Integral Psychology 1
Presentation 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
(C) Rodney H. Clarken, 2004
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Integral Psychology 1
• This series of presentations entitled Integral
Psychology is based on Ken Wilber’s book
Integral Psychology published in 2000 by
Shambhala Publications of Boston.
• This presentation, Integral Psychology 1, is based
on the book’s Note to the Reader, Chapter 1 The
Basic Levels or Waves and Chapter 2
Developmental Lines or Streams.
(C) Rodney H. Clarken, 2004
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\In"te*gral\
• a. 1. Lacking nothing of completeness;
complete; perfect; uninjured; whole;
entire.
(Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary)
• “comprehensive, balanced, inclusive,
essential for completeness.”
(dictionary)
(C) Rodney H. Clarken, 2004
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\Psy*chol"o*gy\
• 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.
Reader’s 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”
• \Im`ma*te"ri*al\ 1. Not consisting of matter;
incorporeal; spiritual;
• \Spir"it*u*al\ 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/Mind/Consciousness.html
(C) Rodney H. Clarken, 2004
•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 (1834–40)
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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Fechner’s contributions
• Devised an equation to express WeberFechner law: S=K 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 world’s great
spiritual traditions: Three thousand years
of cross-cultural agreement on levels of
existence--being and knowing—called
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 selfconsciousness (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 Matter/physics
•A+B Life/biology
•A+B+C Mind/psychology
•A+B+C+D Soul/theology
•A+B+C+D+E Spirit/mysticism
•A
+B
+C
+D
+E
•Spirit (nondual)
•Adapted from Wilber, p. 6
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•Huston Smith, Beyond(C)
theRodney
Post-Modern
Mind,2004
p. 41
H. Clarken,
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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
1. Physical, 1-7 years old
2. Emotional-sexual, 7-14
3. 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, (pluralisticintegral)
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Some developmental lines
• Morals
• Creativity
• Affects
• Altruism
• Self-identity
• Worldviews
• Psychosexuality
• Logico-mathematical
• Role-taking
• Empathy
• Interpersonal
• Kinesthetic
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Development
•
Proceeds along different lines at different
rates
•
Each line follows similar predictable
sequential hierarchical stages:
1. 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.
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