Lessons from Modern Consciousness Research 4 страница
The emergence of symptoms thus represents not only a problem, but also a therapeutic opportunity; this insight is the basis of most experiential psychotherapies. Symptoms manifest in the area where the defense system is at its weakest, making it possible for the healing process to begin. According to my experience, this is true not only for neuroses and psychosomatic disorders, but also for many conditions traditionally labeled functional psychoses. It is interesting to mention in this context that the Chinese pictogram for "crisis" is composed of two simpler ones, one meaning "danger" and the other "opportunity." The idea that the symptoms are not manifestations of disease, but are expressions of a healing process and should be supported is the basic tenet of a therapeutic system called homeopathy (Vithoulkas 1990).
In traditional psychotherapy, emotional and psychosomatic symptoms that are not of organic, but psychogenic origin, are seen as resulting from postnatal biographical traumas, especially those that occurred in infancy and childhood. Therapeutic work using holotropic states reveals that they have additional deeper roots on the perinatal and transpersonal levels. Thus, for example, somebody suffering from psychogenic asthma can discover that the biographical material underlying this disorder consists of memories of suffocation during a near-drowning accident in childhood and an episode of diphtheria in infancy. On a deeper level, the same problem is also connected with choking in the birth canal and its deepest root can be a past life experience of being strangled or hanged. To resolve this symptom, it is necessary to work through all the layers of unconscious problems with which it is associated. New insights concerning this multilevel dynamic structure of the major forms of emotional and psychosomatic disorders were described in detail elsewhere (Grof 1985, 2000).
Therapeutic Mechanisms and the Process of Healing.
The work with holotropic states has thus shown that emotional and psychosomatic problems are much more complex than is usually assumed and that their roots reach incomparably deeper into the psyche. However, it also revealed the existence of deeper and more effective therapeutic mechanisms. Traditional schools of psychotherapy recognize only therapeutic mechanisms related to postnatal biographical material and the individual unconscious, for example, lifting of psychological repression and remembering events from infancy and childhood or reconstructing them from free associations to dreams and neurotic symptoms, emotional and intellectual insights into one's life history, and analysis of transference.
The new observations show that these approaches fail to recognize and appreciate the extraordinary healing potential of the deeper dynamics of the psyche. Thus, for example, the reliving of birth and the experience of ego death and psychospiritual rebirth can have far-reaching therapeutic impact on a broad spectrum of emotional disorders. Effective therapeutic mechanisms are also associated with various forms of transpersonal phenomena, such as past life experiences, encounter with archetypal figures and motifs, and identification with various animals. Of particular importance in this respect are ecstatic feelings of oneness with other people, nature, the universe, and God. If they are allowed to run their full course and are properly integrated, they represent a healing mechanism of extraordinary power.
These observations show that the conceptual framework of psychotherapy has to be extended as vastly as the cartography of the unconscious. Freud once used a metaphor of the iceberg to describe the human psyche. What was generally thought to be the totality of the psyche was just like the tip of the iceberg showing above the water surface. The bulk of this iceberg hidden under water corresponded to the unconscious realms revealed by psychoanalysis. In view of the discoveries of modern consciousness research, we can paraphrase this simile and say that all that Freudian psychoanalysis has discovered about the human psyche represents at best the exposed part of the iceberg, while vast domains of the unconscious resisted Freud’s efforts and remained hidden even for him. Mythologist Joseph Campbell, using his incisive Irish humor, put it very succinctly: “Freud was fishing, while sitting on a whale.”
Strategy of Psychotherapy and Self-Exploration.
Modern psychotherapy is plagued by an astonishing lack of agreement among its different schools about the most fundamental questions concerning the functioning and the main motivating forces of the human psyche, the cause, nature, and dynamics of symptoms, and the strategy and technique of psychotherapy. This does not apply only to the schools based on entirely different philosophical assumptions, such as behaviorism, psychoanalysis, and existential therapy, but also to the various branches of depth psychology that evolved historically from the same source, the original work of Sigmund Freud - the Adlerian, Rankian, Jungian, Kleinian, Reichian, and Lacanian schools, ego psychology, and many others.
The world of modern psychotherapy resembles a large busy market place, in which it is difficult to orient oneself. Each of the many schools offers a different explanation for the same emotional and psychosomatic disorder and uses a different therapeutic technique. Each of these approaches is presented as the scientific way to understand and treat these problems. It is difficult to envision a similar degree of disagreement in one of the hard sciences. Yet in psychology, we have somehow learned to live with this situation and do not usually even question it or consider it strange.
