A Primer In Positive Psychology

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‘A Primer in Positive Psychology Positive psychology is the scientific study of what goes right in life, from birth to death and at all stops in between. It is a newly christened approach within psychology that takes seriously as a subject matter those things that make life most worth living. Everyone’s life has peaks and valleys,.

• Psychological tests are tools. Any tool can be an instrument of good or harm, depending on how it is used. The function of psychological tests has been to measure the difference between the.
• Positive Psychology in Practice: Promoting Human Flourishing in Work, Health, Education, and Everyday Life Stephen Joseph download Z-Library. Download books for free.
• In a very general sense, positive psychology can be thought of as the science of happiness; it is an area of study that seeks to identify and promote.

BridgingPsychological Science and Transpersonal Spirit

APrimer of Transpersonal Psychology

Copyright@ 2011 by Paul F. Cunningham, Ph.D.

Department of Psychology

Rivier College, Nashua NH 03060-5086

pcunningham@rivier.edu

CONTENT

FOREWORD………………………………………………………………………………………………… 4

PREFACE……………………………………………………………………………………………….…… 5

INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………………………………… 13

UNIT 1 WHAT IS TRANSPERSONAL PSYCHOLOGY?…………………………………….. 15

• Definitions of Transpersonal Psychology…………………………………………….. 16

• The Varieties of Transpersonal Experience and Behavior……………………………. 24

• The Parapsychology of Spirituality…………………………………………………… 28

• The Creative Nature of Transpersonal Experiences and Behaviors………………… 34

  • Various Meanings of Transcendence……………………………………….. 34

  • Transcendence and the Nature of Creativity………………………………… 38

• A New Approach to Religious Issues…………………………………………………. 40

  • A Transpersonal Interpretation of a Religious Event…………….…………. 50

• Criticisms of Transpersonal Psychology……………………………………………… 53

  • “The Dangers of Transpersonal Psychology”………………………………. 54

• The Transpersonal Vision…………………………………………………………….. 56

• Section Summary……………………………………………………………………… 58

Fig. 1-1 Definitions of TranspersonalPsychology (1967-2003)…………………………………… 16

Fig. 1-2 Varieties of TranspersonalPhenomena……………………………………………………. 25

Fig. 1-3 Exceptional HumanExperiences………………………………………………………… 26

Fig. 1-4 Various Meanings ofTranscendence……………………………………………………… 35

Fig.1-5 Transpersonal Psychology as an Approach to ReligiousIssues…………………………… 41

Fig. 1-6 Miracle at Medjugorie: ATranspersonal Interpretation…………………………………… 51

UNIT2 WHAT ARE THE ORIGINS OF TRANSPERSONAL PSYCHOLOGY?………… 59

• The Probable Histories of Transpersonal Psychology………………………………… 60

• The Personalistic Approach to the History of Transpersonal Psychology……………. 61

  • Gustav T. Fechner……………………………………………………………… 62

  • William James……………………………………………………………………. 63

  • F. W. H. Myers…………………………………………………………………… 67

  • Sigmund Freud……………………………………………………………………. 70

  • Alfred Adler………………………………………………………………………. 74

  • Carl G. Jung……………………………………………………………………… 75

  • Roberto Assagioli………………………………………………………………… 85

• The Naturalistic Approach to the History of Transpersonal Psychology…………… 97

  • America’s Visionary “Folk Psychology” Tradition……………………………… 97

  • Hidden Tradition of Psychic Research in Modern Psychology…………………… 98

  • Spiritualism…………………………………………………………………………. 99

  • The Americanization of Eastern and Asian Systems of Thought………………… 103

  • The Counterculture Movement (1960-1980)…………………………………… 104

  • Humanistic Psychology………………………………………………………… 107

  • The Birth of Modern Transpersonal Psychology………………………………… 108

  • Transpersonal Psychology – After the Founding……………………………… 112

• Transpersonal Psychology Around the World……………………………………… 115

• Section Summary…………………………………………………………………… 116

Fig. 2-1 “Unofficial “ IntellectualHistory of Modern Transpersonal Psychology………………… 117

UNIT3 CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVES IN TRANSPERSONAL PSYCHOLOGY…. 123

