Expanding the Realms of Consciousness

Abstract

One of the more satisfying aspects of the transpersonal approach to understanding human behavior is its emphasis on the experiential nature of investigation. This implies that we can best understand the nature of human consciousness through our direct experience of the various states of consciousness available to us. Transpersonal psychology1 is directed towards expanding traditional approaches to understand the psyche through research that takes us into understanding how consciousness itself can be the means, or vehicle, to effect healing at a profoundly deep level. I have written in a previous editorial2 that evolving beyond the medical model is taking psychology into research that examines “the contemplative practices (e.g., how meditation affects brain structure, physiology, and well-being), energy medicine, and alternative holistic therapies as well as renewed interest in research” into psychedelics. These means are providing relief when traditional methods of psychiatric or psychological intervention fail. If we are to tap into the fullness of the human psyche to effect healing, our current models of the psyche need expansion. In this editorial, we will examine an oft-neglected realm of experience from which our psyche is shaped. This realm was described and advanced by Stanislav Grof,3 wherein he argues that without consideration of the basic pre-natal matrices (BPM), psychology is missing an important area of the unconscious that gives rise to our psychic processes. We need to expand the realms of consciousness which most psychologists explore to gain greater insight into mental problems that may arise spontaneously from the psyche, such as during psychotic episodes in spiritual emergencies,4 or imagery that can accompany psychedelic therapies.