(C) Rodney H. Clarken, 2004 1 Integral Psychology 1 Presentation on Note to Reader and Chapters 1-2: Introduction to psychology & developmental levels,

(C) Rodney H. Clarken, 2004 1

Integral Psychology 1Presentation on Note to Reader and Chapters 1-2: Introduction to psychology & developmental levels, waves, lines and streams

Rodney H. ClarkenSchool of Education, Northern Michigan University


Integral Psychology 1

• This series of presentations entitled Integral Psychology is based on Ken Wilber’s book Integral Psychology published in 2000 by Shambhala Publications of Boston.

• This presentation, Integral Psychology 1, is based on the book’s Note to the Reader, Chapter 1 The Basic Levels or Waves and Chapter 2 Developmental Lines or Streams.


\In"te*gral\

• a. 1. Lacking nothing of completeness; complete; perfect; uninjured; whole; entire. (Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary)

• “comprehensive, balanced, inclusive, essential for completeness.” (dictionary)


\Psy*chol"o*gy\

• The science of the human soul; specifically, the systematic or scientific knowledge of the powers and functions of the human soul. Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary


\Soul\

• The animating and vital principle in humankind credited with the faculties of thought, action and emotion and conceived as forming an immaterial entity distinguished from but temporally coexistent with the body. Reader’s Digest Illustrated Encyclopedic

Dictionary


“an animating and vital principle”

• Energy; courage; spirit; fervor; affection, or any other noble manifestation of the heart or moral nature; inherent power or goodness. Definition 4 of soul from Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary

• The soul is like the sun which illumines, sustains and is reflected in the body and mind.


“faculties of thought, action and emotion”

• Thought (Mind): Knowing, SeeingUnderstanding TRUTH

• Action (Will): Creating, DoingJustice GOOD

• Emotion (Heart): Loving, FeelingUnity BEAUTY


“an immaterial entity”

• \Im`ma*te"ri*al\ 1. Not consisting of matter; incorporeal; spiritual;

• \Spir"it*u*al\ 1. Consisting of spirit; not material; incorporeal; 2. Of or pertaining to the intellectual and higher endowments of the mind; mental; intellectual. 3. Of or pertaining to the moral feelings or states of the soul, as distinguished from the external actions; reaching and affecting the spirits. 4. Of or pertaining to the soul or its affections as influenced by the Spirit;


“distinguished from but temporally coexistent with the body”

• The soul is different and distinct from the body, but associated with it, like the reflection in a mirror, for the limited time of physical life.

• The body is like a horse and the soul is like the rider. We identify with and care for the body as it is the vehicle for the soul, our true identity, which exists after the body dies.


Psychology

• Science of the psyche or soul. New Princeton Review,

1888

• Psyche has ancient sources several millennia old, referring to the animating force or spirit in the body

• Psyche: “self; atman, soul, spirit; subjectivity: higher self, spiritual self, spirit.” Microsoft Thesaurus


“Experimental psychology, born with Fechner, nurtured by Helmholtz and Donders, was to be raised by Wundt.” http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/Mind/Consciousness.html

•Text and photos from http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/Mind/Consciousness.html


Gustav Fechner (1801-1887)

• German physicist and philosopher who founded the science of psychophysics.

• He taught at the University of Leipzig (1834–40) but left because of ill health. He developed experimental procedures, still useful in experimental psychology, for measuring sensations in relation to the physical magnitude of stimuli, establishing that, as physical stimulation increases logarithmically, sensation increases arithmetically. (Britannica Concise Encyclopedia)


Fechner’s contributions

• Devised an equation to express Weber-Fechner law: S=K log I (mental sensation varies as a logarithm of material stimulus)

• Principal scientific work: Elements of Psychophysics (1860). Also wrote Life After Death (1835) and much more.


Fechner: Body, Mind, Spirit

• “ In the first stage his body develops itself from its germ, working out organs for the second; in the second stage his mind develops itself from its germ, working out organs for the third; in the third the divine germ develops itself, which lies hidden in every human mind.” (Life after Death, 1835; Quoted in Wilber, p.

ix)


Fechner maintained that

• “The whole universe is spiritual in character, the phenomenal world of physics being merely the external manifestation of this spiritual reality. Atoms are only the simplest elements in a spiritual hierarchy leading up to God.” The

Encyclopedia of Philosophy, vol. 3.


von Helmholtz and Donders

• Hermann von Helmholtz (1821-1894) described visual and auditory perception

• Franciscus Donders (1818-1889) investigated reaction time, studying the time to make mental operations

• Many others in and around Germany contributed to beginning of psychology


Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)

• 1879, University of Leipzig, started first psychology laboratory, generally considered the father of modern scientific psychology.

• Wundt said: “Fechner was the first to introduce exact methods, exact principles of measurement and experimental observation for the investigation of psychic phenomenon.” (Wilber,

2000, p. viii)


Roots of modern psychology

• Lie in spiritual traditions, such as Eastern and Western mysticism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, that were translated into perennial philosophy then psychology, all of which taught matter and spirit are inseparable; two aspects of one reality


“Psychology is the study of human consciousness and its manifestations in behavior.” (Wilber, p. 1)

Consciousness includes:

• Functions: i.e., perception, desire, will and action

• Structures: body, mind, soul and spirit

• States: normal (e.g., waking, dreaming and sleeping) and altered (e.g., meditative)

• Modes: i.e., aessthetic, moral, scientific


Problem with psychology is

• The different schools of psychology that have historically developed have often reduced consciousness to only one of its many aspects and proclaim it the most important or only aspect worth study.