• Contemporary Approaches in Transpersonal Psychology……………………………. 124

  • The Biological Perspective………………………………………………….. 126

  • The Environmental Perspective…………………………………………… 127

  • The Cognitive Perspective…………………………………………………… 129

  • The Psychodynamic Perspective…………………………………………….. 131

  • The Phenomenological Perspective…………………………………………. 133

  • The Integral Perspective…………………………………………………….. 135

• Concerning Contemporary Perspectives in Transpersonal Psychology………………. 138

  • Does not exclude the personal ego………………………………………… 138

  • Does not limit the type of expansion of identity possible……………………. 139

  • Is not limited to any particular philosophy or worldview…………………… 143

  • Does not limit research to a particular method…………………………… 155

  • Does not limit inquiry to a particular domain………………………………. 156

• Section Summary……………………………………………………………………… 156

Fig. 3-1 Varieties ofExpansion of Identity Observed in Psychedelic Sessions…………………….. 140

Fig. 3-2 KeyAssumptions of an Transpersonal Approach toPsychotherapy………………………. 148

Fig. 3-3 SomeAssumptions of Orthodox, Western Psychology……………………………………. 152

UNIT4 HOW IS TRANSPERSONAL RESEARCH CONDUCTED?………………………… 157

• Transpersonal Research Methods…………………………………………………… 158

  • Historical and Archival Approaches……………………………………… 162

    • Spontaneous Remissions…………………………………………... 162

  • Descriptive Approaches…………………………………………………… 163

    • Deep Structural Analysis………………………………………… 163

  • Case Studies and Life Stories……………………………………………….. 164

    • Miraculous Cures at Lourdes………………………………………. 164

    • Birthmarks Suggestive of Reincarnation………………………… 168

    • Sri Sathya Sai Baba………………………………………………… 170

    • Transcendental Meditation and Continuous Consciousness……….. 172

  • Interviews, Questionnaires, and Surveys……………………………………. 173

  • Behavioral and Physiological Measurements……………………………….. 174

    • Meditation………………………………………………………….. 174

    • Imagery Effects on White Blood Cells…………………………….. 174

  • Experimental Designs……………………………………………………….. 175

    • Direct Mental Interactions with Living Systems………………… 175

  • Parapsychological Assessment and Design Issues………………………….. 177

    • Remote Viewing Telepathy Studies of the 1970’s and 1980’s……. 180

    • Ganzfeld Telepathy Experiments from 1974 to 1997……………… 184

    • Schmidt’s REG – ESP and PK Experiments………………………. 186

    • Statistical Issue of Replicability……………………………………. 187

  • Theory-Building Approaches: Meta-Analysis………………………………. 188

    • Meta-analysis of ESP Evidence – Precognition……………………. 189

    • Meta-analysis of PK Evidence – Dice-Throwing………………….. 190

  • Parapsychology as an Active Research Area in Psychology……………… 191

• Concerning Transpersonal Research Methods……………………………………… 195

  • Importance of Non-Experimental Evidence…………………………………. 200

• Is Transpersonal Psychology A Science? ……………………………………………. 203

  • Original Intent of the Founders of Transpersonal Psychology……………… 203

  • Tart’s State-Specific Sciences……………………………………… ……… 207

  • Wilber’s Three “Eyes” of Knowledge………………………………………. 209

  • Mystical Consciousness as a Creative Act………………………………….. 212

• Do Transpersonal Research Methods Reveal Actual Transpersonal Realities?……… 214

  • Limitations of a Purely Intrapersonal “Experiential” Approach………… 217

• Section Summary……………………………………………………………………… 219

Fig. 4-1 Varieties of TranspersonalResearch Methods……………………………………………. 159

Fig. 4-2 Miracle Cures and Their Medicaland Ecclesiastical Assessment………………………… 166

Fig. 4-3 Case Studies of Healing atLourdes………………………………………………………. 167

Fig. 4-4 “Best” Evidence for PsiFunctioning……………………………………………………… 179

Fig. 4-5 How Psi Works: Some InterestingFindings………………………………………………. 183

Fig.4-6 Transpersonal Psychology Research Review……………………………………………… 196

Fig. 4-7 Differencesbetween Transpersonal and Traditional Approaches toResearch……………. 202

SUMMARYAND CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………………. 220

REFERENCES………………………………………………………………………………………………. 221

BIOGRAPHICALNOTE…………………………………………………………………………………… 240

Foreword

A Primer In Positive Psychology Ebook

The monographthat you hold in your hands is the product of a need for anintroductory textbook in the field of transpersonal psychology. While transpersonal psychology has developed into a full-fledgedscientific, professional, and academic discipline since its foundingby Abraham Maslow more than 35 years ago, it remains on the marginsof conventional mainstream scientific psychology.

