Introduction to Transpersonal Psychology

• Transpersonal Psychology - Definition and scope;

• Contributions of other disciplines and theories:

• Parapsychology, Anomalistic Psychology, Anthropology, Psychotherapy, Positive

Psychology, Neuropsychology;

• Contribution of theorists in brief:

• William James, Carl Jung, Roberto Assagioli, Abraham Maslow, Ken Wilber

• Published definitions of transpersonal psychology (1967-2003)

• Thematic analysis of definitions

a. 1968-1991 (Lajoie & Shapiro, 1992).

1. States of consciousness

2. Highest or ultimate potential

3. Beyond ego or personal self

4. Transcendence

5. Spiritual

b. 1991-2001 (Shapiro, Lee, & Gross, 2002)

• Going beyond or transcending the individual, ego, self, the personal, personality, or
personal identity; existence of a deeper, true, or authentic self.

• Spirituality, psychospiritual, psychospiritual development, the spiritual, spirit.

c. General sources (Hartelius, Caplan, & Rardin, 2007)

• Psychology beyond ego

• Integrative/holistic psychology

• Psychology of transformation

Scope
 • Spirituality in Contemporary Life and Modern Psychology

1. Social and cultural interest in spirituality is not a passing fad.

2. Interest in spirituality extends to modern psychology.

3. Mainstream psychology's view of religion and spirituality has not always been a positive
one.

• The promise of transpersonal psychology.

1. Expand the individual's understanding of the "unknown" elements of the self and its
greater world.

2. Broaden "official" concepts about the self to reveal the multidimensional nature of the
human psyche.

3. Enlarge the vision of modern psychology to include a new, wider view of the co-
participatory nature of reality.

4. Develop a greater understanding of human potentials and abilities.

5. Propose an alternate view of human nature in order that the individual and the species
may achieve its greatest fulfillment.

What Do Transpersonal Psychologists Study

• Content Domain of Transpersonal Psychology

• 1. Topics that are studied in transpersonal psychology

• Psychology of consciousness

• Psychology of religious experience

• Psychology of psychic phenomena

• Psychology of spiritual development

• Psychology of mind-body healing

• Emerging paradigms in science and society

• 2. Exceptional Human Experiences (Palmer & Braud, 2002)

• Mystical/unitive experiences

• Encounter-type experiences
 • Psychic/paranormal experience

• Unusual death-related experiences

• Exceptional normal experiences

• 3. Exceptional human experiences are considered "anomalous" by mainstream psychology.

• 4. Exceptional human experiences viewed as an extension of normal creative ability by

transpersonal psychologists.

• 5. Transpersonal psychology is a practical psychology.

• People frightened of themselves.

• Experiential exercises and practices are important to give psychological roots to

transpersonal concepts.

• Active investigation, not a passive withdrawal or fearful retreat from waking life.

Contributions of other disciplines and theories:

• Parapsychology

• Anomalistic Psychology

• Anthropology

• Psychotherapy

• Positive Psychology

• Neuropsychology

Parapsychology

• It is the study of “apparent anomalies of behavior and experiences that exist apart from
currently known explanatory mechanisms that account for organism-environment and
organism-organism information and influence flow”.

• Despite the fact that parapsychological phenomena ostensibly are contrary to conventional
scientific wisdom it is through the methods of science that the phenomena are studied.
 • In other words, parapsychological research rightly is conducted predominantly within the
broader context of the scientific investigation of behavior and its phenomena are best
understood in the light of an appreciation of the principles of psychology.

Anomalistic Psychology

• Anomalistic psychology may be defined as the study of extraordinary phenomena of behaviour

and experience, including (but not restricted to) those which are often labeled "paranormal".

• It is directed towards understanding bizarre experiences that many people have without
assuming a priori that there is anything paranormal involved.

• It entails attempting to explain paranormal and related beliefs and ostensibly paranormal
experiences in terms of known psychological and physical factors.

Anthropology

• The science of human beings especially about the study of human beings and their ancestors
through time and space and in relation to physical character, environmental and social relations,
and culture.

• The modern discourse of anthropology crystallized in the 1860s, fired by advances

in biology, philology, and prehistoric archaeology.

• In The Origin of Species (1859), Charles Darwin affirmed that all forms of life share a common
ancestry.

• The pioneering anthropologist Edward Burnett Tylor concluded that as intelligence increased, so

civilization advanced.

Distinct fields of research

• In the middle of the 20th century, the distinct fields of research that separated anthropologists
into specialties were

1. physical anthropology, emphasizing the biological process and endowment that

distinguishes Homo sapiens from other species,

2. archaeology, based on the physical remnants of past cultures and former conditions of
contemporary cultures, usually found buried in the earth,

3. linguistic anthropology, emphasizing the unique human capacity to communicate

through articulate speech and the diverse languages of humankind, and
 4. social and/or cultural anthropology, emphasizing the cultural systems that distinguish
human societies from one another and the patterns of social organization associated
with these systems.

5. By the middle of the 20th century, many American universities also included,
psychological anthropology, emphasizing the relationships among culture, social
structure, and the human being as a person.

Psychotherapy

• Psychotherapy is a general term that is used to describe the process of treating psychological

disorders and mental distress through the use of verbal and psychological techniques.

• During this process, a trained psychotherapist helps the client tackle specific or general
problems such as a particular mental illness or a source of life stress.

