Revisioning Transpersonal Theory

* Book: Revisioning Transpersonal Theory. A participatory vision of human spirituality. By Jorge Ferrer.

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Summary

From the reading notes of Michel Bauwens , 2006:

Foreword: Richard Tarnas on paradigm shift

An original break often returns assumptions of the past, so that a second break may be needed.

Example: Copernicus' hypothesis of heliocentrism still suffered from the assumption that the planets move in circles; it took Kepler to step outside it, and discover elliptical movement.

The evolution of transpersonal psychology, whose aim it was to bridge the break between science and religious experience, followed a similar pattern.

It's precursors were William James and Carl Gustav Jung; it's founders were Abraham Maslow and Stanislav Grof.

Transpersonal Psychology represented a radical break with the prevailing positivism and reductionism, but remained itself within the the same problematic: it retained "Cartesian assumptions, i.e. the stress on separate intrasubjective experience; it also shared the anti-Christian attitude of the Enlightenment.

Chapter 1

This is the key book that ended the dominance of the field by the ideas of Ken Wilber, and formulated the epistemological requirements set by post-structuralism, so that the discourse and practice of spirituality can be taken seriously by contemporary culture.

After a review of the origins of the movement, Ferrer stresses that desite the many different strands, what unites them is the recognition of the epistemic value of the spiritual experience, i.e. it discloses something vital about self, other, and world; in contrast to scientism, positivism, materialism, reductionism. But, paradoxically, Transpersonal Psychology did not have its own epistemology, though it was grounded in Cartesian viewpoints, mainly experentialism, and intrasubjective empiricism.

When Ferrer started this research, he first wanted to

   - 1) to confirm Cartesian presuppositions, but failed
   - 2) then undertook a epistemic turn (away from experience)
   - 3) but finally decided on a participatory turn: i.e. spirituality as a multi-local event that would disclose itself in a individual, relationship, community, etc.. 

These shifts did not occur without blockages and periods of stagnation!

Chapter 2: Roots of the experiential vision

I. In the West: the differentiation of the unified metaphysical worldview

- 1. The objective or natural world: empirical science, instrumental-technical rationality (OBJECTIVE TRUTH)

- 2. The intersubjective or social world. This is the realm of politics and ethics, approached by moral-pragmatic rationality (NORMATIVE RIGHTS)

- 3. The subjective or individual world: the realm of arts, religion, psychotherapy, approached by aesthetic-expressive rationality (SINCERITY)

Religious and spiritual phenomena were therefore relegated to the subjective realm, and not considered to disclose valid knowledge.

In Western religious studies, the idea of religion as an inner experience can be traded to Schleiermacher's "On Religion", from 1794.

II. In the East

- 1. In Buddhist studies, it stems from

       - a. new Japanese Zen movements of the Kyoto school (Nishida Kitaro, D.T. Suzuki)
       - b. the vipassana revival, starting at the end of the 19th cy
   

- 2. In Hindu studies:

       - a. from the 19th cy: emergence of neo-Hindu thinkers such as Rammohan Roy, R. Tagore, S. Radakrishnan

After Maslow had identified peak experiences with the 'core-religious' experiences, transpersonalists could either follow Jung, or the East, and according to Ferrer, this in part explains the Washburn-Wilber split. The necessary legitimization of the field made 'Intrasubjective empiricism" unavoidable. Tthough experientialism was therefore necessary and emancipating, it has now become regressive.

What are its main problems ?

   - intrasubjective reductionism
   - subtle Cartesianism
   - spiritual narcissism
   - integrative arrestment

- a. Intrasubjective reductionism

This gave a space to spirituality in the modern differentiation, and validated it as a form of knowledge. This is radical but incomplete. Spirituality has to include the objective (self and world, self and nature), it has to be socially engaged (Rothberg); while Wilber has advocated a new form of cognition which can integrate these 'dissociated' worlds. Nevertheless, Wilber retains the experiential vision but wants to expand it in all 4 quadrants in a 'expanded empiricism'. Divorced from ethical and communal practices, it may loose its transformative potential to become a simple peak experience and a vehicle for narcissism. It also reduces spirituality to a mere human phenomenological affair, something that a participative vision would avoid.

- b. Subtle Cartesianism

This involves the understanding of spiritual phenomena according to a subject-object model of knowledge and cognition. Though TP explicitely argued against it, the experiential vision grounds it back in such a split.

But Transpersonal Psychology nevertheless challenges Cartesianism because:

- 1) the subjective can become objective ('witnessing' techniques)

- 2) the objective can become subjective:

       - a. inner transformation creates new world spaces
       - b.  objectified archetypes can become new personality structures

Ferrer concludes by showing a 'double shift' has occured to 'reduce' transpersonal phenomena. First, it is limited to inner experience, and then, it is split into a subject experiencing 'objects'.

The previously mentioned 'double shift' leads to two betrayals:

- 1) spiritual narcissism

- 2) arrested development

- c. Spiritual narcissism

If spirituality can be seen as a path towards self-transformation, in order to overcome narcissism and self-centeredness, often it is not. Spiritual narcissism is the misuse of spiritual practices, energy or experiences to bolster self-centered ways of being

It can manifest itself in:

   - 1) ego-inflation
   - 2) self-absorption (i.e. pre-occupation with one's own spiritual achievements)
   - 3) spiritual materialism (appropriation to strengthen ego)

Intrasubjective reductionism favors narcissism by placing experiences in the domain of the ego, while subtle Cartesianism reinforces it by :

   - subjectivism, i.e. including everything in 'me'
   - objectivism, i.e. believing one is a 'detached observer' of the world

Both viewpionts isolate from participation and engagement!

- "In one case, I devour everything into my experience; in the other, I dominate through my intellect and will". (Evans)

- d. Integrative arrestment

The goal of the spiritual quest is to stabilize spiritual consciousness and to integrate transpersonal phenomena into daily life. Experientialism puts up two roadblocks on that path.

- 1) the emphasis on experience is disjointed from the full integrative understanding of spirituality, which includes ethics, study of the scriptures, etc..

- 2) experiences are seen with a beginning and an end, rather than as permanent transformational processes.

More information

• J.J. Clarke. Oriental Enligthenment: the encounter between Asian and Western thought. Routledge, 1997

• J.B. Cobb. Beyond Dialogue: towrd mutual understanding and transformation of Christianity and Buddhism. Fortress Press, 1990.

• Coward H. Jung and Eastern Thought , 1985

• Cupitt, D. Mysticism after modernity. Blackwell 1998