Whether or nottranspersonal psychology will soon find its niche within thebehavioral and social sciences is an open question. But when adiscipline has inaugurated a number of peer-reviewed journals devotedto the subject matter of the field, founded several national andinternational professional societies that facilitate scholarlyexchange among individuals involved in transpersonal therapy andresearch, and instituted numerous academic courses and degreeprograms in university settings around the world, then thatdiscipline deserves a place within the framework of officialpsychology and ought to have adequate representation withinmainstream college and university curricula. This monograph is aportion of a much larger project that is intended to deal with thefirst issue by addressing the second.

Iftranspersonal psychology wishes to find itself incorporated withinthe framework of official psychology, then serious thought needs tobe given to what might be taught in a generalized course intranspersonal psychology. This monograph will hopefully be ofservice in that regard. It represents the first chapter of aprojected 12-chapter textbook in transpersonal psychology for 2-yearand 4-year colleges that covers topics ordinarily addressed in thetypical introductory psychology course, but from a transpersonalpoint of view – introduction, biological foundations, sensation andperception, states of consciousness, learning and memory, languageand thought, motivation and emotion, development, personality theoryand measurement, psychological disorders, psychotherapy, and socialbehavior. Use of such an organizational framework will encourage amore complete coverage of transpersonal topics within traditionalcontent domains, promote greater integration of transpersonalconcepts and theories with the methods and findings with contemporarypsychology, and more easily present transpersonal psychology withinthe framework of the contemporary mainstream educational process.

A Primer In Positive Psychology Ebook

While more andmore college courses are being offered on the subject oftranspersonal psychology (a partial listing of schools and programsin transpersonal psychology can be found at/public), there are no standard texts orcurricula offering the fundamentals of transpersonal psychology tohelp structure most courses. In approaching transpersonal psychologyfrom an educational point of view, one would be amazed at the lack ofa recognized, agreed upon general curriculum, and how various coursesintended to provide an introduction to transpersonal psychology varyconsiderably in course content and structure. Few transpersonalpsychologists use the same general textbooks.

The lack of astandardized curriculum is not surprising in a field wheretranspersonal psychologists themselves disagree on the importance andvalidity of certain areas of investigation (e.g., parapsychology),where fundamental tenets of the field have not been resolved (e.g.,how foundational is the perennial philosophy?), where wide divergenceof opinion exists on basic issues of methodology and goals ofresearch (e.g., is transpersonal psychology a science?), and wheremost psychologists who espouse a transpersonal orientation areself-taught in the field and may be uncomfortable teaching areas ofinquiry with which they are unfamiliar (e.g., the clinician whooverlooks the experimental research or the experimentalist whoignores the clinical data). This monograph is offered both as apreliminary attempt to address this growing need for a generalizedmodel of curricula for undergraduate courses in transpersonalpsychology and as an encouragement to teachers of psychology tointroduce this exciting area of investigation to their students.

A Sacred Story

Mypersonal introduction to the exciting realm of transpersonalpsychology beganduring the spring semester of my junior year at Our Lady ofProvidence Seminary in Warwick, Rhode Island. I was 20 years old atthe time and studying to become a Roman Catholic diocesan priest. Iwas deep in my study of Darwinian anthropology, Freudian psychology,Biblical religions, existential philosophy, and natural science. Eversince I can remember I have had a burning desire to understand thetrue nature of human personality and humanity’s proper relationshipto spiritual reality and to the rest of creation. I thought I haddiscovered those Truths (capital T) in my academic courses that yearof 1970.

What I Learned. I learned in my anthropologycourse about CharlesDarwin who spent over half his life proving the validity of histheory of evolution. Generations of scientists since have viewed thenatural world through its light, taking Darwinian theories forgranted as being a literal interpretation of the origins of species,and attempting to make human nature conform to the picture ofevolution as Darwin conceived it. Certainly Darwin’s considerableachievement in classifying the different species and in describingtheir struggle for survival is an entirely true and objectiverepresentation of the natural world. I learned in my psychologycourse about Sigmund Freud who invented such a comprehensive systemof psychology that it seemed to explain everything about humanexperience and behavior. Such an all-inclusive and internallyconsistent theory must be true, I thought, because it possessed suchsweeping explanatory power. I learned in my religioncourse about the Old Testament God Jehovah and about Jesus Christ,the Son of the only God, who declared that His was the Way, theTruth, and the Life. The Holy Scriptures and the theologicaldoctrines and dogmas of His Church must certainly be divinely true ifHis Holy Spirit inspired them. I learned in my philosophycourse about existentialthinkers such as John Paul Sartre and Albert Camus who were committedto engaging the painful realities of aloneness and death exactly asthey are and refused to gloss over suffering or arbitrarily pretendthat life is inherently meaningful. Such a demand for authenticity,freedom, and autonomy must certainly be true and the correct defenseagainst delusion and self-deception. I learned in my naturalscience course thatscience, too, seemed committed to engaging reality exactly as it is. Objective, empirical science must certainly be the final arbiter ofwhat is true and real. When I attempted to integrate these diversebeliefs and ways of thinking into a single coherent framework,however, I became filled with feelings of tension and conflict,stress and strain, for howcould they all be true? As I examined in more detail the assumptions and implications of thecourse material that I was learning, I gradually began to lose asense of my own worth and purpose.