• Types of Psychotherapy

• Individual therapy

• Couples therapy

• Family therapy

• Group therapy, 

Positive Psychology

• Positive psychology is the scientific study of what makes life most worth living” (Peterson, 2008).

• Positive psychology focuses on the positive events and influences in life, including:

• Positive experiences (like happiness, joy, inspiration, and love).

• Positive states and traits (like gratitude, resilience, and compassion).

• Positive institutions (applying positive principles within entire organizations and

institutions).

• Martin Seligman considered as the founder of Positive Psychology.

Neuropsychology

• Neuropsychology focuses both on basic research and on applied, clinical research, to stimulate

systematic investigation into brain-behavior relationships and to improve clinical practice.

• Neuropsychology seeks to communicate the best research and ideas in the field from
throughout the world.
The recognition of transpersonal psychology by the medical model

• In 1996, for instance, the British Psychological Society (BPS) created the Transpersonal
Psychology Section (Fontana & Slack, 1996).

• The professional body ‘the United Kingdom Counsel for Psychotherapy’ recognizes and accepts
upon their register of accredited psychotherapists many clinicians who describe themselves as
transpersonal psychotherapists as well as those whose orientation includes the recognition of
the transpersonal.

• However, this is not always apparent at first glance, for, when speaking of the transpersonal, we
need to be mindful of the use of terminology, as not all thinkers or clinicians in the fields of
psychotherapy or psychiatry use the classification transpersonal.

• A good example is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fourth Edition
(DSM IV) American Psychiatric Association (1994).

• It includes the diagnostic category ‘Religious or Spiritual Problem’ (Code V62.89).

• It states that,

• This category can be used when the focus of clinical attention is a religious or spiritual
problem. Examples include distressing experiences that involve loss or questioning of
faith, problems associated with conversion to a new faith, or questioning of other
spiritual values which may not necessarily be related to an organised church or religious
institution.

• Lukoff et al. (1998) examining the need for a distinct category covering religious and spiritual
problems, relate,

• In a survey of APA member psychologists, 60% reported that clients often expressed
their personal experiences in religious language, and that at least 1 in 6 of their patients
presented issues which directly involve religion or spirituality (Shafranske & Maloney,
1990).

• Another study of psychologists found 72% indicating that they had at some time
addressed religious or spiritual issues in treatment (Lannert, 1991).

• In a sample that included psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, and marriage and
family therapists, 29% agreed that religious issues are important in the treatment of all
or many of their clients (Bergin & Jensen, 1990).

• Anderson and Young (1988) claim that: ‘All clinicians inevitably face the challenge of
treating patients with religious troubles and preoccupations’ (p. 532).
 • While little is known about the prevalence of specific types of religious and spiritual
problems in treatment, these surveys demonstrate that religious and spiritual issues are
often addressed in psychotherapy.

Transpersonal psychology: religion with a psychological spin?

• To begin the exploration of how differing religious/spiritual traditions interface with Western
psychological views and the transpersonal approach,

• Therefore, it is important to recognize that many theorists, who identify themselves as

transpersonal psychologists, can be seen as drawing upon religious traditions: whilst sometimes
this may be one discrete path within a recognized major faith such as Zen Buddhism, it is also
common to draw from a range of religious paths.

An integrative/eclectic religious influence

• It is not surprising to find that some thinkers look towards many differing religious worldviews
and traditions to inform their thinking.

• This could be likened to how integrative/eclective psychotherapists combine different

theoretical approaches and theories of human nature in their work.

• A good example of a transpersonal theorist who draws from a diverse religious/philosophical

background is Vaughan (1985).

• Examining her work reveals a theorist who has turned towards what could be conceived as maps
of consciousness that come from traditional religious thought.

• She posits that the psychological healing of the whole person is possible by following what she
terms an inward arc exploring the superconscious.

• She suggests that an analogous metaphorical representation of the inward arc would include
the ox herding pictures from the Zen school, the Chakra system of Hinduism as well as the
heroic journey and Dante’s Divine Comedy from the Western path.

• Though Vaughan is not alone in her eclective stance, many concentrate upon one religious
orientation, and an obvious candidate to begin an exploration of religious belief and
psychological theory would be Buddhism in its many differing traditions.

Contribution of theorists in brief:

• William James,
 • Carl Jung,

• Roberto Assagioli,

• Abraham Maslow,

• Ken Wilber

William James (1842-1910).

• William James, whose ideas were to grow into the school of Functionalism and the philosophy of
Pragmatism, “is arguably the father of modern transpersonal psychology and psychiatry”
(Taylor, 1996a, p. 21).

• James referred to the transpersonal aspects of human personality as residing the "transmarginal
field" beyond the periphery of waking consciousness, exerting its influence to varying degrees in
instances of psychopathology and mystical experiences (Taylor, 1996b).

• He helped develop modern interest in “exceptional” human mental states such as multiple
personality, possession, and trance-channeling.

• He wrote about the psychology of mystical experience.

• In James’s view, religious experience reflected humanity’s dual conscious-subconscious nature.

• Humanity's religious sentiment reflected our connection to regions below the threshold of
waking consciousness which are the source of deeply felt religious emotions.

• “Personal religious experience has its root and center in mystical states of consciousness” which
act as a bridge that connects consciously known and subconsciously “unknown” aspects of the
human psyche with what he referred to as “the higher part of the universe” (James, 1902/1936,
pp. 370, 507).

• There are as many spiritual realities as there individuals who experience them, a metaphysical
position that James referred to as “noetic pluralism” (Taylor, 1996b, p. 134).

