Beyond this, however, the aim of most so-called humanistic therapies is to heal the split between the ego itself and the body, to reunite the psyche arid soma so as to reveal the total organism. This is why humanistic psychology called the Third Force (the other two major forces in psychology being psychoanalysis and behaviorism) is also referred to as the human potential movement. In extending the person’s identity from just the mind or ego to the entire organism-as-a-whole, the vast potentials of the total organism are liberated and put at the individual’s disposal.
Going deeper still, we find the aim of such disciplines as Zen Buddhism or Vedanta Hinduism is to heal the split between the total organism and the environment to reveal an identity, a supreme identity, with the entire universe. They are aiming, in other words, for the level of unity consciousness. But let us not forget that between the level of unity consciousness and the level of the total organism there are the transpersonal bands of the spectrum. The therapies addressing this level are deeply concerned with those processes in the person which are actually supra-individual, or collective, or transpersonal. Some of them even refer to a transpersonal self, and while this transpersonal self is not identical with the All (that would be unity consciousness), it nevertheless transcends the boundaries of the individual organism. Among the therapies aiming at this level are Psychosynthesis, Jungian analysis, various preliminary yoga practices, Transcendental Meditation techniques, and so on.
All of this is of course a very simplified version of things, hut it does point out the general fashion in which most of the malor schools of psychology, psychotherapy, and religion are simply addressing the different major levels of the spectrum. Some of these correspondences are shown in figure z, where the major schools of therapy are listed beside the level of the spectrum toward which they fundamentally aim. I should mention that because, like any spectrum, these levels shade into one another quite a bit, no absolutely distinct and separate classification of the levels or the therapies addressing those levels is possible. Further, when I classify a therapy on the basis of the level of the spectrum it addresses, that means the deepest level which that therapy recognizes, either explicitly or implicitly. Generally speaking, you will find that a therapy of any given level will recognize and accept the potential existence of all of the levels above its own, but deny the existence of all those beneath it.
As a person (layperson or therapist) gains familiarity with the spectrum its various levels with their different potentials and different problems she will be better able to orient herself (or her client) in the journey for self-understanding and self-growth. She may he able to recognize more readily from which levels the present problems or conflicts stem, and thus apply to any given conflict the appropriate therapeutic process for that level. She may also come to recognize which potentials and levels she wishes to contact, as well as the procedures best suited to facilitate this growth.
Growth fundamentally means an enlarging and expanding of one’s horizons, a growth of one’s boundaries, outwardly in perspective and inwardly in depth. But that is precisely the definition of descending the spectrum. (Or ascending it, depending upon which angle you prefer. I will in this book use descending simply because it better matches fig. i.) When a person descends a level of the spectrum he has in effect remapped his soul to enlarge its territory. Growth is reapportionment; re-zoning; re-mapping; an acknowledgement, and then enrichment, of ever deeper and more encompassing levels of one’s own self.
page 12-13, images page 14
Image files:
http://Inersha.com/images/NoBoundaryt.jpg http://Inersha.com/images/NoBoundary.jpg http://Inersha.com/images/NoBoundary.pdf
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Boy it is fun, being all one! he he..
May this help us come together more and more.
Lovebeams, Teo
May you find yourself in the world, and may you enjoy the company.
