Traditions:Categories of non-ordinary states of consciousness

The model reproduced here and related experiences, as well as the meaning assigned to them, comes from Stanislav and Christian Grofs' book Stormy search for the self, chapter 7, "Modern Maps of Consciousness".

This "map" or "matrix for spiritual emergencies" was developed based on Grof's clinical experience with thousands of psychedelic therapy sessions (LSD) then comparing the resulting "cartography" of the experiences of his clients to other "maps of consciousness" from "Western and Eastern Mystical Traditions", and then validating its generalizability to experiences induced by other methods than psychedelic by observing that their "holotropic breathwork" technique (which involves breathing and music but no pharmacological agents) seemed to induce the same experiences in their later clients (see pp. 144-145). Thus, in terms of evidence quality, this is expert opinion and informal case series.

This represents a general typology of "altered-states of consciousness", across induction methods such as psychedelics, breathwork, music, etc.: in this sense it is highly interesting for EPRC purposes, because it proposes a general taxonomy of what we call "emergent phenomena".

The experiences and phenomena are labeled under the type of experience they are associated with by the Grofs, and the interpretive framework they use, and the explanations they give to account for these experiences, are here placed in the description box of each section.

These three categories seem to represent a developmental model, a sequence of increasing depth and refinement of consciousness (p. 145 states that the peri-natal level comes after biographical experiences (which are "the first experiences that are readily available when the unconscious psyche becomes activated"), and represents a "deepening of altered states of consciousness" ; p. 151 states unequivocally "Beyond the biographical and perinatal domains in the psyche lies the transpersonal realm".)

In the previous chapter, they draw inspiration from various traditional systems, p. 142 : "Cultures of all times have shown a profound interest in nonordinary states of consciousness. They developed effective ways of inducing them, and described the different stages of the spiritual journey."

Here, the Grofs' model also builds upon their experience with LSD-assisted psychotherapy, and mobilizes frameworks borrowed several psychoanalytical authors - Freud, Rank, and Jung : p. 145 :

"The experiential spectrum of non ordinary states of consciousness is extremely rich; however, all the experiences seem to fall into three major categories. Some of them are biographical in nature, related to various postnatal traumatic events from one's life. A second group revolves primarily around two issues: dying and being born. They seem to be deeply connected with the trauma of biological birth. The third large category includes experiences that can be referred to as transpersonal, reaching far beyond the limits of ordinary human experience: they are closely related to the jungian collective unconscious."

Hence we can see the biographical-perinatal-transpersonal typology as a developmental and sequential series of deepening experiences related with access to various "strata" of the psyche, with a direct parallel existing between the levels experience and the type of unconscious memories or elements tapped into.

Although there is much value in this work, from a scientific or even phenomenological perspective, the Grofs' presentation of various experiences and phenomena is highly interpretative and reflects their classification framework. They give little justification to the ontological judgments and beliefs which are continuously expressed as to the origin and nature of various experiences. In fact, this seems to reflect a shortcoming of various psychoanalytical systems such as Freud's, which have been criticized for their lack of scientificity and somewhat arbitrary nature (ref - Freud's stuff in particular).

In any case, if we conceive of this material as expert opinion and case series, this typology can become another datapoint and invites comparison with other typologies, such as the developmental system of the stages of insight, which also describes the deepening of meditative experiences and seem to correlate reasonably well with the 3 Categories of Spiritual Emergency.

Biographical Experiences

These are described as "recollections of events that happened in people's lives after birth" and are "the first experiences that are readily available" as the unconscious psyche becomes activated". Thus, such experiences are interpreted by the Grofs as "Reliving Postnatal Memories" (p. 145).

The theoretical underpinnings for this kind of spiritual experience are based on the Freudian model of the psyche and unconscious.

Descriptors include:

• Memories of physical traumas often the source of serious emotional and psychosomatic problems
• Depression
• Various phobias
• Asthma
• Migraine headaches
• Severe muscular pains
• Problems can be dramatically alleviated or even disappear when the individual brings the underlying memories into consciousness
• May relive memories of physical insults such as disease, operations, or neardrowning, during which one encounters extreme emotions and physical sensations
• Various emotionally unnished issues from the past emerge into consciousness and become the content of experience
• Access to this level of the unconscious is important for therapeutic work
• When the unconscious psyche becomes activated, the first experiences that are readily available are recollections of events that happened in people's lives after birth

Peri-natal Experiences

Interpreted by the Grofs as "The Process of Psychological Death and Rebirth" (p. 145).

