASC, such as trance. But even with this happening the OSC does not fall apart but only starts to "melt around the edges." Thus fluidity and flux comprise the miracles of ASC and trance.
Let us try to imagine for a moment how a superordinate reality existing outside the spatial universe would be manifested to those of us in it. While it is extremely difficult to intuit such matters, a few speculations may be useful. In the first place the full aspect of such a plenum could not be expressed by any given set of coordinates (that is by any given place), for this locus would be a mere trace. In a manner similar to the situation in time, it is very possible that the resultant manifestation would be a spatial cyclical property (something for which we have no word in English) in which various loci (places) would possess similar numinous characteristics in much the same manner as the nodes on a long vibrating string.12 These favored locations would become the sites of temples or other forms of invocations of the ASC of NOR ( in other words, holy sites).
(page 14)
1.32 Time17
The second illusion is that ultimate reality is bounded or comprised in time. Actually ultimate reality is outside space-time. Time, like the universe of physics, is an illusion, much like a dream which seems real to our normal state of consciousness, being a property of that state. The way of reaching outside this continuum, that is of liberation from space-time, is likewise through an altered state of consciousness. In such an altered state one enters the "Eternal" now and leaves space and time behind.
Let us try to imagine for a moment how a superordinate reality existing outside of time would be manifested to those of us in a time-bound universe. While it is extremely difficult to intuit such matters, a few speculations may be useful. In the first place the full aspect of such a plenum could not be expressed by any given value of t, for this event would be a mere trace (as when a line intersects a plane in a point). In the second place, it is very possible that this trace-event would have a cyclical or recurrent property, for the integral (or summation) of such anniversaries or recurrences would constitute the best manifestation of the plenum which could be expected in time.
Such recurrences would appear to us to take a wave form, most probably a sinusoidal or sine-curve form (although the occasional possibility of an exponential form which builds to infinity, vanishes, and then builds again in recurrent cycles should not be discarded). It is interesting that we find these "carrier" sine-curve type waves in many aspects of natural phenomena.
But in addition to this annual festival aspect, of which we shall hear further in the section on myth and ritual, there is another possibility. It is that in those areas accessible both to the superordinate plenum and to the time-bound ego, there might well exist a kind of mythic time, in which "events never were, but were constantly recurring." We find this very property in myth. It is the property which makes Merlin speak of Arthur as the "once and future king."13
In the manner of a partial derivative, let us hold a given action of space constant, and integrate over time. We then have what we call "the durative topocosm," the cosmos of a given location over time, as in the example "the Golden Age of Athens." Because we are clutched into experiencing time as a series of successive instants, it is very difficult for us to intuit the concept of the durative topocosm as extending over time. Perhaps a useful analogy would be that the climate of a given locality is part of the durative topocosm, but we experience the climate serially as a series of undulating weather fronts with alternating highs and lows, which are but waves in a durative medium which we call "climate"16.
(page 15)
We would laugh at an individual who, during a rainstorm would say "the climate is changing; it does nothing but rain." or who would perhaps remark at the onset of evening: "It is growing dark, the sun is extinguished." We know enough to know that day succeeds night just as sunshine does rain. These undulations in the day and in the weather are to be expected and do not affect adversely our lives or the climate. There is similarly psychic weather, and psychic undulations in energy; there are times to be creative and times to rest from creativity. But these, like the weather and day and night, are phases of the wavelike aspect with which we perceive the durative topocosm which is our psychic climate. And as we exist and are greatly affected by the physical climate, we also exist and are greatly affected by the durative topocosm. This is the realm in which our orthocognitive14 visualizations occur. And because they exist here (outside of time), they appear to us as "untensed," that is of having been perfected, of being perfected, and as about to be perfected. When one visualizes one's body as being healthy, it is in the same tense as "the sun shine" - the absolute. "The sun shine" means the sun shone yesterday, shines now (perhaps up above the clouds), and will shine tomorrow. This is the difficulty of expressing concepts in the durative topocosm in our language of tensed verbs.
As T. S. Eliot (1943) tells us in "Burnt Norton":
Human kind
Cannot bear very much reality.