WhatI Came to Believe. My course in Darwiniantheory revealed ourspecies to be a creature pitted against itself (as ego is pittedagainst id) and whose nature is amoral (there are no standards ofright or wrong as anything goes for survival sake). In the Darwinianworld, nature cares little for the individual, only for the species.The attainment of adulthood has little purpose except to insure thefurther existence of the species through procreation. The speciesitself appears to have no reason except a mindless determination toexist. Tainted with brutish and destructive impulses, I was themember of a greedy and predatory species, a murderer at heart andnature’s despoiler, a blight upon the planet, and the victim of anindifferent Nature that brought meaningless death. I became separatefrom nature and in competition with all other creatures in an endlessstruggle for survival. There is no possibility of spiritual survivalas far as evolutionary theory is concerned, because evolutionaryDarwinian man and woman are not created with a soul. Allpsychological activity is scaled down in between life and death. Death becomes an affront to life and comes to imply a certain kind ofweakness, for is it not said that only the strong survive?

Mycourse in Freudianpsychology taught meto believe that my unconscious self was certainly devious, capable ofthe most insidious subconscious fraud, and filled with savage rageand infantile impulses that I could not trust, no matter what I toldmyself. The unconscious was understood to be a garbage heap ofundesirable impulses, long ago discarded by civilization. Slips ofthe tongue and dreams betrayed the self’s hidden nefarious truedesires. The spontaneous self, the impulsive portion of my nature,became most suspect, since in my spontaneous acts I could unwittinglyreveal not my basic goodness, but the hidden shoddiness of mymotives. Programmed and conditioned from childhood to fail orsucceed, the heights and depths of each person’s experience wereseen to be the result of infantile behavior patterns that rigidlycontrolled us for a lifetime.

Darwinianand Freudian concepts were also reflected in my Biblestudies. Given theearth as living grounds by a capricious and vengeful God, who wouldone day destroy the world, I came to believe that our species wasbound for ultimate tragedy and extinction. Born blighted by originalsin, created imperfect by a perfect God who then punished me for myimperfections, and who would send me to hell if I did not adore Him,I came to see myself as an innately flawed and sinful self, acreature bound to do wrong regardless of any strong good intent.Being the member of a species of sinners, contaminated by originalsin even before birth, innately driven by evil, and sometimesdemonic, forces that must be kept in check by good work, prayer, andpenance, I came to distrust my inner self and to fear my ownspontaneity. How could I be “good” when my self was “bad”? The conditions of life and illness were seen as punishment sent byGod upon his erring creatures, or as a trial sent by God, to be bornestoically. Life was indeed a valley of sorrows.

Mycourse in existentialphilosophy was simplya variation upon the theme. It convinced me that life was anunpleasant and inherently meaningless condition of existence fromwhich release was welcomely sought and that the end justifies themeans, especially if that end is Man. Life was replete with guilt,pain, suffering, and death, and in the words of Woody Allen, “wasover much too quickly.” One is born alone and dies alone. There isno escape from this condition of isolation for the self who perceivesthe universe and everyone else as “not-self” and “other”(“Hell is other people”). Jean Paul Sartre’s novels, Nauseaand NoExit, persuaded methat I was born without reason (because “existence precedesessence” and no apriori meaning orpurpose could be assigned to my being since nothing is pre-given butmust be created), that I prolong myself out of weakness (because I donot have the courage to commit suicide), and that I will die bychance in an ultimately meaningless universe. Belief in God, in theexistence of spiritual realities, and in an afterlife may serve as aconsolation to the ego faced with the threat of nonexistence, but Imust not deceive myself. The separate self is eventually overcome bydeath. The skull always grins at the banquet of life. Everyone mustdie; everything gained must eventually be relinquished. Nothinglasts; everything changes. Eventually I must confront the threat ofmy own extinction and refuse to pretend that things can get better. Try as I may to create meaning through my individual actions, eventhe most heroic actions cannot overcome feelings of existential dreadand ontological anxiety. Like a character in one of Pirandello’snovels, I was a personality in search of an author. Like an actor inone of Beckett’s plays, I was waiting for a Godot who would neverarrive. Even love itself seemed only a romantic illusion.