Influenced by psychoanalysis and in particular Freud's disciple Otto Rank's work on the importance of birth trauma.

p. 147 : "Experiences associated with the reliving of the memory of the prenatal state reflect the fact that a foetus does not seem to have an awareness of boundaries or the ability to differentiate between the inner and outer."

The types of experiences described as Peri-natal bear a striking resemblance with reports of Dukkha ñana experiences. Further, the sequence they describe - amniotic universe, cosmic engulfment, etc., see p. 146 : "The Perinatal level of the unconscious [...] represents the interface between the individual and the collective unconscious.

Once the perinatal level becomes activated, a complex psychological process of death and rebirth is begun. It involves certain distinct experiential patterns characterized by specific emotions, physical feelings, and symbolic images. A closer examination reveals that these patterns are related to the stages of biological birth, from the state preceding the onset of delivery to the moment of emerging into the world." - which according to their interpretive framework, corresponds to the re-experiencing of memories of the actual events of birth - womb, beginning of labor, being constricted in the birth canal, possible traumas, and then finally birth - also bear a striking resemblance in their sequentiality, with insight stages 5 through to 11.

In fact, in the description of each phase of the reliving of the birth process outlined by the Grofs, I will suggest a corresponding insight stage.

The Amniotic Universe

According to the Grofs, the positive "amniotic universe" experiences are related with positive intrauterine experiences, while negative ones ar related with "reliving episodes of intrauterine disturbances". (p.147)

The positive or negative intrauterine experiences supposedly being relived, giving rise to correspondingly blissful or terrorizing experiences, "reflect the intimate interconnections between events in one's biological history and Jungian archetypes" (p. 147).

Very reminiscent of dissolution-type experiences (e.g. the fourth-fifth stages of insight).

Descriptors include:

• Can have feelings of vast regions with no boundaries or limits
• One may identify with galaxies, interstellar space, or the entire cosmos
• One may experience being the entire ocean
• One may experience floating in the sea
• One may identify with various aquatic animals, such as sharks, dolphins, or whales.
• [Water related experiences] seem to reflect the fact that the foetus is essentially a water creature
• One might have visions of Mother Nature — safe, beautiful and unconditionally nourishing like a good womb, such as luscious orchards, fields of ripe corn, agricultural terraces in the Andes
• The images from the mythological domains of the collective unconscious that often appear in this context portray various celestial realms and paradises
• [Persons reliving episodes of intrauterine disturbances] have a sense of dark and ominous threat
• [Persons reliving episodes of intrauterine disturbances] often feel that they are being poisoned
• Might see images that portray polluted waters and toxic dumps [probably reflecting the fact that many prenatal disturbances are caused by toxic changes in the body of the pregnant mother]
• Sequences of this kind [disturbances] can be associated with visions of frightening demonic entities
• [Those who relive more violent interferences with prenatal existence] usually experience some form of universal threat or bloody apocalyptic visions of the end of the world

Cosmic Engulfment

Reminiscent of insight stages 5-6.

The Grofs consider that these types of experiences are experienced by "Individuals reliving the very onset of birth" (p. 147) — hence the name.

Descriptors include:

• Typically feel that one is being sucked into a gigantic whirlpool or swallowed by some mythic beast
• Might experience that the entire world is somehow being engulfed
• Can see images of devouring archetypal monsters, such as leviathans, dragons, giant snakes tarantulas and octopuses
• Experience of an overwhelming vital threat
• Can lead to intense anxiety
• Can lead to general mistrust
• Bordering on paranoïa
• Others have a sense of descending into the depths of the underworld, the realm of death, or hell

No Exit

Reminiscent of insight stages 7-10.