• What is interesting about William James for the history of transpersonal psychology is that after
writing his classic 1,393 page, two-volume textbook on psychology, The Principles of Psychology
(James, 1890/1950) -- which can be regarded as a defense for a positivist, physiologically-based
psychology -- James turned away from mainstream psychology’s reductionist accounts of human
experience and behavior toward a more person-centered psychology (Ryan, 2008).

• It was during the period from 1890- 1910 that William James championed the cause of religion,
mysticism, faith healing, and psychic phenomena (McDermottt, 1968).
 • William James was also one of the first American psychologists to use the term transpersonal in
reference to the subconscious (Taylor, 1982).

• He sought to broaden the notion of what constituted a “scientific” psychology and expand its
methods of inquiry beyond the laboratory (James, 1897/1956; 1902/1936).

• It was during this post-1890 period that James also focused on the development of his
epistemology of “radical empiricism” – the notion that sensory experience is only one of several
different legitimate types of “empiricism.”

• Empiricism, understood in basic linguistic root (or radical) terms, included not only the data of
sense but also data of consciousness (i.e., direct, immediate psychological experience).

C. G. Jung (1875-1961)

• Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung, founder of the school of Analytical Psychology, called the
transpersonal dimensions of the human psyche as the "collective unconscious."

• Jung is considered one of the godfathers of transpersonal psychology.

• “Jung’s work in the transpersonal realm prefigured much of what is current in the field”
(Scotton, 1996, p. 39).

1. Opened the subject of the spiritual reality of the psyche to scientific inquiry

2. Described the objective nature of the human psyche

3. Openly criticized the materialistic bias of mainstream experimental psychology

4. Posited the existence of a collective or transpersonal unconscious

5. Publicly espoused the cause of parapsychological research

6. Clarified the expansive and flexible nature of the human ego

7. Highlighted the supportive nature of subconscious portions of the psyche

8. Explained the importance of the Self in the inner spiritual life of the individual

9. Explicated the role of symbols in psychic processes

10. Elucidated the influence of shadow-like elements of the psyche

11. Described the psychology and pathology of so-called “occult” phenomena

12. Developed methods for investigating the spiritual life of the mind.
 ● Jung’s original theories and therapeutic practices in all these areas remain a fruitful source of
productive hypotheses regarding the nature of the transpersonal psyche in clinical and
experimental research today (Jung, 1917/1953, 1934/1960, 1935, 1964a, 1964b/1978, 1965,
1968).

Roberto Assagioli (1888-1974).

• Italian psychiatrist Roberto Assagioli, founder of the school of Psychosynthesis, referred to the
transpersonal aspects of the human psyche as the "superconscious."

• Assagioli proposed the first Western theory of personality that could truly call itself
“transpersonal” in that it incorporated the idea of soul explicitly into its theory of the human
personality (Assagioli, 1965/1993, 1973/1992, 1988/1991).

• Like Fechner, James, Myers, and Jung before him, Roberto Assagioli sought to demonstrate the
existence of those psychological characteristics and abilities that the soul would have in life.

• Assagioli pioneered a religiously-neutral, psychologically-oriented, and experientially-based

approach to the inner psychic realms of human consciousness, which assumed that each human
being is a soul as well as a personality.

• “Whereas Maslow explored fundamental issues in transpersonal psychology, Roberto Assagioli

pioneered the practical application of these concepts in psychotherapy” (Battista, 1996, p. 52).

• Self-realization required the harmonious inner recognition by the outer ego of the existence of a
“higher” inner Transpersonal Self of which it is a part and the realization that the outer ego-self
and the inner transpersonal-self are one.

• This two-fold realization is to be accomplished through a process of spiritual psychosynthesis.

• In order to be a fully self-realized individual, however, one needs first to heal the fundamental
duality between the outer and inner selves – a goal achieved through a process of personal
psychosynthesis and that remains an important outcome in transpersonal psychotherapy today.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

• Abraham Maslow (1943, 1987).

• Maslow was one of the early humanistic psychologists who rejected the dominant theories of
psychoanalysis and behaviorism in favor of a more positive view of human behavior.
• Maslow proposed that human beings must fulfill the more basic needs, such as physical and
security needs, before being able to fulfill the higher needs of self-actualization and
transcendence.

• Maslow proposed that there are several levels of needs that a person must strive to meet
before achieving the highest level of personality fulfillment.

• According to Maslow, self-actualization is the point that is seldom reached—at which people
have satisfied the lower needs and achieved their full human potential.

• These needs include both

• fundamental deficiency needs, such as the need for food or water, and

• growth needs, such as the desire for having friends or feeling good about oneself.

For a person to achieve self-actualization, which is the highest level of growth needs, the
primary, fundamental needs must first be fulfilled

• The lowest level of the pyramid consists of physiological needs such as food, water, and rest.

• Once those needs are met, safety becomes important and involves feeling secure.

• Belongingness and love are the needs for friends and companions as well as to be accepted by
others, and self-esteem is the need to feel that one has accomplished something good or earned
the esteem of others.

• Just above the esteem needs on the hierarchy come the cognitive needs, or the need to know
and understand the world (Maslow, 1971; Maslow & Lowery, 1998).

• This need is represented in people who learn for the sake of gathering knowledge, and all
people who pursue their natural curiosity.