Mynatural sciencecourse had the most impact of all. Science led me to suppose that myexquisite self-consciousness and all of life itself was nothing morethan an accidental by-product of inert atoms and molecules and thechance conglomeration of lifeless chemical elements, mindlesslycoming together into an existence that was bound to end in a godless,uncaring, and mechanical universe that was itself accidentallycreated. The emotions of love and joy, the virtues of kindness andgenerosity, all thoughts and wisdom, religious sentiments andconsciousness itself were merely epiphenomena of the erratic activityof neural firings, hormones, and neurotransmitters. Consciousnesswas the result of a brain that was itself nothing but a highlycomplicated mechanism that only happenedto come into existence, and had no reality outside of that structure.The self was simply the accidental personification of the body’sbiological mechanisms. Feelings of conscious choice were onlyreflections of brain state activity at any given time. The greatcreative, individual thrust of life within each person becameassigned to a common source in past conditioning or to the accidentalnature of genes or reduced to a generalized mass of electrochemicalimpulses and neurological processes.

Projectingthese ideas upon nature at large, the naturalworld appearedequally explainable, dangerous, and threatening, especially thenon-human animalworld. Given tohumans to do with as we wished by our specieistic God, animals werein a “natural” subordinate position in the Great Chain of Being.Lifted up above the beasts at the pinnacle end of a greatevolutionary scale, only humans possessed consciousness andself-consciousness, intellect and imagination, emotion and free will,and the dignity of a spiritual life. Only humans were to be grantedsouls or a rich psychological life. Animals were mere electrochemicalmachines that operated solely by the mechanism of instinct. Beingcreatures literally without a center of meaning, animals were to beregarded simply as physical objects, like rocks and stars, blindalike to pain or desire and without intrinsic worth or value.

Anindividual animal’s existence could have no higher meaning orpurpose than to be a resource for human use or consumed as merefoodstuff in a daily tooth-and-claw struggle for survival that waseverywhere beset by the threat of illness, disaster, and death. Thesacrifice of hundreds of thousands of animals in experiments thatwould be unethical if performed on human beings became justified inthe pursuit of knowledge if it was a means toward the goal ofprotecting the sacredness of human life and the survival of the humanspecies, regardless of the consequences.

Becomingthe Self I Thought I Was. Unknown to me at the time, my academic course work wasindoctrinating me into what transpersonal psychologist Charles Tart(1992a, Chapter 2) calls the “Western Creed” – a set ofimplicit assumptionsabout the nature of the psyche and the nature of reality that havecome to characterize much of the modern secular world, that havepractical consequences on the human spirit, and that block progressin understanding the spiritual side of ourselves. Operating for themost part outside of my conscious awareness, these psychologicallyinvisible beliefs programmed my experience to such an extent thatthey took on the appearance of fact. Interpreting the private eventsof my life in light of these assumptions about the nature of physicalreality and human personality, I unconsciously put together myperceptions so that they seemed to bear out those beliefs. My beliefsselectively structured my experience so that experience came to fitthe beliefs I had about it. Perceptions and beliefs became mutuallyand selectively reinforcing. What I believed to be true became truein my experience. Imagination and emotion, following the contours ofmy beliefs, not only colored and intangibly structured my subjectiveexperience, but also conditioned me to act in certain ways inaccordance with those beliefs. Believed in fervently enough, theycame to act like powerful hypnotic suggestions that triggeredspecific actions strongly implied by the beliefs. The end result wasa set of unexamined structured beliefs that were automatically actedupon. I created events that more or less conformed to those beliefs,and thus became the self that I thought I was.

A Primer In Positive Psychology Pdf Free

“ScienceLoves Skepticism Except When Skepticism is Applied to Science.” There always remained lingering doubts, however, about what I hadcome to believe. I found it ironic that the basis of the scientificempirical method and the framework behind all of our organizedstructures of science, rested upon a subjective reality that was notconsidered valid by the very scientific institutions that were formedthrough its auspices. How could such a vital consciousness as my owneven suppose itself to be the end product of the chance meeting ofinert elements that were themselves lifeless, but somehow managed tocombine in such a way that our species attained culture, technology,philosophy, science, medicine, literature, and space travel? Sciencealmost made me believe in magic! What a cosmic joke that the atomicand chemical composition of my own brain was somehow intelligentenough to understand the irony of its own meaninglessness. Certainlya brain that could conceive of purpose, meaning, and creativitysomehow had to emerge from a greater purpose, meaning, andcreativity. Certainly it was not purposelessnessthat gave us the design of nature, the well-ordered genetic activity,or the elegant sequences of molecular structures that support thecreation of amino acids and proteins that sustain physical life.Certainly it was not meaninglessnessthat gave rise to the creative drama of our dreams. Certainly it wasnot genetic chancethat is responsible for the precision with which we growspontaneously, without knowing how, from a fetus to an adult. Certainly it was not environmentalnecessity that causedthe existence of heroic themes and ideals that pervade human life. Surely all of these give evidence of a greater meaning, purpose, andcontext in which we have our being.