Time past and time future
what might have been and what has been
Point to one end which is time present. While the concept that the numinous element exists outside of time is often portrayed in parataxic form, it is (because of the tensed-verb structure of our language), very difficult to bring it through to syntaxic expression. But we must never forget that the numinous element exists outside time and space, and is in the Eternal Now - a universal present which is the envelope of action as we conceive it, and which embraces what we call past, present, and future. Hence that aspect of it which we are able to perceive, clutched into the time-illusion of our ordinary state, is but a surface or intersection of our time consciousness with an entity which exists in a higher dimension much as a silhouette or shadow of an object crosses our path when we are near the object. The real substance of the numinous element is not projected and hence not perceived; only its trace is available to our senses (although in psychedelic experiences we may have
(page 16)
intimations of the essence). Even when we intuit its unpercepted properties, they appear to our time-clutched minds as having happened before, or bound to happen again, or some other aspect of eternal recurrence.15 Such characteristics, together with the precognitive effect, when met in our experience should alert us to the presence of the numinous element. To the degree that our individual egos effect juncture with it, we may (temporarily) gain these powers, such as profiting from precognitive safeguards, or being able to snatch nascent ideas from the breaking curl of the Zeitgeist wave as they form in the cultural consciousness; others will call this creativity.
It may be that the numinous element exists in four dimensions of hyperspace. The one we cannot intuit, we experience as time, hence in our individual lives it seems to us that time is always growing later, and we cannot intuit reality as existing at other times than the present. But the mnemonic and precognitive aspects of the preconscious make it obvious that it does so exist.
The numinous element from its very nature is plenary. But a plenum is a set which is full, so that as Crovitz (1971:7) points out, the only movement in it must be a kind of circular permutation. (If a room is full of people playing musical chairs, the people will have to move in circular fashion to change chairs.) Since cyclic motion is the only possibility in a plenum, eternal recurrence would appear as a property of the numinous element when expressed in time, one periodic manifestation of which would be the Zeitgeist.
1.33 Ego
The third illusion is that the separate self, the ego, is real. Actually the concept of the ego, of the separate self, is also a dream which seems real to our normal state of consciousness being a property of that state. The way of reaching outside ourselves, that is, of liberation from this divided state is also through an altered state of consciousness wherein all things are seen "to have a non-sensuous unity."
Let us try to imagine for a moment how a superordinate reality existing outside of our individual egos would be manifested to us in this separate ego-bound state. While it is extremely difficult to intuit such matters, a few speculations may be useful. In the first place, the full aspect of such a plenum could not be expressed by the person at any given time, for his conscious understanding at such a time would be only a trace of the totality. In order therefore for integration to occur, it would be necessary for the ego to go through a series of steps or stages of a cyclical nature in which attention was successively focused on the world of experience, the ego itself, and other egos. Actually, this is precisely what we find to be the case, and we have explored this developmental process in detail in our two previous books, Development of the Creative Individualand Development of the Psychedelic Individual.Periodicity in personality might also require the concept of reincarnation.
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1.34 Conclusion
If all this is illusion, it is only fair to ask why we appear to be in such a dream state. While it is not possible to answer this question fully in our present state of partiality, it does seem plausible that:
(1) the partition of the noumenon into separate selves,
(2) immersing it in space and time, and
(3) consigning it to a universe of physical percepts, must in some way be beneficial or conducive to a sense of (1) free will,
(2) developmental progress, and
(3) cognitive or syntaxic representation. These three tasks, accomplished in the course of human life must in turn have some bearing on the main business of the metaphysical universe, which appears to be a full cognition of the All by the All. Psychologists have defined a "lucid" dream as one in which the individual knows that he is dreaming. But the step from dream to waking is simply a step up the stages of consciousness. So we should recognize and define as "lucid livers" those who in our ordinary state of consciousness know that they are also in a dream from which they will sometime awaken to a higher state. Even the knowledge of the possibility that one is dreaming in the ordinary state of consciousness (as compared to a higher state) is very freeing in the ability of the individual to imagine other possibilities and vivencies. This, in turn, if it does nothing else, elevates life from a mere animal grubbing for food and survival, to something more in keeping with the dignity of the human being, animal enough in that he eats and excretes, but also godlike in that his mind soars to the stars.
But in the smoke of battle, it is difficult to see all things clearly. So the reader must be contented if we end this chapter with a series of parables, designed to lift by stages the author's and the reader's purview to higher potentialities without disturbing either to the extent that the new ideas are rejected as "crazy." Mark Twain once said that every new idea goes through three stages: First people say it is impossible, then they say it conflicts with the Bible, and finally they end up believing it.
Imagine a garden hose with an adjustable nozzle, and the water pressure turned on at the spigot. Will water come out of the nozzle? This depends on the adjustment of the nozzle. I think we have a good analogue of the relationship of individual intelligence to the collective energy; it is the nozzle adjustment which results in a drip
(page 18)
or a torrent. Furthermore, although it is not usual, the nozzle adjustment can be changed (karma).
