The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. Albert Einstein Mining the Unconscious

Human beings, like nature, are forever reaching for homeostatic balance. Our planet breathes the seasons, the ocean tides, full moon, no moon, earthquake and storm, calm. We are a part of the whole and the whole is a part of us. There is no point in resisting the flow. Only in release are we freed to become all we can be.

Astrology tells us that Saturn--Father Time—in its seven year transit of our personal lives, regulates our goings and comings, womb-times and birthing. As a planet we are now under astrological influences that have not been felt for five hundred years, the period of Renaissance and Reformation. I am stunned. I feel it. Don’t you?

My psychological profession has seen these waves of change—first expansion, then constriction. The so named Psychological Forces which have asserted influence reveal the energetically relentless principle of expansion and release, opening and closing. Emotions stand at the threshold of the unconscious mind and mysterious doorway to the soul. When restricted feelings shroud the entrance, we are unable to soar into our potential, create our dreams, and realize a fully human life. Today, most of us value emotional intelligence, but it has not always been so.

Just before the turn of the Twentieth Century, Behaviorism was the First Force in the psychological understanding of human nature. From Behaviorism we learned of Pavlov’s Dog, and the idea that human beings can be reduced to the mechanistic principle of stimulus/response.

Next, Psychoanalysis--The Second Force--and Sigmund Freud with his Id, Ego and Superego exerted influence. Simply the belief that the unconscious mind existed at all was in itself revolutionary. Yet, Freud’s colleague, Carl Jung, conceived not only a personal unconscious, but his theories opened the passageway to vast regions of the collective unconscious. Jung’s influence, his memoir, Memories, Dream and Reflections, the piercing self-honestly, his painful retreat, and struggle to understand his dreams and creative imagination, still today sounds a clear note of truth. As I know is true for many of you, Jung awakened me to a widening world. And once we’re awake, we don’t want to go back to sleep. (See related article:  Reflections/Dreams)

Jung birthed awareness of the transcendent within each human body, mind and soul. And even though a Cognitive-Behaviorist retreat in the Fifties attempted to restrict feelings into the ABC of Emotions, The Third Force ofHumanistic Psychology built on Jung’s understanding. Abraham Maslow gave us knowledge of human needs, from survival to self-actualization. Carl Rogers took the therapist off his throne as an authority, and gave power back to his clients: “It is the client who knows what hurts, what directions to go, what problems are crucial, what experiences have been deeply buried.”

In the next wave of psychological theory, The Fourth Force of Transpersonal Psychology, human beings were no longer regarded as merely human, but beautifully human. “Talk therapy” evolved into “being therapy," a gift to us all. In the Seventies I caught this transpersonal wave and rode it toward recognition of my “bigger story” and integration of body, mind and spirit.  My personal work evolved into a professional passion. Personally astounded by the potential for completion of psychological “unfinished business” and the "wholeness" which results (a complete gestalt--a whole picture), I trained in the Gestalt Therapy of Fritz Perls and became a practitioner of this transformative work.  Jung's seminal work is the bedrock of Depth Psychology.  Transpersonal Psychology led us into ever expanding realms of the unconscious. 

The consciousness revolution, and feminine psychology of the Eighties, continued to expand psychological understanding.  I followed premiere Jungian Analyst, Marian Woodman (Addiction to Perfection.Dancing in the Flames) to a Transpersonal Conference in San Diego. There I soaked up the wisdom of cultural anthropologist Angeles Arrien (The Four Fold Way: Walking the Paths of the Warrior, Teacher, Healer and Visionary), and experienced “breathwork” with Stanislov Grof, (http://www.holotropic.com).

The incremental effect of the conference opened me as I had never been opened before. My heart was full. I felt expanded, beautiful, free, one with All That Is, and my-Self. The conference lasted for a week. After a few days, my psyche overflowed with cosmic, transcendent and spiritual  awareness. I was flying. Unable to take any more in, I rented a car and wandered the California coast line. On a thin sliver of rolling dunes, wiith waves lapping at my bare feet I was able to experience the full ecstacy which the workshop experiences created. Magnifiying the sense of mystery and wonder, a mystical mist rolled off the ocean and shrouded the sun.  Impregnanted with an ecstatic sense of oneness and connection to all of creation, my three-dimensional world view expanded to take in all of creation, every human being, every rock, every tree. Walking along that beach, my heart bursting with love,  I made a conscious decision to follow my heart and honor heart knowledge as an equal partner to mind.

Heart openings are transformative, inching us closer and closer to realization and embodiment of our True Self.  Heart knowledge  in turn, opens into soul awareness deep within, and activates the energetic outer-world web of synchronistic possibility--described by Jung as non-causal occurrences. In rationally unexplainable ways, the synchronistic process connects what is without, with what is within.  Our uniquely personal awareness,  perhaps unknown to anyone but ourself, is mirrored and reflected back to us in stunningly concrete ways. Not long after my mind-blowing conference experiences, and the resultant decision to allow heart-longings to lead me, at mid-session a client blurted out, “You sound just like those Eupsychia people.” She dug in her purse and produced a flyer. “Here. It’s a workshop. You need to go.”