• Above the cognitive needs are the aesthetic needs, which include the need for order and beauty
and are typical of artistic people. (It should be noted that all people also seem to like to express
themselves artistically—even if it’s only graffiti on a wall.)

• Once all these needs are met, it is possible to be concerned about self-actualization needs, or
needs that help a person reach his or her full potential and capabilities as a human being.

• A final need, transcendence, involves helping others to achieve their full potential.
• People move up the pyramid as they go through life, gaining wisdom and the knowledge of how
to handle many different situations.

• But a shift in life’s circumstances can result in a shift down to a lower need.

• Moving up and down and then back up can occur frequently—even from one hour to the next.

• Times in a person’s life in which self-actualization is achieved, at least temporarily, are called
peak experiences.

• For Maslow, the process of growth and self-actualization is the striving to make peak
experiences happen again and again.

• Maslow’s theory has had a powerful influence on the field of management (Heil et al., 1998)

• In spite of this influence, Maslow’s theory is not without its critics.

• There are several problems that others have highlighted, and the most serious is that there is
little scientific support (Drenth et al., 1984).

• Like Sigmund Freud, Maslow developed his theory based on his personal observations of people
rather than any empirically gathered observations or research.

• Although many people report that while they were starving, they could think of nothing but
food, there is anecdotal evidence in the lives of many people, some of them quite well known,
 that the lower needs do not have to be satisfied before moving on to a higher need (Drenth et
al., 1984).

• For example, artists and scientists throughout history have been known to deny their own
physical needs while producing great works (a self-actualization need).

• Maslow’s work was also based on his studies of Americans.

• Cross-cultural research suggests that the order of needs on the hierarchy does not always hold
true for other cultures, particularly those cultures with a stronger tendency than the culture of
the United States to avoid uncertainty, such as Greece and Japan.

• In those countries security needs are much stronger than self-actualization needs in determining
motivation (Hofstede, 1980; Hofstede et al., 2002).

• This means that people in those cultures value job security more than they do job satisfaction
(holding an interesting or challenging job).

• In countries such as Sweden and Norway, which stress the quality of life as being of greater
importance than what a person produces, social needs may be more important than self-
actualization needs (Hofstede et al., 2002).

Integral Theory

Ken Wilber

• Wilber started developing his theory in the late 1970s.

• From then on he revised and elaborated it, publishing it in more than 20 books.

• He himself distinguishes between five different phases, between which major shifts and
enhancements concerning his theory took place.

• Today, he presents his theory as a framework that claims to provide no less than a place for
everything that exists, including the various scientific disciplines and approaches.

• The theory seems to provide a proper place for everything.

• That place is defined first of all by its level of development and its specific perspective, from
which it perceives and describes the world.

• This makes Wilber praise his theory as a downright ‘theory of everything’ (Wilber 2000a), being
able to provide the long needed integration of the manifold and fragmented bodies of
knowledge in our post-modern world.
 • From his holistic theory Wilber derives practical suggestions for a more integral life, an integral
practice which consists of meditation, physical exercises and social commitment.

The Integral Theory

• Holons

• Vertical axis

• Horizontal axes

Holons

• A good starting point is the general concept that Wilber uses in order to name the elements of
the universe: holons.

• According to Wilber,

• reality is made up of ‘holons’, which are wholes, that are—at the same time—parts of
other wholes.

• Since they are parts of other wholes and themselves contain other wholes, reality is a nested
entity, invariably made up of these wholes/parts, in short: holons.

Vertical axis

• According to Wilber, each holon enfolds—other holons, which form its sub-holons, and is itself
enfolded by other holons, its super-holons.

• Thus, holons can be ranked according to their level of enfoldment, which equals their level of
development, since evolution — in the eyes of Wilber — is the continuing process of
enfoldment.

• When holons develop, they transcend themselves, embrace and integrate their own prior being,
getting thereby to a higher level.

• These levels of development form the vertical axis of Wilber’s framework.

Levels of development

• Evolution takes place along this vertical axis of his theory:

• that’s why on this axis we find the different stages of development, as discovered by
Jean Piaget, Lawrence Kohlberg, James Fowler and others.

• Wilber’s proprium is the placement of spiritual levels, described by mystics such as Meister
Eckhart, Theresa of Avila and a number of eastern mystics, on top of those levels of
development (cf. Wilber 2007)

• Since in his theory they form stages situated beyond the rational stage, Wilber calls them
‘transrational’ or ‘transpersonal’ stages.

• On top of this vertical axis resides — according to Wilber — Spirit, God, the ever-present Ground
towards whom each holon is striving (cf. Wilber 2002a).

Horizontal axes

• Wilber’s ‘Kosmos’ refers to, as well as the physical realm (physiosphere), which is what is
normally meant when talking of the cosmos, also the realm of the living (biosphere); of the spirit
(noosphere) and of God (theosphere).

• To mark the difference of this concept to what is normally called the ‘cosmos’, he uses the
Greek spelling ‘Kosmos’ (cf. Wilber 2000b).

• Within this Kosmos, there are not only holons above and beneath one another, but also holons
next to each other:

• that is to say holons on the same level.

• On that horizontal plane of Wilber’s theory one concept plays a major role:
 • the concept of quadrants.

• The idea behind quadrants may quickly be explained. It is founded on two tenets:

• There are things in the singular and things in the plural. This distinction focusses on the
fact that individual entities need to be distinguished from sets, groups or systems of that
entity.