There are no convincing statistical studies showing that one form of psychotherapy is superior to others. The differences seem to be within the schools rather than between them. Psychotherapy is generally as good as the therapist; good therapists of all schools tend to get better results and bad therapists are less successful without regard to their orientation. Clearly, the results of psychotherapy have very little to do with the theoretical concepts of a particular school and with what the therapists think they are doing -- the content and the timing of interpretations, analysis of transference, strategic use of silence, and so on.
It seems that the factors, which play a critical role in psychotherapy, are very different from those that are usually discussed in professional books. They are also very difficult to describe in scientific terms, as exemplified by such descriptions as “the quality of human encounter between the therapist and the client” or “the client’s feeling of being unconditionally accepted by another human being, often for the first time in his or her life.” Under these circumstances, if we opt as beginning professionals for a certain school of psychotherapy, for example Freudian, Reichian, Jungian, or Sullivanian, it is because we are attracted to it for very personal reasons. It is a purely subjective choice reflecting our own personality structure and it has very little to do with the objective value and scientific accuracy of that particular approach.
The work with holotropic states suggests a very interesting alternative: if the experts can not reach agreement, why not to trust one's own healing intelligence, one's own inner healer. This approach was first suggested by C. G. Jung. He was aware of the fact that it is impossible to reach intellectual understanding of how the psyche functions and why the symptoms develop and derive from it a technique that makes it possible to correct the psychological functioning of other people. According to Jung, the psyche is not a product of the brain; it is a cosmic principle (anima mundi) that permeates all of existence and our individual psyche partakes in this cosmic matrix.
The intellect is just a partial function of the psyche, which makes it possible for us to orient ourselves in practical situations and solve everyday problems; it is incapable to fathom and manipulate the psyche. Jung saw the task of the therapist in helping to establish a dynamic interaction between the client's conscious ego and the Self, a higher aspect of the client’s personality; this interaction takes the form of a dialectic exchange using the language of symbols. The healing then comes from the collective unconscious and it is guided by an inner intelligence whose immense wisdom surpasses the knowledge of any individual therapist or therapeutic school. This is the essence of what Jung called the individuation process.
Therapeutic work with holotropic states, as exemplified by psychedelic therapy or holotropic breathwork, generally supports Jung's understanding of the therapeutic process. However, it is much more effective than the therapeutic techniques, which were available to Jung, such as the analysis of dreams and the method of active imagination. Holotropic states tend to activate the spontaneous healing potential of the psyche and of the body and initiate a transformative process guided by deep inner intelligence. In this process, unconscious material with strong emotional charge and relevance will automatically emerge into consciousness and become available for full experience and integration.
The task of the therapist, is to offer a method that induces a holotropic state of consciousness (e.g. a psychedelic substance or faster breathing and evocative music), create a safe environment, and support unconditionally and with full trust the spontaneous unfolding of the process. This trust has to extend even to situations where the therapist does not understand intellectually what is happening. Healing and resolution can often occur in ways that transcend rational understanding. In this form of therapy, the therapist thus is not the doer, the agent who is instrumental in the healing process, but a sympathetic supporter and co-adventurer. This attitude is in consonance with the original meaning of the Greek word therapeutes, which means attendant or assistant in the healing process.
The Role of Spirituality in Human Life
Traditional psychology and psychiatry are dominated by materialistic philosophy and have no recognition for spirituality of any form. From the point of view of Western science, the material world represents the only reality and any form of spiritual belief is seen as reflecting lack of education, primitive superstition, magical thinking, or regression to infantile patterns of functioning. Direct experiences of spiritual realities are then relegated to the world of gross psychopathology, serious mental disorders. Western psychiatry makes no distinction between a mystical experience and a psychotic experience and sees both as manifestations of mental disease. In its rejection of religion, it does not differentiate primitive folk beliefs or fundamentalists' literal interpretations of scriptures from sophisticated mystical traditions and Eastern spiritual philosophies based on centuries of systematic introspective exploration of the psyche. It pathologizes spirituality of any kind and together with it the entire spiritual history of humanity.