Howcould atheistic science, I wondered further, stress the species’accidental presence in the universe and the belief that we owe ourphysical existence to the chance conglomeration of atoms andmolecules and still expect our species to be the most moral ofcreatures or to feel that one’s life has meaning or purpose? Howcan we trust ourselves and look at ourselves with self-respect anddignity and live lives of honor, or expect goodness and merit fromothers, if we believe we are members of a species in which only thefittest survive through a struggle of tooth-and-claw, as implied bythe theories of evolution? One question led to another. Yet whilereferring to the Big Bang theoryor to the theoryof evolution, my teachers seemed to accept them as facts aboutexistence. It appeared almost heretical to express any skepticismthat threatened the given wisdom of those theories that served toprovide our culture’s “official” version of events.

Whenthe full weight of these unanswered questions and unquestionedbeliefs finally fell upon me, a sick and sinking feeling began towell up in the pit of my stomach. Amid such a conglomeration ofnegative beliefs, the idea of a good and innocent inner self seemedalmost scandalous. To encourage expression of that self appearedfoolhardy, for it seemed only too clear that if the lid of awarenesswere opened, so to speak, all kinds of inner demons and enragedimpulses would rush forth. This webwork of beliefs had deprived mymind and body of the zest and purpose needed to enjoy pursuits oractivities and made any endeavor appear futile. I began to feeladrift, without a higher goal or vision. I felt suspicious,frightened, angry, aloof, and alone. In this confusion of thoughtsand fears, I felt my life to be meaningless and hungered forsomething more sustaining. I was experiencing what William James(1936) called “soul sickness.”

TheKite as My Symbol of Transformation As I lay exhausted upon my bed one spring afternoon in 1970, Islipped into a trance-like state and had a waking dream. My confusedand disordered mind suddenly symbolized itself as a kite connected toa long string held by mental hands. The kite was fluttering in fitsand starts, buffeted about by turbulent gusts of inner wind thatthreatened to tear it to pieces. “How can I stop this violentcommotion of my mind?” I thought aloud. “Cut the string,” aninner voice replied. “But if I do that, then I’ll lose my mind,”I answered back, fearing that if I cut that string I would release mymind to fly off into some dark, unfathomable and limitless recess ofthe psyche, forever swallowed up by my own subjectivity. “What elsecan I do?” I implored. “Pull the kite in,” an answer came. Slowly I began to tug on that mental string, but the more I pulled,the more wildly did that kite toss and turn. Thrown about by thetumultuous energy of some wild psychic wind, my mental kitethreatened to tumble and shatter onto that inner landscape. I was ata loss at what to do to end this turmoil of body, mind, and spirit. Ifeared that I was losing my mind.

Atthis point, my mind suddenly opened up and leaped beyond itself. Some indescribable element, some spiritual intangible, touched me andsaid: “If you want to save yourself, you must first lose yourself. If you want to hold onto yourself, then you must let yourself go.” All at once I knew what I had to do. In a moment of faith,instilled by an unaccustomed sense of trust and safety, I slowly letthe string out so that the kite ascended higher and higher until itfound its way up through the turbulence and turmoil into the calm andpeaceful sky above. My mental kite now floated easily and gentlywith a newfound sense of ease and freedom. I was suddenly filledwith an additional energy, a new buoyancy and joy. Sitting up in bedand opening my eyes, I sat transfixed. Another world seemed toshimmer within and around whatever I looked at. Everything seemed tobe what it was, yet somehow more. A change had occurred in me. Ifelt my personality click into a new focus and become lined up withan invisible part of my own reality that I had barely sensed before.The entire feeling-tone of my personality was changed. In that briefmoment of intense, expanded consciousness, I felt and experienceddirectly a Presence so creative, understanding, and lovinglypermissive that its good nature and loving intent could indeed createand maintain worlds. In a way quite difficult to describe, I feltmyself to be a part of nature’s framework and one with nature’ssource.