• Things have an interior and an exterior. So when looking at something, you can either
look at its interior or the exterior aspect. The interior aspect of something is everything
that has do to with consciousness, awareness, meaning, feelings, values and what in
philosophy we call the qualia, phenomenal qualities. It constitutes the subjective world.
The exterior aspect however denotes the objective world, the empirical or material part
of something, everything that has a quantity

• Now, since these two aspects may be distinguished both within individuals as well as within
groups of entities, the two distinctions may be crossed over, so that we again get two axes,
which are both on a horizontal scale and result in four quadrants

The four quadrants

• Often he groups together the two quadrants on the right, which results in a distinction Wilber
calls ‘The Big Three’.
 • Other distinctions are mapped onto those: first of all the personal pronouns ‘I’, ‘we’ and ‘it’,
which for him are the first, the second and the third person, since he regards the ‘we’ as the
second person.

• For Wilber the distinction in ‘Art’, ‘Morals’ and ‘Science’ or the transcendentals ‘The Beautiful’,
‘The Good’ and ‘The True’ also fit into this schema.

• The Big Three are also the place where the insights of the humanities (interior-singular), social
sciences (interior-plural) and natural sciences (exterior) come into play and are integrated.

‘The Big Three’

UNIT – II

• Transpersonal and Spiritual Experiences

• Self beyond the Ego,

• Self-actualization,

• Flow,

• Peak Experiences,
 • Mystical Experiences,

• Systemic trance,

• Level of Consciousness,

• Altered States of Consciousness

Self beyond the Ego

• Hartelius, Caplan, & Rardin (2007) conducted a thematic analysis of 160 viewpoints, definitions,
and reflections on the field of transpersonal psychology obtained from a variety of sources.

• They identified three broad definitional themes -- psychology beyond ego, integrative/holistic
psychology, and psychology of transformation – which were synthesized into a summary
definition:

• “Transpersonal psychology: An approach to psychology that

• 1) studies phenomena beyond the ego as context for 2) an integrative/holistic

psychology; this provides a framework for 3) understanding and cultivating human
transformation” (p. 11).

Various meanings of "transcendence beyond ego."

• Abraham H. Maslow, co-founder of humanistic and transpersonal psychology, identified 35

overlapping meanings of the word “transcendence” when writing about the “Psychology of
Being,” later to be called “Transpersonal Psychology” (Maslow, 1969b, 1971, chapter 21).

• Each of Maslow’s 35 themes or definitions of transcendence reflect a particular personality

characteristic of “transcending self-actualizers.”

• These personality traits or capabilities provided Maslow with the empirical basis for his “Theory
Z” which laid the groundwork for the emergence of a "transpersonal“ psychology, or a
psychology "beyond self-actualization" (Maslow, 1971, chap. 22).

• Maslow (1971) assembled his 35 varieties of transcendence into a summary definition:

• Transcendence refers to the very highest and most inclusive or holistic levels of human
consciousness, behaving and relating, as ends rather than as means, to oneself, to
significant others, to human beings in general, to other species, to nature, and to the
cosmos. (p. 279)
 • The very term ‘spirit’ is “the basic feeling of being connected with one’s complete self, others
and the entire universe”; everyone and everything is interconnected and has a purpose (Mitroff
& Denton, 1999).

• Whereas, spirituality is “an animating life force, an energy that inspires one towards certain
ends or purposes that go beyond self” (McKnight, 1984).

• Myers (1990) defined spirituality as “a continuing search for meaning and purpose in life; an
appreciation for the depth of life; the expanse of the universe, and natural forces which operate;
a personal belief system”.

• Mystical or unitive experience “characterized by a positive state of energy or vitality, a sense of

perfection, transcendence, and experiences of joy and bliss”.

• The MYSTICAL experience is a particular variety of religious experience in which the subject is

transformed and reports the loss of individuality, the oneness of all reality, union with the deity,
the unity of the subject of the experience with the object of the experience.

• The term mystic is derived from the Greek noun mystes, which originally designated an initiate
of a secret cult or mystery religion.

• In Classical Greece (5th–4th century BCE) and during the Hellenistic Age (323 BCE–330 CE), the

rites of the mystery religions were largely or wholly secret.

• The term mystes is itself derived from the verb myein (“to close,” especially the eyes or mouth)
and signified a person who kept a secret.

William James has described such experiences as having the following characteristics:

·       Ineffable noetic

·       Antinaturalistic transient

·       Passive pantheistic

·       optimistic

James held that such experiences are powerful and lead the subject of such an experience to a belief in
a supernatural entity.

James held:

1. Mystical states are authoritative over the individual who has the experience

2. Mystical states have NO authority over individuals who have not had such an experience

3. Mystical states break down the authority of ordinary consciousness and sense knowledge. Such
states offer hypotheses which others may ignore
Gary Gutting claims that in order to establish the veridical nature of religious claims there are three
criteria to be met:

1.     many should have the experience

2.     it should exist in different cultures

3.     the experience should produce a major transformation involving ,in part, the moral life of
the individual

Gary Gutting claims that the three conditions are met by reports of mystical experiences and so
they do provide a justification for belief in a supernatural being, a deity, God.

On the other hand Louis P. Pojman is not so confident.  He claims that there is both a strong justification
and a weak justification to be offered that Religious experiences do provide evidence of the existence of
a supernatural entity, a deity.

Strong: this argument would be so strong as to oblige all people to believe in God.