To explain the Buddha's saying that the soul neither exists nor does not exist after death, let us imagine a rabid basketball player named Joe, who thinks that playing basketball is the be-all of existence, and feels alive only when in a game. Joe has a teammate, Charlie, who is playing with him in a game, and who gets out on fouls. Suppose Joe now asks: "Is Charlie still around?" The answer is both yes and no. It is yes if Joe means, does Charlie still exist; it is no if Joe means is Charlie still in the game and able to make points. The fact is that time is like the time of a basketball game, an arbitrary measurement set in the Universal Now. While we are clutched into time, we can score points (make merit). When we get pulled out of the game, we are out of time, but we are still in the Eternal Now of the collective preconscious.
Imagine a rural railroad line which runs through a series of deserted towns and stations. Trains continue to traverse the wilderness route however, leaving and picking up freight and baggage which accumulates at the way stations and is then removed in a random and haphazard fashion. Now imagine that in each town there lives in solitude one rather paranoid hermit who believes he is alone in the world, and regards the station with its piled up wares, which keep appearing and disappearing, as a nightmarish situation which had best be avoided. Let us further imagine, however, that one hermit, braver than the rest and more innovative, explores the station in his town, and begins to realize that instead of being an object of dread and superstition, it is actually a station on a railroad which runs on a schedule, and hence can become both a communication facility to the outer world and a source of goods and services to him. He cleans up and organizes the premises and regularly makes shipments and requests supplies which are delivered in due course.As a resulthe becomes happy, prosperous and sophisticated, in a word, completely in command of his environment. The other hermits having somehow heard about this man's good fortune regard him either as very lucky or very wicked. Actually he has only succeeded in conquering superstition and in making the best of his situation. The parallel here between this story and the creative individual's use of his preconscious mind is very striking. The conscious mind represents the hermit, an ego which does not realize its power to control the environment through the preconscious. The preconscious
(page 19)
is represented by the railroad station, at first a source of anxiety and dread, but later one of abundance. Unlike the separate hermits, the stations are connected by a railroad, and it is this fact in regard to the collective preconscious which is the key point in our metaphor. Because of this connection, goods and services of the whole system are available at any station where the hermit has the courage and sense to order them.
The preconscious in each individual is a manifestation of a "collective preconscious" or "not-me" which is the same essence in different individuals, and therefore forms a common bond or connection between them like blood in different organs of the body. Furthermore this essence is totally responsive to the will of the conscious mind which can learn to control it and create out of it anything necessary, useful, or desirable. We order the goods by telling the preconscious what we want, and by keeping in thought the realization that the order or archetype thought has already been accomplished. We imagine or see the outcome of our unspoken thought. We can do this for ourselves or others with regard to health, environmental events, or any other condition or situation in which we are involved. The power of consciousness is the power to impress our will on the preconscious and fertilize it so that it will produce the situation we have willed.
1.4 THE THREE MODES: PROTOTAXIC, PARATAXIC and SYNTAXIC
In pursuit of our theme that the central business of life is contact of the individual ego with the numinous element, we have introduced the issue, defined the numinous element, and discussed the tripartite illusion that consciousness is bounded by space, time, or personality. As a conclusion, and practical corollary to all this, we find that in our vivency, there appear to be three modes of contact between the individual ego and the numinous element. These have been named (using Sullivan's terminology) as prototaxic, parataxic, and syntaxic. This theme is diagrammed in Figure I. The diagram is divided into three parts:
a) prototaxic experience (characterized by loss of ego); b) parataxic experience (characterized by the production of images whose meaning is not clear or categorical);
c) syntaxic experience (where meaning is more or less fully cognized symbolically, with ego present).
Three popular names for these three modes form the title of this book, namely trance, art, and creativity, respectively. Within these (page 20)
(page 21)
modes there are various methods of contacting the collective preconscious, which we shall refer to as "procedures." These range from schizophrenia at one end, to satori at the other. A systematic discussion of these procedures forms the remaining bulk of the book.
The diagram details the relationship between the cognitive, individual ego and the numinous element as appearing in the generalized collective preconscious. It is arranged in a stepwise hierarchy from "lower" (left) to "upper" (right). (A child would stereotype this hierarchy as from "bad" to "good.") More accurately, as one goes from left to right, one ascends a parameter which appears to have the following characteristics (see table):
table21.html
Inspection of these descriptions reveals that the parameter is really developmental process in the individual and the species, but as that task has been explicated elsewhere (Gowan 1972, 1974), we shall turn here to a detailed explication of the modes and procedures.
