The Transpersonal Paradigm
This paradigm deals with the extra personal and those experiences that patients have related that have been outside their own personal or ego. These experiences are vast and in many cases, quite bizarre. They make up a large portion of the phenomena encountered when dealing with the unknown realms of the human psyche.This first section of the Transpersonal Paradigm will be introduced as Temporal Expansions of Consciousness. This phenomenon consists of those experiences that transcend the traditional human ability to comprehend time. The first section in this area is noted as "Ancestral Experiences". "This category of transpersonal experiences is characterized by a strong sense of regression in historical time...The individual feels that his memory has transcended its usual limits and that he is in touch with information related to the life of his biological ancestors. Sometimes, such experiences are related to comparatively recent history...In an extreme form however, they can reach back many generations or even centuries. In general, the content of these phenomena is always compatible with the individual's racial background and cultural history." (Realms of the Human Unconscious 162) Examples of this phenomenon are such as a
Phylogenetic experiences are particularly interesting because they involve perception of the universe from the completely foreign perspectives. In this area we find people associating feelings that seem to transcend the typical scope of human fantasy and imagination. Patients that exhibit these phenomena often feel that they are exploring the evolution of species. The most commonly encountered objects of identification are mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish, though this is not what they are restricted to. One fascinating example of such a case is that of a Belgian woman and her remarkable insights into the behavior of whales, knowledge that she had not previously read or heard about. "I was feeling more and more peaceful and calm, and my experience seemed to acquire incredible depth and breadth. I had an increasing sense that my consciousness had a distinctly oceanic quality until I felt that I actually became what can best be described as the consciousness of the ocean. I became aware of the presence of several large bodies and realized that it was a pod of whales. At one point, I felt cold air streaming through my head and had a taste of salty water in my mouth. A variety of sensations and feelings that were alien and definitely not human imperceptibly took over my consciousness. A new, gigantic body image started to form out of the primordial connection to the other large bodies around me and I realized I had become one of them. Inside my belly I sensed another life form and knew it was my baby. There was no doubt in my mind that I was a pregnant whale cow. Past incarnation experiences which are a very common occurrence in advanced phycolytic sessions are amongst the most interesting. They carry with them some very familiar concepts which are popular in modern western culture. This is a category of experience which deals with people's experiences as themselves in the past. This Grof is very careful in his describing of such phenomena, and notes that even persons with no religious belief
Some common words found in the essay are:
Collective Racial, California Grof, Clairvoyance Clairaudience, Israel Biblical, LSD Nadja, Ancestral Experiences, Nadja LSD, , Expansions Consciousness, Human Unconscious, category transpersonal, temporal expansions consciousness, expansions consciousness, temporal expansions, transpersonal paradigm, collective racial, bodies realized, realms human, clairvoyance clairaudience, particular experience,
Approximate Word count = 1360
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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