The New Psychology and the Evolution of Consciousness - Part 2

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

 

We ended Part 1 of The New Psychology and the Evolution of Consciousness with

the words on page 33 of:

 

" We will see in what follows that there is the level of mental consciousness

which is our normal rational consciousness, but below that is a series of

subconscious levels, while above it is another whole range of levels of

consciousness up to the supreme consciousness to which we are aspiring. The

mental consciousness with which we normally identify is in the mid-range of the

development of consciousness. "

 

Appended then is Part 2.

 

Enjoy,

 

violet

 

 

The New Psychology and the Evolution of Consciousness

 

(Part 2)

 

(p.33) In tracing the process of the evolution of consciousness it is helpful to

follow the work of Ken Wilber, particularly in his Up From Eden. Wilber

distinguishes six levels of consciousness, beginning with what he calls uroboric

or oceanic consciousness.

 

This is the primeval consciousness at which level the human being is totally

immersed in nature and is one with the universe. It reflects also the experience

of the child in the womb where the child is floating in the amniotic fluid in

which it is growing. Floating in that ocean is an experience of a kind of bliss.

The child is totally at one with nature without any separation at all. This

state corresponds with the garden of Eden; the man and woman of the Genesis

narrative were in that state of bliss-consciousness, totally one with nature. At

this stage of development however the human persons were not simply animals.

Latent in that early human consciousness were all the further levels of

consciousness, even the higher levels. The Spirit, in other words, was present

in humanity from the beginning. Ken Wilber tends to suggest that what was

involved here was only a lower form of consciousness, but we would rather say

that in that blissful oneness with nature there was an awareness of Spirit, the

Atman, the Supreme. It could not be distinguished or differentiated, but there

was an awareness of it in a kind of global experience of bliss. That is the

state of Eden, man's original state. There is no separate ego in that state.

There is simply an experience of immersion in a cosmic whole, in which the

material and the human (p.34) world are experienced in a global unity with the

Spirit which pervades and encompasses them.

 

The term uroboric which Wilber gives to this level of consciousness comes from

mythology, where the uroboros is the serpent with its tail in its mouth and is

therefore completely enclosed in itself. This is one of the great ancient

symbols. The child in the womb and man in nature are completely uroboric,

completely enclosed in the world of nature, without separation having taken

place between self and other.

 

The next stage Wilber terms typhonic. The typhon is a mythological creature,

half man and half serpent. While the uroboros is a serpent with its tail in its

mouth, the typhon is the serpent which has begun to transcend itself. This

indicates the start made by early man to move out of nature, the beginning of

separation and the development of consciousness of the body. In the same way the

child begins to develop a body consciousness, becoming aware of itself as

separate from its mother and siblings. There is self-awareness as body but not

yet self-awareness as mind. With this body consciousness the child begins to

know itself as an individual but is still very closely bonded with mother and

with other children. This oneness of the child with mother and family is an

emotional unity, and emotional consciousness. It is the root of all the deep

ties we have with mother, family, tribe and race. All these ties develop out of

that original, emotional, typhonic consciousness.

 

Another aspect of the typhonic level of consciousness is that it is a kind of

dream state. We go into that dream state at night but ancient humanity lived

much more constantly in the dream state. In the dream state things are far less

differentiated than in the waking state. Time and space have quite a different

character in the dream and so, almost certainly did they have for ancient man.

Time and space were not clearly differentiated as they are for us. We all (p.35)

experience the world according to our level of consciousness and early man must

have experienced the world much more like a dream. When time and space are not

clearly defined things are experienced as flowing into each other, and it is

said that at that period personal boundaries were not distinct and there was the

sense of flowing into and merging with others. This kind of experience is

sometimes referred to as a 'participation mystique', a mystical participation.

Having realised that his body is separate in some sense, the person is still

part of nature, part of that emotional complex.

 

The typhonic level of awareness is also the world of magic. In magic no clear

distinction is made between the outer and the inner world. Magic is precisely

the attempt to affect the outer world through the inner. One example of this is

the way in which making an image of a person and sticking pins in it is believed

to affect the person imaged. At the time when this was the general level of

consciousness, a common practice was what we now know as " sympathetic magic " .

For example, hunting people made paintings of animals on the walls of their

caves and by painting arrows penetrating the image of the bison, or whatever the

prey was, it was believed that in a magical way the bison outside was affected.

Killing the bison in the hunt then became a matter of actualising outside the

event which had been achieved in the cave. So here the inner and outer worlds

were not yet differentiated.

 

At this second stage the notion of time as time has not as yet developed. In the

first stage, the uroboric, time did not feature at all; there was simply a unity

of being. At the second stage time was beginning to develop as what is now known

as a passing present. At that stage there was no awareness of a past or a

future. Life was experienced always and only in the present. It is noteworthy

that many of the characteristics of these primitive states are much the same as

those of the higher mystical states. Ken Wilber makes (p.36) the very important

point, referred to earlier in connection with Jung, that we must not confuse

this pre-logical, pre-mental level with the transmental, transpersonal stage,

the difference being that in the pre-mental state there is no differentiation;

in the transmental state differentiation is transcended. There is, therefore, a

profound analogy between these two modes of experience. Thus in mystical

experience we rediscover at a fully conscious level our original oneness with

nature and sense of the present moment. There is no longer an awareness of

either a past or a future; there is only the present, the total reality

experienced in its original unity.

 

At this typhonic level, then, life was lived totally in the present. This was

the pre-logical state of consciousness before the development of language. It is

uncertain exactly when language began to develop. Many people put it

comparatively late. Wilber places this stage at about 200,000 BC. Many think

that language did not really develop, apart from very simple words and

exclamations, until about 50,000 BC.

 

A New Vision of Reality (Western Science, Eastern Mysticism and Christian Faith)

Bede Griffiths

Templegate Publishers - Springfield, Illinois

ISBN 0-87243-180-0

Pgs. 33-36