Before so doing, it is necessary to note, however, than even this more precise statement does not completely clarify the nuances of the differences between the modes. This will be left for more careful explication in the chapters to follow. While readers may generally agree with the placement of the various procedures into the three broad modes, there will doubtless be some argument about their relative positions. The author grants this placement as arbitrary,
(page 22)
for example, the order as between myth and ritual.
No individual can be in touch with the generalized numinous element without some dissociation from ordinary state of consciousness. Hence the reader should not infer that in the paradigm where the hierarchy is said to go from lack of ego control to ego control that there is a normal state of consciousness with normal ego function in the highest (right hand side) experiences. Certainly this is not the case, for one of the main characteristics of these higher altered states is the change in ego function; in fact the very name "altered state" indicates that this change has taken place. It may very properly be asked then, if ego function is altered in all altered states, from highest to lowest, what is the difference between the higher states and the lower ones. This difference which exists as a taxonomic hierarchy or gradation of different levels of the parameter can be spelled out with the following characteristics:
a) will: in the higher states there is evidence of will; the individual will has been carried out by the numinous element (as in a creative product); in the lower states there is no such evidence, the preconscious seems to spew out whatever material adventitiously comes; will is hence like the hand on the tiller. b) memorability: in the higher states there is generally memory of the experience; in the lower states there most usually is not.
c) ego function: in the lower states the ego seems to disappear (there is excursus); in the higher states the ego is changed but does not seem to vanish in the same way.
d) crudity-refinement: in the lower states the character of the experience appears crude (dissociative ramblings, psychic tricks such as poltergeist phenomenons, half formed words, glossolalia); in the higher levels we get works of art or other creative products; high level ideas, etc.
The process of development in our individual lives and the process of evolutionary development for our species is simply an "immense journey" from the prototaxic through the parataxic and eventually to the syntaxic mode of representation of the numinous element, or the movement from trance, through art to creativity.
One finds an intuitive awareness of the relationship between developmental process and mystical unity in Teilhard de Chardin's writings, especially in The Phenomenon of Man (1960). He avers that all matter has a psychic aspect - that consciousness is universal in all life. Evolution is the ascent of this consciousness, and this ascent of life is a movement veiled by morphism. Evolution presents growth in complexity of forms, not mere proliferation; this, the qualitative law of development, culminates in the development of the brain. He
(page 23)
sees development as discontinuous with stage leaps producing differences in kind. He refers to a planetization of consciousness - a superconscious entity based on the unanimous collection of individuals, and his "omega point" is this conscious union. The cognitive aspect of this is knowledge, but the affective aspect is love,in his terms "amorizing" the universe.
FOOTNOTES
1. (see Bloom 1954, Frank (Kepes 1966:3-5).
Prototaxic trance psychomotor signs Parataxic art affective images Syntaxic creativity cognitive symbols 2. "Consciousness" is regarded as an undefinable "given"; for "altered state of consciousness," (ASC), see Tart 1969.
3. since it is an impersonal, ineffable Absolute.
4. The other Aztec deity, Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent, typifies the ripple born of wind and water: hence "the breath of life" (Radin 1927:61).
5. The occultist will recognize this description of the numinous element as applicable to mercury, as "having no qualities of itself", but "able to assume any form" (Mitchell 1972:147).
6. Satprem (1968:15) quotes Sri Aurobindo as saying: "A God who cannot smile could not have created this humorous universe."
7. OSC = ordinary state of consciousness.
8. ASC = altered state of consciousness.
9. NOR = non-ordinary reality.
10. It is suggestive that in any ASC, there is characteristic distortion of time, space, and ego, the psychedelic drug experience being an excellent example.
11. Satprem (1968:196) puts the same idea thus: "We are shut up in a personal body only through a tenacious visual derangement."
12. This sort of thing is curiously reminiscent of the Watkins ley lines of England (Mitchell, 1973) and other prehistoric straight lines drawn for unknown purposes on the earth's surface.
13. And reminds one of T. S. Eliot's phrase: "My end is my beginning."
14. See Chapter IV, page 320, also glossary.
15. A good example is the Adamic ecstasy of Chapter IV.
16. "Durative topocosm" is defined on page 206.