"The first stage of biological birth is characterized by a situation where the uterine contractions periodically constrict the foetus and the cervix is not yet open. Each contraction causes compression of the uterine arteries, and the foetus is threatened by lack of oxygen. Reliving this stage is one the worst experiences a human being can have" (The Stormy Search for the Self, p.148)

Descriptors include:

• One of the worst experiences a human being can have
• One feels caught in a monstrous claustrophobic nightmare
• One feels exposed to agonizing emotional and physical pain
• One feels a sense of utter helplessness and hopelessness
• Feelings of loneliness reach metaphysical proportions
• Feelings of guilt reach metaphysical proportions
• Feelings of the absurdity of life reach metaphysical proportions
• Existential despair reaches metaphysical proportions
• In this situation, one often becomes convinced this situation will never end and that there is absolutely no way out
• Typically accompanied by sequences that involve people, animals, and even mythological beings in a similar painful and hopeless predicament
• One experiences identication with prisoners in dungeons and inmates of concentration camps or insane asylums
• One senses the pain of game caught in traps
• One may even feel the intolerable totures of sinner in hell
• One may feel the agony of Christ on the cross
• One may feel the agony of Sisyphus rolling his boulder up the mountain or in the deepest pit of Hades
• Someone facing this aspect of the psyche would feel a great reluctance to confront it
• This state of darkness and abysmal despair is known from the spiritual literature as a stage of spiritual opening that can have an immensely purging and liberating effect
• Going deeper into this experience seems like accepting eternal damnation

The Death-Rebirth Struggle

This is strikingly similar with the phenomenology of Insight stage 10.

The Grofs' explanation for why certain types of experiences happen in this particular stage is the following, p. 148 : "Many aspects of this rich and colorful experience can be understood from its association with the second clinical stage of the delivery, the propulsion through the birth canal after the cervix opens. Besides the elements that are easily comprehensible as natural derivatives of the birth situation, such as sequences of titanic struggle involving strong pressures and energies or scenes of bloody violence and torture, there are others that require special explanation.

There seems to be a mechanism in the human organism that transforms extreme suffering, particularly when it is associated with suffocation, into a strange form of sexual excitement. This explains why a large variety of sexual experiences and visions often occur in connection with the reliving of birth. [...]

The fact that, in the final stages of birth, the fetus can encounter various forms of biological material — blood, mucus, urine, and even feces — seems to account for the fact that these elements also play a role in death–rebirth sequences."

p. 149 : "The frequent appearance of motifs related to various satanic rituals and the witches' Sabbath seems to be related to the fact that reliving this stage if birth involves the same strange combination of emotions, sensations, and elements that characterizes the archetypal scenes of the Black Mass and of Walpurgis Night: sexual arousal, aggression, pain, sacrifice, and encounters with ordinarily biological material - all associated with a peculiar sense of sacredness or numinosity."

Interestingly, they acknowledge that certain experiences which they yet tag as "Death-Rebirth Struggle" and link with reliving memories of the "second clinical stage of the delivery", do not fit well within this model : "Just before the experience of rebirth, people often encounter the motif of fire. This is a somewhat puzzling symbol. Its connection with biological birth is not as direct and obvious as are many of the other symbolic elements." (p. 149)

Again, the implicit developmental nature of this particular typology is made evident here by expressions such as "at this stage of the process..." (p. 149), etc.

Descriptors include:

• Sequences of titanic struggle involving strong pressures and energies
• Scenes of bloody violence and torture
• A large variety of sexual experiences and visions often occur [in connection with the reliving of birth]
• One can feel a combination of sexual arousal and pain, aggression, or fear
• One can experience various sadomasochistic sequences, rape, and situations of sexual abuse
• One can see pornographic images
• Blood, mucus, urine, and even feces [...] also play a role in death-rebirth sequences
• These experiences are often accompanied by specific archetypal elements [from the collective unconscious], particularly those related to heroic figures and deities representing death and rebirth
• At this stage, many people have visions of Jesus, the Way of the Cross [...] and the Crucifixion or even actually experience full identication with Christ's suffering
• Others connect with such mythological themes and figures as the Egyptian divine couple Isis and Osiris, the Greek god Dionysus, or the Sumerian goddess Inanna and her descent into the underworld
• Frequent appearance of motifs related to various satanic rituals and the witches' Sabbath
• Sexual arousal, aggression, pain, sacrice, and encounters with ordinarily biological material — all associated with a peculiar sense of sacredness or numinosity
• Just before the experience of rebirth, people often encounter the motif of fire
• One can experience fire either in its ordinary form or in the archetypal variety of purifying flames
• Can have visions of burning cities and forests
• Can identify with immolation victims
• In the archetypal version, the burning seems to have a purgatorial quality; it seems to destroy whatever is corrupted and prepare the individual for spiritual rebirth.
• At this stage of the process, the person can have the feeling that his or her body is on fire

The Death-Rebirth Experience

One would be tempted to connect this with transitioning from insight stages ñ10 (Reobservation) to ñ11 (Equanimity).