Myearlier psychological reality became meaningless to me. It wassuperseded by a biologically and spiritually rooted faith that myexistence was meaningful precisely because of my connection withnature and with that greater indefinable framework of existence fromwhich all life springs, even though that meaning was notintellectually understood at the time. I felt deeply within myselfthat the quality of identity and the nature of existence were farmore mysterious than I could presently understand.

Epiphany. Looking inward and remaining open to my intuitions, I felt deeplywithin myself indivisible connections not only with the earth itself,but with deeper realities. While in the throes of what seemed to meto be inspiration of almost unbearable intensity, I got the idea thatthe universe was formed out of what God is, that it was the naturalextension of divine creativity, lovingly formed fromthe inside out, so tospeak. I felt that in certain basic and vital ways, my ownconsciousness and being was a portion of that divine gestalt. Asphilosopher-theologian John Hick (1999) in his book, TheFifth Dimension: An Exploration of the Spiritual Dimension,put it:

Thereis an aspect of us that is ‘in tune’ with the Transcendent. Thisaspect is referred to as the image of God within us; or as the divinespark spoken of by Plotinus, Pseudo-Dionysius, Eckhart, Ruusbroec,Suso, Tauler and many other Christian mystics; or as ‘that of Godin every man’; or as the atmanwhich in our deepest nature we all are; or as our ‘true self’,the ‘selfless self’, or as the universal Buddha nature within us.It is this aspect of our being that is affected by the ultimatelyReal to the extent that we are open to that reality. (p. 41)

Ibecame aware that God (or whatever term you wish to use for Nature’ssource) is so much a part of His (or Her or Its) creations that it isalmost impossible to separate the Creator from the creations, thateach hypothetical point in the universe is in direct contact with Godin the most basic terms, and that this indissoluble connection cannever be severed. I got the picture that there is a portion of Godthat is directed and focused and residing within each of us that ismore intimate than our breath. It is the force that forms our fleshand our identities in that it is responsible for the energy thatgives vitality and validity to our unique personalities. I perceivedall Being to be continually upheld, supported, and maintained by thisever-expanding, ever-creative energy that forms everything and ofwhich each human being is a part. As physicist-theologian JohnPolkinghorne (1998) in his book Beliefin God in an Age of Scienceput it:

Our moralintuitions are intimations of the perfect will, our aestheticpleasures a sharing in the Creator’s joy, our religious intuitionswhispers of God’s presence. The understanding of the value-ladencharacter of our world is that there is a supreme Source of Valuewhose nature is reflected in all that is held in being. (pp. 19-20)

Ialso felt the inconceivable vitality of a God that is trulymultidimensional -- a God that is a part of creation and yet is alsomore than what creation is, in the same way that the whole is morethan the sum of its parts. His nature transcends all dimensions ofactivity, consciousness, or reality, while still being a part ofeach. Yet this is no impersonal God. Since its energy gives rise toyou and me and all human personalities, how could this be? Thisportion of God that is both aware of itself as you, that is focusedwithin your existence, and that is also aware of itself as somethingmore that you, is a loving and creative, redemptive God that is bothtranscendent and personal. This portion of God cherishes and protectsyou and looks out for your interests and may be called upon for helpwhen necessary in a personal manner through prayer that alwayscontains its own answer if you believe and desire to receive it (Mark11:24).

Itis very difficult to try to assign anything like human motivation toGod. I can only say that that initial experience revealed theexistence of an entity who was possessed by “the need” tolovingly create from His own being – to lovingly transform His ownreality – in such a way that even the most slightest thought thatemerged within His infinitely massive, omnipotent, superlative, andcreative imagination attained dimensions of actuality impossible todescribe. This was no static, impassible God that I perceived. Itwas a vision and version of a God who, seeking to know Himself,constantly and lovingly creates new versions of Himself out ofHimself (or Herself). This “seeking Himself” is a creativeactivity, the core of all action; God acting through creatiocontinua (Peacocke,1979). Each creation carries indelibly within itself thischaracteristic of its Source. Just as one’s awareness andexperience of God constantly changes and grows, all portions of Godare constantly changing, enfolding and unfolding as the universe does(see, for example, Bohm, 1980).