17. See Ornstein R. On the Experience of Time, Penguin, 1969.
TABLE 2-1
TAXONOMY OF EXOTIC POWERS AND ABILITIES
0 PHYLOGENIC - (other species)
1. PHYLOGENIC- Mankind (SOI Factors of Intellect)
2. ONTOGENIC
.1 extensions of sensory modalities
.11 smell
.12 taste
.13 sight
.14 touch
.15 hearing
.16 unclassified
.2 extensions of mental abilities
.21 temporal
.22 spatial
.23 figural (art)
.24 musical
.25 mathematical
.26 verbal
.27 semantic
.28 behavioral
.29 unclassified
3. COSMOGENIC: Physical (Body Powers)
.0 sensitivity to psychic impressions, telepathy, dowsing, (18, 19)*
.1 physical mediumship, communication with dead, poltergeist phenomena, apports, psychokinesis, materializations
.2 OBE bilocation, time warp, teleportation, clairvoyance, (38,47)
.3 endo - and exothermic reactions, firewalking, psychic heat, SHC
.4 stigmata
.5 luminosity, aura, electromagnetic effects, (40)
.6 independence from physical functions, inedia, non-somnia, (30)
.7 mortem excursus, knowing time of death, post mortem effects, incorruptibility, (22, 39)
.8 levitation, (42)
.9 invisibility, (21)
.X body size and weight changes, elongation, abnormal strength, (24,45)
.Y externalization of sense organs, odor of sanctity, (see 4.3-5), (48)
4. COSMOGENIC: Mental (Knowledge Abilities)
.0 knowledge of arrangement and motion of stars, (27, 28)
.1 vision of cosmic beings, (26, 32)
.2 calm (31)
.3 vision through opaque objects, miraculous sight, (25)
.4 miraculous touch, ability to heal through laying on of hands, understanding of body system, (29)
.5 miraculous hearing, (41)
.6 empery over self, others (healing), animals, weather, miracles, (17)
.7 adamic ecstasy, cleansing doors of perception, gemeinschaftgefuhl, (23, 16)
.8 Infused knowledge, omniscience (jhanas 1-4), (33, 34, 44, 45,49)
.9 Continuous contact and union, (jhanas 5-8) (35, 36)
The numbers in parentheses refer to Patanjali's Yoga Sutras (see Table III-1)
(page 64)
TAXONOMY OF EXOTIC POWERS AND ABILITIES
0 PHYLOGENIC - (other species)
1. PHYLOGENIC- Mankind (SOI Factors of Intellect)
2. ONTOGENIC
.1 extensions of sensory modalities
.11 smell
.12 taste
.13 sight
.14 touch
.15 hearing
.16 unclassified
.2 extensions of mental abilities
.21 temporal
.22 spatial
.23 figural (art)
.24 musical
.25 mathematical
.26 verbal
.27 semantic
.28 behavioral
.29 unclassified
3. COSMOGENIC: Physical (Body Powers)
.0 sensitivity to psychic impressions, telepathy, dowsing, (18, 19)*
.1 physical mediumship, communication with dead, poltergeist phenomena, apports, psychokinesis, materializations
.2 OBE bilocation, time warp, teleportation, clairvoyance, (38,47)
.3 endo - and exothermic reactions, firewalking, psychic heat, SHC
.4 stigmata
.5 luminosity, aura, electromagnetic effects, (40)
.6 independence from physical functions, inedia, non-somnia, (30)
.7 mortem excursus, knowing time of death, post mortem effects, incorruptibility, (22, 39)
.8 levitation, (42)
.9 invisibility, (21)
.X body size and weight changes, elongation, abnormal strength, (24,45)
.Y externalization of sense organs, odor of sanctity, (see 4.3-5), (48)
4. COSMOGENIC: Mental (Knowledge Abilities)
.0 knowledge of arrangement and motion of stars, (27, 28)
.1 vision of cosmic beings, (26, 32)
.2 calm (31)
.3 vision through opaque objects, miraculous sight, (25)
.4 miraculous touch, ability to heal through laying on of hands, understanding of body system, (29)
.5 miraculous hearing, (41)
.6 empery over self, others (healing), animals, weather, miracles, (17)
.7 adamic ecstasy, cleansing doors of perception, gemeinschaftgefuhl, (23, 16)
.8 Infused knowledge, omniscience (jhanas 1-4), (33, 34, 44, 45,49)
.9 Continuous contact and union, (jhanas 5-8) (35, 36)
The numbers in parentheses refer to Patanjali's Yoga Sutras (see Table III-1)
(page 64)
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FAIR USE NOTICE
Educational Purposes Only
This site may contains some copyrighted material which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues. This constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law, in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107. The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.