The Grofs' interpretation/explanatory model is (p. 149) : "One often experiences Death and Rebirth when the memory that is surfacing into consciousness involves the moment of one's biological birth. Here one completes the preceding difficult process of propulsion through the birth canal and achieves explosive liberation as he or she emerges into light. One often relives various aspects of this stage of birth as concrete and realistic memories." "To understand why the reliving of biological birth is experienced as death and rebirth, one has to realize that what happens is more than just a replay of the original event. Because the foetus is completely confined during the birth process and has no way of expressing the extreme emotions and sensations involved, the memory of this event remains psychologically undigested and unassimilated. Much of our later self-definition and our attitude toward the world are heavily contaminated by this constant reminder of the vulnerability, inadequacy, and weakness that we experience at birth. In a sense, we were born anatomically but have not caught up with this fact emotionally. The dying and the agony during the struggle for rebirth reflect the actual pain and vital threat of the biological birth process." (pp. 149-150)

Here, the authors suggest that what is actually happening in this culminating moment of the death-rebirth process, the final sequence of the progressive unfolding of experiences happening at the "peri-natal level" of the psyche, is an "ego death that precedes rebirth", and in truth, represents "the death of our old concepts of who we are and what the world is like, which were forged by the traumatic imprint of birth" (p. 150). They continue : "As we are purging these old programs by letting them emerge into consciousness, they are becoming irrelevant and are, in a sense, dying."

Thus, it is only a limited sense of personal identity, previously identified with, which is dying here.

Although we may question their explanatory framework, and regardless of the true nature of these experiences, many experiencers of phenomenologically similar process and events have noticed the ultimate benefit of going through them : as the Grofs argue here - "as frightening as this process is, it is actually very healing and transforming."

Descriptors include:

• One often relives various aspects of this stage of birth (the actual moment of birth) as concrete and realistic memories
• [These memories can include] the experience of anaesthesia
• [These memories can include] the experience of the pressures of the forceps (sic)
• [These memories can include] the experience of the sensations associated with various obstetric manoeuvres or postnatal interventions
• Ego-death
• Frightening
• [Approaching the moment of ego-death] might feel like the end of the world
• Only a small step separates us from an experience of radical liberation
• One has a sense of all-pervading anxiety and impending catastrophe of enormous proportions
• It feels as if we are losing all that we are
• We have no idea of what is on the other side
• Fear drives many people to resist the process at this stage
• [As a result of fear,] one can remain psychologically stuck in this problematic territory
• [When the individual overcomes the metaphysical fear encountered at this important juncture and decides to let things happen], he or she experiences total annihilation on all levels
• Physical destruction
• Emotional disaster
• Intellectual and philosophical defeat
• Ultimate moral failure
• Spiritual damnation
• All reference points — everything that seems important and meaningful in the individual's life — seem to be mercilessly destroyed
• Hitting the cosmic rock-bottom
• Immediatly following the experience of total annihilation, one is often overwhelmed by visions of light that has a supernatural radiance and beauty and is usually perceived as divine
• The survivor of what seemed like the ultimate apocalypse experiences only seconds later fantastic displays of rainbows, peacock designs, and celestial scenes
• [After annihilation] One feels redeemed and blessed by salvation, reclaiming his or her divine nature and cosmic status
• At this time, one is frequently overcome by a surge of positive emotions towards oneself, other people, nature, and existence in general
• [This kind of healing and life changing experience occurs when birth was not too debilitating or confounded by heavy anesthesia]
• If the latter [debilitating or anesthesized birth] was the case, the individual has to do psychological work on the traumatic issues involved

Transpersonal Experiences

This type of experience resembles visionary phenomena described in the buddhist model of the stages of insight, in stage 11 particularly (Equanimity).

"Beyond the biographical and perinatal domains in the psyche lies the transpersonal realm. This is a modern term for a broad variety of states that are in other contexts referred to as spiritual, mystical, religious, magical, parapsychological, or paranormal." (p. 151)

The Grofs define transpersonal experiences by contrast to "ordinary" states of consciousness - "in the ordinary, or "normal" state of consciousness, we perceive ourselves as solid material bodies and our skin as the boundary and interface with the external world. [...] We are usually limited in our perception of the world by the range of our senses and the configuration of the environment" (p. 151).

