Integral Psychology 1 Presentation on Note to Reader and Chapters 1-2: Introduction to psychology

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

• Rodney H. Clarken
• School of Education, Northern Michigan University

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Integral Psychology 1

• This series of presentations entitled Integral
  Psychology is based on Ken Wilbers book Integral
  Psychology published in 2000 by Shambhala
  Publications of Boston.
• This presentation, Integral Psychology 1, is
  based on the books Note to the Reader, Chapter 1
  The Basic Levels or Waves and Chapter 2
  Developmental Lines or Streams.

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\In"tegral\

• a. 1. Lacking nothing of completeness complete
  perfect uninjured whole entire. (Webster's
  Revised Unabridged Dictionary)
• comprehensive, balanced, inclusive, essential
  for completeness. (dictionary)

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\Psychol"ogy\

• 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

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\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. Readers
  Digest Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

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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.

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faculties of thought, action and emotion

• Thought (Mind) Knowing, Seeing Understanding
  TRUTH
• Action (Will) Creating, Doing Justice GOOD
• Emotion (Heart) Loving, Feeling Unity BEAUTY

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an immaterial entity

• \Immate"rial\ 1. Not consisting of matter
  incorporeal spiritual
• \Spir"itual\ 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

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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.

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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

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

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

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Gustav Fechner (1801-1887)

• German physicist and philosopher who founded the
  science of psychophysics.
• He taught at the University of Leipzig (183440)
  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)

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Fechners contributions

• Devised an equation to express Weber-Fechner law
  SK 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.

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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)

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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.

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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

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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)

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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

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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

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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.

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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

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• Transpersonal altered states of consciousness
• Asian psychologies transformations from personal
  to transpersonal
• Cognitive objective neural functions

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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.

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Premodern Psychology Perennial Philosophy

• Common core of the worlds great spiritual
  traditions Three thousand years of
  cross-cultural agreement on levels of
  existence--being and knowingcalled 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.

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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)

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• A

B
C
D
E

• Spirit (nondual)

• Adapted from Wilber, p. 6

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• Huston Smith, Beyond the Post-Modern Mind, p. 41

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

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Seven Ages of a Person

• Each age takes about seven years
• Like the seven chakras
• Physical, 1-7 years old
• Emotional-sexual, 7-14
• 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

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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

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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

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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)

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Some developmental lines

• Morals
• Affects
• Self-identity
• Psychosexuality
• Role-taking
• Interpersonal

• Creativity
• Altruism
• Worldviews
• Logico-mathematical
• Empathy
• Kinesthetic

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Development

• Proceeds along different lines at different rates
• Each line follows similar predictable sequential
  hierarchical stages
• sensorimotor/preconventional/body
• 2. concrete actions/conventional rules/mind
• 3. formal, abstract/post conventional/mind-soul

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References

• Most of the material in this presentation was
  taken from
• Wilber, K. (2000). Integral Psychology. Boston
  Shambhala, pp. 33-56.