Weak: this justification provides rational support only for those who have had such an experience (or
already accepted the world view that holds such experiences are possible)

 Pojman argues against such a strong argument because

1. the reports are too amorphous

2. they reports are circular- acceptance of them depends on background belief in God

reports are not capable of being confirmed as with perceptual experiences

Self actualization

"Self Actualization is the intrinsic growth of what is already in the organism, or more accurately, of what
the organism is." - Abraham Maslow

• Maslow studied healthy people who had the "full use and exploitation of talents, capacities,
potentialities, etc..”

• Self-actualization implies the attainment of the basic needs of physiological, safety/security,

love/belongingness, and self-esteem.
Maslow's Basic Principles:

1.The normal personality is characterized by unity, integration, consistency, and coherence.

Organization is the natural state, and disorganization is pathological.

2.The organism can be analyzed by differentiating its parts, but no part can be studied in isolation. a. Eg.,
parts: action

3.The organism has one sovereign drive, that of self-actualization. People strive continuously to realize
their inherent potential by whatever avenues are open to them.

4. The organism's potential, if allowed to unfold by an appropriate environment, will produce a healthy,
integrated personality.

5. The comprehensive study of one person is more useful than the extensive investigation, in many
people, of an isolated psychological function.

6. The salvation of the human being is not to be found in either behaviorism or in psychoanalysis, (which
deals with only the darker, meaner half of the individual). We must deal with the questions of value,
individuality, consciousness, purpose, ethics and the higher reaches of human nature.

7. Man is basically good not evil.

8. Psychopathology generally results from the denial, frustration or twisting of our essential nature.

9. Therapy of any sort, is a means of restoring a person to the path of self-actualization and
development along the lines dictated by their inner nature.

10. When the four basic needs have been satisfied, the growth need or self-actualization need arises: A
new discontent and restlessness will develop unless the individual is doing what he individually is fitted
for. A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write--in short, what people can be
they must be.

Characteristics of Self Actualizing People

1. Realistic:
• Realistically oriented, SA persons have a more efficient perception of reality extended to all
areas of life.
• SA persons are unthreatened, unfrightened by the unknown.
• they have a superior ability to reason, to see the truth.
• logical and efficient.
2. •Acceptance:
• •Accept themselves, others and the natural world the way they are.
 • •have a lack of crippling guilt or shame, enjoy themselves without regret or apology, they have
no unnecessary inhibitions.
3. Spontaneity, Simplicity, Naturalness:
• Spontaneous in their inner life, thoughts and impulses, they are unhampered by convention.
• Their ethics is autonomous and are motivated to continual growth.

4. Problem Centering:
• Focus on problems outside themselves, other centered.
• They have a mission in life requiring much energy, their mission is their reason for existence.
• They are serene, characterized by a lack of worry, and are devoted to duty.

5. Detachment:
• The Need for Privacy: Alone but not lonely, retain dignity amid confusion and personal
misfortunes, objective.
• They are self starters, responsible for themselves, own their behavior.

6. Autonomy:
• Independent of Culture and Environment SA's rely on inner self for satisfaction.
• Stable, they are self contained, independent from love and respect.

7. Continued Freshness of Appreciation:

• Have a fresh rather than stereotyped appreciation of people and things.
• Appreciation of the basic good in life, moment to moment living is thrilling, transcending and
spiritual.
• They live the present moment to the fullest.

8. Peak experiences:
• "Feelings of limitless horizons opening up to the vision, the feeling of being simultaneously more
powerful and also more helpless than one ever was before, the feeling of ecstasy and wonder
and awe, the loss of placement in time and space with, finally, the conviction that something
extremely important and valuable had happened, so that the subject was to some extent
transformed and strengthened even in his daily life by such experiences."

Study findings

•Maslow asked his subjects to think of the most wonderful experience or experiences of their lives--the
happiest moments, ecstatic moments, moments of rapture, perhaps from being in live, or from listening
to music or suddenly "being hit" by a book or a painting or from some great creative moment.
• people undergoing peak experiences felt more integrated,

•more in command of their own lives,

•more spontaneous,

• less aware of space and time,

•more perceptive,

• more self determined,

•more playful.

Why very few people self-actualize?

•Fear

•Don’t make best of opportunities

•Live a passive life

•Conformist

•Don’t question

•Waste time

•Don’t accept themselves the way they should

•Don’t realize their potential

•Engage in social comparison, validation, anxious

How to Self-Actualize?

1. Experience things fully, vividly, selflessly. Throw yourself into the experiencing of something:
concentrate on it fully, let it totally absorb you.

2. Life is an ongoing process of choosing between safety (out of fear and need for defense) and risk (for
the sake of progress and growth): Make the growth choice a dozen times a day.

3. Let the self emerge. Try to shut out the external clues as to what you should think, feel, say, and so
on, and let your experience enable you to say what you truly feel.
4. When in doubt, be honest, responsibility.

5. Listen to your own tastes. Be prepared to be unpopular.

6. Use your intelligence, work to do well the things you want to do, no matter how insignificant they
seem to be.

7. Make peak experiencing more likely: get rid of illusions and false notions. Learn what you are good at
and what your potentialities are not.

8. Find out who you are, what you are, what you like and don't like, what is good and what is bad for
you, where you are going, what your mission is, identifying defenses--and then finding the courage to
give them up

Peak experiences

Maslow asked his subjects to think of the most wonderful experience or experiences of their lives--the
happiest moments, ecstatic moments, moments of rapture, perhaps from being in live, or from listening
to music or suddenly "being hit" by a book or a painting or from some great creative moment. He found
that people undergoing peak experiences felt more integrated, more at one with the world, more in
command of their own lives, more spontaneous, less aware of space and time, more perceptive, more
self determined, more playful.