By contrast, they consider that in transpersonal states of consciousness, these usual restrictions do not apply. Their typology here includes what some call PSI phenomena - supernatural experiences and ways of knowing - as well as more mundane yet exotic experiences - non-dual states, exotic cenesthesia, etc.

"Observations of this kind led Carl Gustav Jung many years ago to the idea of the collective uncounscious and the assumption that each individual can under certain circumstances fain access to the entires cultural heritage of humanity. [...]

Transpersonal states have a remarkable healing and transformational potential. [...]

Many emotional and psychosomatic disorders seem to have as their source - besides biographical memories and perinatal material - transpersonal constellations that lie close to the surface. [...]

When such unconscious contents emerge fully into consciousness during a transformational crisis or in experiential psychotherapy, they lose their disruptive influence on everyday life, this can result in dramatic healing of various emotional and physical problems. [...]

While various painful and difficult experiences cleanse the psyche and open the way to more pleasant ones, the ecstatic and unitive states represent the very essence of true healing." (p. 153)

It is difficult to see what exactly differentiates transpersonal experiences from perinatal archetypal and visionary experiences, except perhaps that transpersonal experiences seem to be much more positive, and healing in and of themselves.

Descriptors include:

• All these limitations [of ordinary experience, located here and now, experiencing oneself as a "skin-encapsulated ego"] appear to be transcended
• We can experience ourselves as a play of energy
• We can experience ourselves as a eld of consciousness that is not conned to a physical container
• Can further develop into identication with the consciousness of other people, groups of individuals, or even all of humanity
• The process can extend beyond human boundaries and include various animals, plants and even inorganic materials and events
• Everything that can be experienced in everyday life as an object has in nonordinary states of consciousness a corresponding counterpart in a subjective experience
• What we ordinarily perceive as elements separate from us — such as persons, animals, trees and precious stones — we can actually become and identify with in a transpersonal state
• Time and space cease to be limits
• One can experience various historically and geographically remote events as vividly as if they were happening here and now
• It is possible to participate in sequences that involved one's ancestors, animal predecessors, and people in various cultures and periods of the past who are not at all genetically related to us
• In some instances, this might be associated with a sense of personal remembering
• Frequently, [transpersonal phenomena] involve entities and realms that in the Western worldview are not considered to be part of objective reality, such as deities, demons, and other mythological personages from various cultures, or heavens, purgatories, and hells
• These experiences are as convincing and real as those that include elements we are familiar with from our everyday life
• Transpersonal states thus do not dierentiate between the world of consensus reality and the mythological world of archetypal forms
• In sequences from the lives of ancestors and the history of the race, from other cultures, and from "past lives", people often learn new and accurate details about the costumes, weapons, rituals, architecture, and social structure of the cultures and historical periods involved
• Individuals experiencing identication with various animals [may] acquire amazing insights into their psychology, instinctual behavior, and specic habits, or even enact in spontaneous movements their courtship dances
• This information [acquired during transpersonal experiences] is often far beyond the knowledge of the individual in the areas involved
• On occasion, new information can also emerge from experiences of identication with plants or inorganic processes in nature
• People who in nonordinary states "visit" various archetypal realms and encounter mythological beings residing there can often bring back information that can be veried by research into the mythology of the corresponding cultures
• [Observations of this kind led Carl Gustav Jung many years ago to the idea of the collective uncounscious and the assumption that each individual can under certain circumstances fain access to the entires cultural heritage of humanity]
• Transpersonal states have a remarkable healing and transformational potential.
• [Many emotional and psychosomatic disorders seem to have as their source — besides biographical memories and perinatal material — in transpersonal constellations that lie close to the surface]
• Transpersonal states can have the form of past-life memories, identication with various animals, and demonic archetypes, among others
• [When such unconscious contents emerge fully into consciousness during a transformational crisis or in experiential psychotherapy, they lose their disruptive inuence on everyday life, this can result in dramatic healing of various emotional and physical problems]
• Transpersonal experiences associated with positive emotions, such as feelings of oneness with humanity and nature, states of cosmic unity, encounters with blissful deities, and union with God, [have a special role in the healing and transformative process]
• [While various painful and dicult experiences cleanse the psyche and open the way to more pleasant ones, the ecstatic and unitive states represent the very essence of true healing]