My client had no idea that recently at the Transpersonal Conference, Stan Grof's "breathwork" was a key souce in awakening my creative imagination and connection with All That Is.  There was no good explanation for why she abruptly interrupted her own personal--and initial--therapy session and instead delivered information that concerned me, her prospective therapist. Nor did I know when we began the session that we would end with her saying, "You know, I'd really like to know you as a friend.  I can find another therapist, but maybe not a friend like I imagine you could be."  This bubbly woman, alive and full of life, came to see me only once as a client.  We did indeed become friends and shared a sisterhood within a larger holistic community of like-minded souls. Yet in that one brief hour, she synchronisticly delivered a flyer which led me to threee years of training with a colleague of Grof’s, Jacqueline Small and the Eupsychia Institute for Psychospiritual Integration and Integrative Breathwork. (http://www.eupsychia.com) Before long I would facilitate the transformative breathwork process, and even more deeply explore the transpersonal realms with my clients. (See related article: Reflections/Just Breathe)

Based on years of scientific inquiry, Stanislov Grof’s, The Holotrophic Mind, lays out a detailed map of non-ordinary states of consciousness. Multi layered and diverse, non-ordinary states fall into three broad categories: Personal, Transpersonal and Cosmic. These categories are not linear, or determined by anything other than our own process of awareness. Once we willingly open the door to the unconscious, our personal journey dips into our "bigger story", in what we might call the beginning, or middle or end of linear consciousness. Our soul leads us on a journey of awakening, and we follow toward ultimate healing and wholeness. From my work with hundreds of clients, I share the types of transpersonal experiences which unfold as we plumb the depths of the unconscious:

1. Personal: As we approach the portal to the unconscious, entirely willing, with a prayer for guidance from the God of Our Understanding, we feel physical sensations which the deep breathing creates. Perhaps we remember our birth, or recall pains, joys and sorrows from our life.

2. Transpersonal: Now we move beyond the simply personal into our bigger story, the land of dreams, archetype and myth. We may recall past lives with impeccable detail, which later prove to be accurate as we research names, dates, families. 
 ~ Archetype:  We might imagine that we are The Great Mother, and experience the mother symbol through many ages and cultures. Or we may experience ourself as The Lover, The Warrior, The Prophet, The Child. This is an archetypal symbol which is the same across all ages, all cultures. 
 ~ Myth:  Or, in our imagination we might become Shiva, Jesus, King Arthur, The Green Man, Aphrodite, Kali, Nefertiti, Queen Elizabeth, Kwan Yin. As with past life recall, following personal research we later discover that the startling details, and vivid experience of a mythological figure from a culture about which we know nothing, can be verified as fact.
 ~ Animal Spirits often inhabit trance states. We feel as if we have become a wolf, a horse, a bear, an eagle, a snake, an otter, a porpoise, a lion. We run as they run, soar as they soar, play as they play, swim as they swim, and come away from the experience with an understanding of the instinctual drives which direct mating, migration, hibernation. We don’t forget such experiences, and retain a cellular connection associated with instinctual feelings of power, freedom, playfulness, free flight.
~  Inanimate Object:  Sometimes we experience ourselves as a supposed inanimate object: a tree, a rock, a wave, a cloud. And gain the sense that all of nature possesses soul and meaning.

3. Cosmic Consciousness: Spiraling into the universe, riding Saturn’s rings, sitting in the lap of God, being held by the Great Mother, ascending a celestial staircase with hosts of angels singing our name, melting and becoming one with All That Is, these experiences are not of this world. Through non-ordinary states of consciousness we travel the heavenly and cosmic spheres, long before we actually leave our bodies at death. The sense of eternal existence is both comforting and enlightening. The Divine Spark lives within us all. Through transpersonal awakenings we know with a deep inner wisdom such as the ancient gnostics describe, that there is no seperation of time and space, but all reality is potentiallly present in the here and now.

Having mined the rich vein of the unconscious, we begin to integrate and understand how these mysterious symbols affect and inform our lives. Beyond anything else, the experience of this work--with so many--has clearly shown me that human consciousness is ever-evolving and expanding. Today humanity is picking up evolutionary speed. The opportunities for personal growth, healing and wellness are enormous. A few recommendations come to mind:

~ Ken Wilber (http://wilber.shambhala.com) and his Integral Psychology, is the forerunner of yet another--Fifth Force-- wave of psychological thought which synthesizes body, mind and spirit.

~ The Omega Center for Holistic studies at http://www.eomega.org/ offers volumes of cutting-edge spiritual, environmental, and healing workshops, presented by leaders in each field.

~ For a college degree in Transpersonal Psychology, click onto: 
The International Transpersonal Institute found at http://www.itp.edu/about/index.cfm

~ Visit www.pacifica.edu for graduate degrees in Psychology, the Humanities and Mythological Studies.

Our initial birth, and our many potential rebirths throughout life, are never easy or pretty, until that is, the new creation is cleaned up, wrapped in a receiving blanket, and placed in our arms. Similarly, through the media and internet we have the sometimes devastatng experience of witnessing the spectacle of blood, scat and labor pains as our global villages approaches our birthing into renaissance and reformation. But we’re in it. Shift happens. And many souls--just like you and me--envision a peaceful, holistic and green future for our planet, ourselves and our children.  (See related article:  Reflection/Cultural Creatives) In large and small ways we are willing participants in the evolutionary process. I am profoundly encouraged to know that our global village of awakened souls is participating in the birth of a new world, a child we can all call our own.

Man, unlike any other thing organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of his concepts, emerges ahead of his accomplishments.
John Steinbeck