The observations from the study of holotropic states confirm an important insight of C.G. Jung. According to him, the experiences originating in deeper levels of the psyche (in my own terminology perinatal and transpersonal experiences) have a certain quality that he called (after Rudolph Otto) numinosity. They are associated with the feeling that one is encountering a dimension which is sacred, holy, and radically different from everyday life, and which belongs to a superior order of reality. The term numinous is relatively neutral and thus preferable to others, such as religious, mystical, magical, holy, or sacred, which have often been used incorrectly and are easily misleading.
To prevent confusion and misunderstandings that in the past have compromised many similar discussions, it is critical to make a clear distinction between spirituality and religion. Spirituality is based on direct experiences of other realities. It does not necessarily require a special place, or a special person mediating contact with the divine, although mystics can certainly benefit from spiritual guidance and a community of fellow seekers. Spirituality involves a special relationship between the individual and the cosmos and is in its essence a personal and private affair. At the cradle of all great religions were visionary (perinatal and/or transpersonal) experiences of their founders, prophets, saints, and even ordinary followers. All major spiritual scriptures -- the Vedas, the Buddhist Pali Canon, the Bible, the Koran, the Book of Mormon, and many others are based on revelations in holotropic states of consciousness.
By comparison, the basis of organized religion is institutionalized group activity that takes place in a designated location (temple, church), and involves a system of appointed officials. Ideally, religions should provide for their members access to and support for direct spiritual experiences. However, it often happens that an organized religion sooner or later completely loses the connection with its spiritual source and becomes a secular institution exploiting the human spiritual needs without satisfying them. Instead, it creates a hierarchical system focusing on the pursuit of power, control, politics, money, and other possessions. Under these circumstances, religious hierarchy tends to actively discourage and suppress direct spiritual experiences in its members, because they foster independence and cannot be effectively controlled. When this happens, genuine spiritual life continues only in the mystical branches and monastic orders.
From the scientific point of view, the main question is the ontological status of transpersonal experiences. While mainstream psychiatry and psychology see them as indications of pathology, transpersonal psychology considers them important phenomena sui generis that have great heuristic and therapeutic value and deserve to be seriously studied. While much of what is found in mainstream religions and their theologies is certainly in serious conflict with science, this is not true in regard to spirituality based on direct transpersonal experiences. The findings of modern consciousness research show actually remarkable convergence with many revolutionary developments in Western science referred to as the emerging paradigm. As Ken Wilber has noted, there cannot possibly be a conflict between genuine science and authentic religion. If there seems to be a conflict, we are very likely dealing with "bogus science" and "bogus religion,” where either side has a serious misunderstanding of the other's position and very likely represents a false or fake version of its own discipline (Wilber 1982).
The Nature of Reality
As we have seen, the observations from the research of holotropic states represent a serious challenge to contemporary psychiatry and psychology and require a drastic revision of our thinking in these fields. However, many of them are of such a fundamental nature that they transcend the narrow frame of these disciplines and challenge the most basic metaphysical assumptions of Western science and its Newtonian-Cartesian paradigm. They seriously undermine the belief that consciousness is a product of neurophysiological processes in the brains and thus an epiphenomenon of matter; they strongly suggest that it is a primary attribute of all existence.
The scope of this article does not allow me to offer a comprehensive discussion of this important subject and illustrate it by clinical examples. I have done it in my books Beyond the Brain: Birth, Death, and Transcendence in Psychology (Grof 1985) and The Cosmic Game: Explorations of the Frontiers of Human Consciousness (Grof 1998) and can thus refer the interested readers to these publications. I will mention here as pars pro toto a set of astonishing observations from thanatology, a relatively young science studying death and dying; most readers will probably be familiar with these paradigm-breaking findings.
It has now been established beyond any reasonable doubt that consciousness of individuals experiencing clinical death or involved in near-death situations can detach from their bodies and is able to perceive the environment without the mediation of senses. It is capable to observe from the ceiling the resuscitation procedures performed on the body in the operation room, watch from the bird’s eye view the site of the accident, or perceive events in adjacent rooms and various remote locations (Moody 1975, Ring 1982, Sabom 1982). This occurs even in people who are congenitally blind for organic reasons. When their consciousness leaves their bodies, they are not only able to see, but what they see at this time can be later verified by individuals with intact vision. Ring and Cooper, who conducted extensive studies of such individuals call such experiences “veridical” and refer to the capacity of disembodied consciousness to see the environment as “mindsight” (Ring and Cooper 1999).