Effects of peak experiences:

• The removal of neurotic symptoms

• A tendency to view oneself in a more healthy way

• Change in one's view of other people and of one's relations with them

• Change in one's view of the world

• The release of creativity, spontaneity and expressiveness

• A tendency to remember the experience and to try to duplicate it

• A tendency to view life in general as more worthwhile

LEVELS OF CONSCIOUSNESS

• Level 1: Survival consciousness

• clean air, water and wholesome food, financially secure.

 • survival needs met by your parents

•If not –

• Trust issues
• Fear
• Anxiety
• Low confidence

• Level 2: Relationship consciousness

• Safety in relationships
• Love and belongingness, protected, cared
• Unconditional level

•If u didn’t receive it-

• attention seeker, trust issues, difficulty in opening

• Maladaptive relations when you grow up

• Level 3: Self-esteem consciousness

• feeling secure in your community.

• accepted and respected by our peers and recognized by those in positions of authority.
• Acceptance, appreciation by parents and other significant others during childhood and teenage
determine the level of self esteem during adulthood

• In the light of any self-esteem challenge—when you don’t feel good enough—your fear-based limiting
beliefs from your teenage years will be triggered, and you may become anxious and emotionally upset.

• Level 4: Transformation consciousness

• finding freedom and autonomy.

• “Who am I?” and “What is important to me?”
• discovering your true (soul) self.
• Fully expressing who you are, making your own choices, taking own decisions
• •Not conforming to others, not succumbing to cultural pressure

• Level 5: Internal cohesion consciousness

• finding meaning in your life “Why am I here in this body?”

 • and “How can I fully express myself?”
• Reached by very few

• Level 6: Making a difference consciousness

• making a difference in the world—in your family, your workplace, in your community or nation,
or in our global society.
• People at this level of consciousness connect with others, respect others, help, support,
motivate, empathize

• Level 7: Service consciousness

• selfless service to the cause or the work using your gifts and talents
• Listening to your soul
• Guided by your soul
• •Characteristics:- introspective, self-reflective, your work becomes play, flow experience

Full-Spectrum consciousness

• •Mastery of every stage of psychological development

• Satisfied ego and wishes of soul
• •Inner peace, calm
• •Devoid of fears, anxiety

CHARACTERISTICS

• They master their survival needs by staying healthy, looking after their bodies and their financial
security and keeping safe from harm and injury.

• They master their relationship needs by building friendships and family connections that create a
sense of love and belonging.

• They master their self-esteem needs by building a strong sense of self-worth and acting responsibly
and reliably in everything they do.

• They master their transformation needs by having the courage to embrace their authentic selves;
living their values and managing or overcoming the fears that keep them focused on their deficiency
needs.
• They master their internal cohesion needs by uncovering and embracing their soul’s purpose,
expressing their creativity and thereby finding meaning in life.

• They master their making a difference needs through actualizing their sense of purpose and leveraging
their actions in the world by connecting with others in unconditional loving relationships.

• They master their service needs by devoting their life to their sense of purpose and making a lasting
contribution to well-being of humanity or the planet in service to current and future generations.

Mystical Experiences

Some authors conceptualize the “mystical” experience as one, which can momentarily occur in the
process of the development of higher states of consciousness. For them the core state of consciousness
is pure consciousness and from it develops these higher states of consciousness. Mystical experiences
are recorded to having occurred in many parts of the world even during ancient times and in all major
religions of the world. The word “Mysticism” comes from the Greek language and is derived from the
root meaning, “to close”. Mysticism is usually defined in dictionaries and encyclopedias as a ‘spiritual
discipline used to make contact with the divine’. Mystical experience is not dreaming, because the
subject is awake. It is not hallucination, because there is no organic disturbance. There are five common
characteristics of mystical experiences. They are: ecstatic mood, sense of newly gained knowledge,
perceptual alterations, delusions and, no conceptual disorganization.

the effects of mystical experience as long-term and short-term effects

the long-term effects are: • Mystics say their lives are more meaningful, think about meaning and
purpose • Know what purpose of life is • Meditate more • Score higher on self-rated personal talents
and capabilities

The short-term effects are as follows: • experience temporarily disorienting, alarming, disruptive be
behaviour • likely changes in self and the world, space and time, emotional attitudes, cognitive styles,
personalities, doubt sanity and reluctance to communicate, feel ordinary language is inadequate • some
individuals report psychic capacities and visionary experience destabilizing relationships with family and
friends • withdrawal, isolation, confusion, insecurity, self-doubt, depression, anxiety, panic, restlessness,
grandiose religious delusions

Flow

In flow, we are in control of our psychic energy and everything we do adds order to consciousness.
Following a flow experience, our self becomes more complex than that it had been before, due to two
broad psychological processes – differentiation and integration. The self becomes differentiated as the
person after a flow experience feels more capable and skilled. Flow leads to integration because
thoughts, intentions, feelings and the senses are focused on the same goal. Some individuals are
constitutionally incapable of experiencing flow, eg: schizophrenics. They notice irrelevant stimuli and get
side tracked. Some people find it difficult to concentrate psychic energy. Others are too self conscious.