For example, the following schools have reduced consciousness to

• Behaviorism: its observable, behavioral manifestations

• Psychoanalysis: structures of the ego and their impact on the id

• Existentialism: its personal structures and modes of intentionality


• Transpersonal: altered states of consciousness

• Asian psychologies: transformations from personal to transpersonal

• Cognitive: objective neural functions


Integral Psychology

• “Endeavors to honor and embrace every legitimate aspect of human consciousness.” Integral Psychology, 2000

• Drawing on premodern, modern and postmodern sources to reconcile the structures, states, functions, modes, development and behavioral aspects of consciousness.


Premodern Psychology: Perennial Philosophy

• Common core of the world’s great spiritual traditions: Three thousand years of cross-cultural agreement on levels of existence--being and knowing—called the Great Chain of Being, range from matter to body to mind to soul to spirit with each senior dimension transcending but including its juniors.


Great Chain/Nest of Being

• Codification of experiential realities from sub consciousness (body) to self-consciousness (mind) to super consciousness (soul) consensually validated and directly experienced

• The all-embracing pattern of reality from pre personal (body) to personal (mind) to transpersonal (soul)


•A+B+C+D+E Spirit/mysticism

•A+B+C+D Soul/theology

•A+B+C Mind/psychology

•A+B Life/biology

•A Matter/physics

•Spirit (nondual)

•A+B

+C+D

+E

•Adapted from Wilber, p. 6

(C) Rodney H. Clarken, 2004 27•Huston Smith, Beyond the Post-Modern Mind, p. 41


•Diagram by Brad Reynolds, from Ken Wilber, A Brief History of Everything, (Shambhala: Boston), 1996.Adapted from Huston Smith


Each levels of reality can be studied separately

• "The marvels of the terrestrial plane are being unveiled at an astonishing rate by the physical sciences. The intermediate realm adds life and consciousness: biology helps to understand the former, and for light on the latter we turn to the durable findings of phenomenology, depth psychology, and parapsychology, as well as aspects of shamanism and folk religion. The theologies of the great traditions describe God's knowable nature (the celestial plane) from a variety of cultural angles, and the literature of mysticism carries the mind as far as it can journey into God's absolute and infinite depths" [Huston Smith, Beyond the Post-Modern Mind, p.45].


Higher levels available to all

• But as potentials, not givens

• Great nest of being is a morphogenetic (differentiation-inducing, form-producing) field that provides a developmental space in which human potentialities can unfold from matter to body to mind to soul to spirit


Holons

• A whole that is part of other wholes

• Holarchies are levels of increasing wholeness as in atoms to molecules to cells to organisms to ecosystems

• Qualitatively distinct, holistic patterns, infinitely shaded


Natural states of consciousness

• Gross body-waking-supports material mind-access to ego

• Subtle body-dreaming-supports emotional and mental mind-access to soul

• Causal body-deep sleep-supports the spiritual mind-access to spirit


Altered states of consciousness

• Peak experiences-allows a “peek” at a higher level of consciousness; can occur at any stage of development, but are temporary

• Can be induced by physical, mental or spiritual means: drugs, arts, prayer, fasting, meditation


Interpreting peak experiences

• How we interpret experiences depends on our level of development

• Example: Egocentric people having a mystical peak experience may interpret it as their being unique, chosen or superior to others, leading to greater ego inflation


Seven Ages of a Person

• Each age takes about seven years

• Like the seven chakras

1. Physical, 1-7 years old

2. Emotional-sexual, 7-14

3. Logical mind (lower mental), 14-21

4. Vision-logic (middle mind), 21-28

5. Psychic (higher mental), 28-35

6. Subtle (soul), 35-42

7. Casual (spirit), 42-49


Consciousness and Cognition

• Western psychology has come to define cognition and consciousness through the very narrow lens of scientific materialism as the apprehension of exterior objects, excluding other forms of consciousness and cognition, such as the interior and subjective modes of knowing


Cognitive development

• Is necessary, but not sufficient for other developments, such as moral, ego, artistic, affective and self development

• Moves through predictable and universal stages of sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete, formal and post formal


Stages of Cognitive Development

• Preoperational, first-person perspective (egocentric)

• Concrete operational, second person perspective (ethnocentric)

• Formal operational, third-person perspective (world centric)

• Post formal, multiple perspectives, (pluralistic-integral)


Some developmental lines

• Morals

• Affects

• Self-identity

• Psychosexuality

• Role-taking

• Interpersonal

• Creativity

• Altruism

• Worldviews

• Logico-mathematical

• Empathy

• Kinesthetic


Development

• Proceeds along different lines at different rates

• Each line follows similar predictable sequential hierarchical stages:

1. sensorimotor/preconventional/body

2. concrete actions/conventional rules/mind

3. formal, abstract/post conventional/mind-soul



References

• Most of the material in this presentation was taken from

Wilber, K. (2000). Integral Psychology. Boston: Shambhala, pp. 33-56.

Documents

(C) Rodney H. Clarken, 2004 1 Integral Psychology 1 Presentation on Note to Reader and Chapters 1-2: Introduction to psychology & developmental levels,