Theloving support, the loving encouragement, the need to see that anyand all possible realities become probable and have the chance toemerge, perceive, and love – that is the intent of the divinesubjectivity and creativity that I perceived in that state ofexpanded consciousness. I felt deeply that our closest approximationof the purpose of the universe could be found in those lovingemotions that we might have toward the development of our ownchildren, in our intent to have them develop their fullestcapabilities. And God loves all that He has created down to theleast. He is aware of every sparrow that falls because He is everysparrow. Everything that was or is or will be is kept in immediateattention, poised in a divine context that is characterized by such abrilliant concentration that the grandest and the lowest, the largestand the smallest, are equally held in a loving constant focus. Hisawareness and attention is indeed directed with a prime creator’slove to each consciousness. God IS Love (1 John, 4:8, 16).

A Primer In Positive Psychology Study Guide

Aftermath. The highly charged energy generated by this experience was enough tochange my life in a matter of moments. The insights that I receivedstrongly clashed with previously held ideas and beliefs, giving theexperience its initial explosive, volatile, and intrusive quality. Ihad been led by my experience beyond the framework of beliefs thathad given it birth. My task was now to correlate the new intuitiveknowledge with the beliefs of the Western Creed that I had sowillingly accepted before, and to reform my knowledge frameworks tomake them strong enough to support the new insights. Acceptedframeworks and answers now made little sense to me. I could no longeraccept answers given by others, but now insisted upon finding my own.I could no longer continue to think about God in the old ways, forthe experience had brought me far beyond such a point. I had now tofree myself and be true to my own vision. Shortly thereafter I leftthe Seminary to see the world firsthand, driven by a fine impatience,a divine discontent that drives me on even today. I felt immeasurablystrengthened and supported by an inner certainty that instilled in mea sense of safety, optimism, and trust in my own nature and in thatunknown source in which we all have our being and from which ourvitality springs daily. I knew somehow that my existence has ameaning and purpose even if that meaning and purpose is notintellectually understood.

Expandingthe circle of compassion.The insights that Ireceived during that state of expanded consciousness required me tobecome more responsive and responsible in my behavior. It alsobrought with it a sympathy with life that had earlier been lacking,especially for animals – a sensitivity that remains strong,challenging, and intense to this day. I understood for the firsttime that my humanness did not emerge by refusing my animal heritage,but upon an extension of what that heritage is. It was not a matterof rising above my animal nature to truly appreciate my spirituality,but of evolving from a fuller understanding of that nature. I am notseparated from animals and the rest of existence by virtue ofpossessing an eternal inner consciousness; rather, such aconsciousness is within all life, whatever its form. Theconsciousness that exists within animals is as valid and eternal asmy own, for each individual being is

Avital, conscious portion of the universe [that] simply by being,fits into the universe and into universal purposes in a way that noone else can… an individualizedsegment of theuniverse; a beloved individual, formed with infinite care and love,uniquely gifted with a life like no other. (Butts, 1997a, pp.147-148)

Ialso came to understand the symbolism of my kite experience: Thereis a portion of universal creative energy that becomes individualizedto form my being and that sustains and nourishes my existence, andwhen I become too intent in maintaining my own reality I lose it,because I am denying the creativity upon which it rests.

Thefarther reaches of transpersonal psychology. When my formal training as a psychologist began, I was constantly onthe outlook for some kind of framework that would help me translatethat spectacular inner vision into terms that made psychologicalsense. Transpersonal psychology and the writings of gifted writerand mystic Seth-Jane Roberts (Butts, 1995, 1997a, 1997b, 1997c,1998a, 1998b, 1999a, 1999b, 1999c, 2000, 2002, 2003a, 2003b; Roberts,1966, 1970, 1972, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977a, 1977b, 1978, 1979a, 1979b,1981a, 1981b, 1986a, 1986b, 1986c) has helped me to make thattranslation in a way that was psychologically sound and faithful tothe underlying complexity of the original experience. The works ofJane Roberts, collectively referred to as TheSeth Material,strongly informs the content of the present monograph. Arguablytranspersonal in origin, “the basic firm groundwork of the [Seth]material and its primary contribution lies in the concept thatconsciousness itself indeed creates matter, that consciousness is notimprisoned by matter but forms it, and that consciousness is notlimited or bound by time or space” (Butts, 1997c, p. 312). Thewritings of Jane Roberts hint at the multidimensional nature of thehuman psyche and identify potentials of exceptional human experiencesand transformative capacities that are a part of our species’heritage. In my view, systematic study of TheSeth Materialhas the potential of offering the field of transpersonal psychologyan opportunity of initiating its own further development, trulymaking it the “‘higher’ Fourth Psychology, transpersonal,transhuman, centered in the cosmos rather than in human needs andinterest, going beyond humanness, identity, self-actualization, andthe like” (Maslow, 1968, pp. iii-iv) that Abraham Maslow envisionedit to be.

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