Altered States of Consciousness

CONSCIOUSNESS

• Primary phenomenal consciousness:

• “mere presence or the simple having of subjective experiences (Revonsuo, 2006)”

• includes sensations, percepts, emotions, images etc.

• Reflective consciousness: second notion of consciousness

•focusing on some particular phenomenal content and select it as input for further conscious processing
(naming, categorizing, judging, evaluation etc)

STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS-1st approach

• “Every distinct mental state defined by its particular content (or its intentional object) and by its mode
(remembering, attending, hoping), if conscious, is a distinct state of consciousness. Thus, seeing a bird
fly and seeing a dog run count as two distinct states of consciousness”.

• Every content is a state

2 nd approach

• Every distinct total pattern of subjective experience is a distinct state of consciousness. It is the global
organization of the overall contents of consciousness at some moment (sensation, perception, emotion;
the overall sensory-perceptual ‘‘world’’ in consciousness), not the specific contents of consciousness.

• If the overall patterns change and their organization breaks down, then it can be counted as an altered
state.

3 rd Approach

• The ‘‘state’’ of consciousness is defined not by the contents or patterns of experience as such, but by
their relations to the surrounding context in which the contents or patterns of experience occur.

•Accepted definition
Normal state of consciousness

• The overall contents of consciousness thus accurately represent the surrounding ‘‘world.’’

ASC

• deviate from the natural relation in such a way that the world and/or self tend to be misrepresented.

•Natural: world-consciousness

•misrepresentational state is not the functional, original or permanent state of the organism’s
consciousness

• caused by some external or internal change to the organism’s biological makeup alters the
representational [world-consciousness] relations.

• contents of consciousness don’t define whether a state is ‘‘normal’’ or ‘‘altered’’ but its relation to the
world.

ALTERED STATE OF CONSCIOUSNESS

• Farthing (1992) : a temporary change in the overall pattern of subjective experience, such that the
individual believes that his or her mental functioning is distinctly different from certain general norms
for his or her normal waking state of consciousness. (p. 205)

• Tart (1990) An altered state of consciousness for a given individual is one in which he clearly feels a
qualitative shift in his pattern of mental functioning, that is, he feels not just a quantitative shift (more or
less alert, more or less visual imagery, sharper, duller, etc.), but also that some quality or qualities of his
mental processes are different.

TYPES OF ASC

• 1. Sleep: During sleep any contents of consciousness eg., mental activity, imagery, dreaming
misrepresent reality therefore are an ASC.

• Such mental activity engage our minds and effects our memory that we had just gone to sleep

• we are unaware of our real surroundings

• deep sleep is not an ASC.

2. Hypnosis
•A hypnotic state which involves hallucinations and delusions in response to verbal suggestions is an
ASC.

•If hypnosis only involves voluntary mental imagery as per verbal suggestions then not an ASC

3. Posthypnotic suggestion

•suggestion given to the subject during hypnosis (during an ASC), but its effects seen when the subject is
no longer ‘‘hypnotized.’’

• The posthypnotic suggestion can cause forgetfulness/ amnesia for words, urge to carry out a certain
action, and also amnesia for the fact that this suggestion was given.

•Hypnosis/ASC is only associated with the creation of the misrepresentation as misrepresentations

occur only during an ASC.

4. Meditation

• Meditation can lead to ASC, when the sense of the self disappears and meditator has visual
hallucinations of light, mystical experiences, etc.

•An ASC during meditation is an exception rather than a rule

• Most of the times meditators are fully aware and the state involves attention, concentration,
relaxation, inner imagery and speech, and absence of sensory stimulation.

5. Higher and Mystical States of Consciousness

• positive, desireable, and ‘‘higher’’ states of consciousness- flow, enlightenment.

•flow state includes distorted sense of time and self.

• Mystical states involve misrepresentations of reality in the form of: delusions of grandieur; beliefs
about a contact with God or the Universe, special knowledge gained through such experience, distortion
of the sense of time and the sense of self.

6. Visual Hallucination: Charles Bonnet Syndrome

• neurological syndrome seen in elderly,

• patient has intermittent but vivid lifelike visual hallucinations from simple patters to complex scenes.

•Hallucinations vary across patients,

•Initially, the hallucinations might be mistaken for real objects, but usually the patient learns to
distinguish the hallucinations from reality.

• no psychiatric symptoms such as delusions involved, and no hallucinations in other modalities.

• Charles Bonnet Syndrome is not an ASC- fails to fulfill the globality of misrepresentation;

• altered activity in only visual modules, not an overall altered state in the background mechanisms of
consciousness as in dreams where memory distortion occurs, delusions, hallucinations across different
modalities occur.

Epileptic Seizures

• patients experience a rich variety of illusions, hallucinations, delusions, and the loss of physical and
mental control.

•Also total loss of consciousness may occur,

• automatic behaviours

• Confusion

•seizures are temporary and reversible just the way ASC is

Psychotic Episodes

•include delusions, paranoia, derealization, depersonalization, and hallucinations in auditory and visual
modality.

• psychosis refers to the fact that the patient is out of touch with reality which classifies it as ASC, but
whether it is reversible or not puts a question mark

• Temporary psychotic episodes can be regarded as ASC

•schizophrenia, major depression cant be classified as ASCs •Only the psychotic episodes, had by any
kind of patients, can be ASCs.

Other ASCs

•Hallucinatory and delusional states caused by:

• drugs,

• heavy alcohol intoxication,

•sensory deprivation etc.