When confronted with the challenging observations from modern consciousness research, we have only two choices. The first one is to reject the new observations simply because they are incompatible with the traditional scientific belief system. This involves a presumptuous assumption that we already know what the universe is like and can tell with certainty what is possible and what is not possible. With this kind of approach, there cannot be any great surprises, but there is also very little real progress. In this context, everybody who brings critically challenging data is accused of being a bad scientist, a fraud, or a mentally deranged person.
This is an approach that characterizes pseudoscience or scientistic fundamentalism and has very little to do with genuine science. There exist many historical examples of such an approach: people who refused to look into Galileo Galilei's telescope, because they "knew" there could not possibly be craters on the moon; those who fought against the atomic theory of chemistry and defended the concept of a non-existing royal substance called flogiston; those who called Einstein a psychotic when he proposed his special theory of relativity, and many others.
The second reaction to these challenging new observations is characteristic of true science. It is excitement about the occurrence of anomalies and intense research interest in them combined with healthy critical skepticism. Major scientific progress has always occurred when the leading paradigm was unable to account for some significant findings and its adequacy was seriously questioned. In the history of science, paradigms come, dominate the field for some time, and then are replaced by new ones (Kuhn 1962). If instead of doubting, rejecting, and ridiculing the new observations from consciousness research, we would accept their challenge, conduct our own study, and subject them to rigorous scrutiny, we might be able move psychiatry and psychology to a new level.
It is hard to imagine that Western academic circles will continue indefinitely ignoring, censoring, and misinterpreting all the extraordinary evidence that has in the past been amassed in the study of various forms of holotropic states of consciousness. Sooner or later, they will have to face the challenge of the new data and accept their far-reaching theoretical and practical implications. I firmly believe that in not too distant future the old materialistic world view will be replaced by a new comprehensive vision of reality, which will integrate modern science with spirituality and Western pragmatism with ancient wisdom. I have no doubt that it will include as an important element the new revolutionary understanding of consciousness, human nature, and the nature of reality that has emerged from the study of holotropic states.
References:
Alexander, F. 1931. Buddhist Training As Artificial Catatonia. Psychoanalyt. Rev. 18:129.
Campbell, J. 1956. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Meridian Books, New York.
Grof, C. and Grof, S. 1990. The Stormy Search for the Self. Los Angeles: J.P.Tarcher.
Grof, S. 1975. Realms of the Human Unconscious. New York: Viking Press.
Grof, S. 1985. Beyond the Brain. Albany, New York: SUNY Press.
Grof, S. 1988. The Adventure of Self-Discovery. Albany, New York: SUNY Press.
Grof, S. and Grof, C. (eds.) 1989. Spiritual Emergency. Los Angeles: J. P. Tarcher.
Grof, S. 1992. The Holotropic Mind. San Francisco: Harper.
Grof, S. 1998. The Cosmic Game: Explorations of the Frontiers of Human Consciousness. State University New York Press, Albany, N.Y., 1998
Grof, S. 2000. Psychology of the Future. Albany, NY: State University of New York (SUNY) Press.
Harner, M. 1980. The Way of the Shaman. New York: Harper and Row.
Jung, C. G. 1960. The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. In: Collected Works, Vol. 9.1., Bollingen Series XX., Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Kuhn, T. 1962. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Moody, R.A. 1975. Life After Life. New York: Bantam.
Perls, F. 1976. The Gestalt Approach and Eye-Witness to Therapy. New York: Bantam books.
Ring, K.: Life at Death: A Scientific Investigation of the Near-Death Experience. Quill, New York,1982.
Ring, K. and Cooper, S. 1999. Mindsight: Near-Death and Out-of-Body Experiences in the Blind. Palo Alto, California: William James Center for Consciousness Studies.
Ross, C. A. 1989. Multiple Personality Disorder: Diagnosis, Clinical Features, and Treatment. New York: Wiley.
Sabom, M. 1982. Recollections of Death: A Medical Investigation. New York: Harper and Row.
Talbot, M. 1991. The Holographic Universe. San Francisco: Harper Collins.
Vithoulkas, G. 1980. The Science of Homeopathy. New York: Grove Press.
Wasson, G., Hofmann, A., and Ruck, C.A.P. 1978. The Road to Eleusis: Unveiling the Secret of the Mysteries. New York: Harcourt, Brace, and Jovanovitch.
Wilber, K. 1982. A Sociable God. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Holotropic Breathwork: New Perspectives in Psychotherapy and Self-Exploration
|
