Jean Gebser
THE EVER-PRESENT
ORIGIN
Power Point Presentation
for the Seminar on Psychology of Social Development
organized by the University of Human Unity, Auroville
Two fundamental principles of Gebser’s approach
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1) Latency - what is concealed - is the demonstrable presence of the future. It includes
everything that is not yet manifest, as well as everything which has again returned to
latency. Since we are dealing here primarily with phenomena of consciousness and
integration, we will also have to investigate questions of history, the soul and the psyche,
time, space, and the forms of thought.
Since the second part of this work is devoted to manifestations of the new consciousness,
the first part must clarify questions relating to the manifestations of previous and present
consciousness structures. We shall attempt to demonstrate the incipient concretion of time
and the spiritual dimension which are preconditions of the aperspectival world. We shall
also attempt to furnish evidence of the increasing efficacy of that spiritual reality (which is
neither a mere psychic state nor an intellectual-rational form of representation). This will
bring out the validity of our second guiding principle:
2) Transparency (diaphaneity) is the form of manifestation (epiphany) of the spiritual.
Our concern is to render transparent everything latent "behind" and "before" the world - to
render transparent our own origin, our entire human past, as well as the present,
which already contains the future. We are shaped and determined not only by today and
yesterday, but by tomorrow as well. The author is not interested in outlining discrete
segments, steps or levels of man, but in disclosing the transparency of man as a whole and
the interplay of the various consciousness structures which constitute him. This
transparency or diaphaneity of our existence is particularly evident during transitional
periods, and it is from the experiences of man in transition, experiences which man
has had with the concealed and latent aspects of his dawning future as he became
aware of them, that will clarify our own experiencing of the present.
Gebser’s Fundamental Discoveries
• The beginning of the perspectival perception of the mental (=spatial)
structure of consciousness (Ancient Greeks and medieval Europe)
out of latent unperspectival and pre-perspectival structures.
(Francesco Petrarca, Leonardo de Vinci, etc.)
• The emergence of aperspectival consciousness in the 20th century
out of perspectival structure (Picasso etc.) operating within and by
all the latent structures in a transparent way for the manifestation of
the Spirit.
• “Transparency (diaphaneity) is the form of manifestation (epiphany)
of the spiritual.”- says Gebser. He cannot fully accept the rational,
perspectival conception of progress and evolution, which is not
taking into account the latent structures of our being.
• He also declines the Orientalist view, which is, according to him,
turned only towards the past (mythical structure) in search of the
origin to escape from the manifestation (mainly Buddhism and
Advaita).
Sri Aurobindo on Evolution
• We speak of the evolution of Life in Matter, the evolution of
Mind in Matter; but evolution is a word which merely states the
phenomenon without explaining it. For there seems to be no
reason why Life should evolve out of material elements or Mind
out of living form, unless we accept the Vedantic solution that
Life is already involved in Matter and Mind in Life because
in essence Matter is a form of veiled Life, Life a form of
veiled Consciousness.
The Life Divine, (Page 3)
Structures of consciousness
• Archaic ( Primal man, Protanthropos, Purusha of the Rig Veda,
Adam Kadmon of the Cabbalists, Osiris of the Egyptian-Gnostics)
• Magic (‘here the primal man becomes the maker’; for the first time
he faces the world; vital impulse and instinct thus unfold and
develop a consciousness in dealing with Nature; witchcraft and
sorcery, totem and taboo are the natural means of freeing himself
from Nature) (appr. before 10 000 BC)
• Mythical (brings the awareness of the inner life of the soul, its
history and its origin, the primal Myth) (appr. before 2500 BC)
• Mental (‘It individualizes man from his previously valid world,
emphasizing his singularity and making his ego possible.’(p.76) It
introduces a perspectival perception of the world (1250-1500 AD) by
spatializing time perception; it represents life by conceptualizing it,
distancing man from his own nature.)
• Integral (freedom from all the structures by their transparent
rearrangement into one integral oneness of being)
Space and Time Relationship
Structure
a) Dimensioning
b) Perspectivity
c) Emphasis
Archaic:
Zero-dimensional
None
Identity
(Integrality)
Magic:
One-dimensional
Point
Unity
(Oneness)
Mythical:
Two-dimensional
Circle
Polarity
(Ambivalence)
Mental:
Three-dimensional
Triangle
Duality
(Opposition)
Integral:
Four-dimensional
Sphere
Diaphaneity
(Transparency)
Space and Time Properties
Structure
2. Sign
3. Essence
4. Properties
5. Potentiality
Archaic:
Integral
Integrality
None
Prespatial
Pretemporal
Magic:
Non-directional
unitary, interwovenness or fusion
Unity by Unification,
Hearing/Hearkening
Preperspectival
Spaceless
Timeless*
Mythical:
Circular and polar
Complementarity
Unification by
Complementarity
and
Correspondence
Unperspectival
Spaceless
Natural
temporicity
Mental:
Directed dual
oppositionality
Unification by
Synthesis and
Reconciliation
Perspectival
Spatial
Abstractly
temporal
Integral:
Presentiating,
Diaphanous
“rendering whole"
Integrality by
Integration
andPresentiation
Aperspectival
Space-free
Time-free
Properties of Consciousness
Structure
6. Emphasis
a) Objective (external) b) Subjective (internal)
Archaic:
Unconscious
Spirit
None or Latency
Magic:
Nature
Mythical:
7. Consciousness
a) Degree
b) Relation
Deep sleep
Universe-related:
Breathing-spell
Emotion
Sleep
Outer-related
(Nature): Exhaling
Soul/Psyche
Imagination
Dream
Inner-related
(Psyche): Inhaling
Mental:
Space – World
Abstraction
Wakefulness
Outer-related
(Spatial world):
Exhaling
Integral:
(Conscious
Spirit)
(Concretion)
(Transparency)
(Inward-related:
Inhaling? or
Breathing-Spell?)
Properties of Forms and Attitudes
Structure
8. Forms of Manifestation
9. Basic attitude and
agency of energy
10. Organ
emphasis
a) efficient
b) deficient
Archaic:
None
Presentiment,
foreboding
Origin: Wisdom
-
Magic:
Spell-casting
Witchcraft
Instinct Vital:
Drive Emotion
Viscera - Ear
Mythical:
Primal myth
(envisioned myth)
Mythology
(spoken myth)
Imagination Psychic:
Sensibility Disposition
Heart - Mouth
Mental:
Menos (directive,
discursive thought)
Ratio (divisive,
immoderate hairsplitting)
Reflection Cerebral:
Abstraction Will/Volition
Brain - Eye
Integral:
Diaphainon (open,
spiritual "verition")
Void (atomizing
dissolution)
(Concretion) Integral:
(Rendering diaphanous)
("Verition")
(Vertex)
Forms of Realisation and Thought I
Structur
e
11. Forms of realization and thought
a) Basis
Archaic:
b) Mode
c) Process
d) Expression
Originary
Presentiment
Presentiment
Magic:
Empathy and
Identification Hearing
Pre-rational, precausal analogical
Associative, analogizing,
sympathetic
interweaving
Vital experience
Mythical:
Imagination and
Utterance
Contemplation and
Voicing
Irrational: noncausal, polar
Internalized recollection,
contemplation
externalized utterance,
expression
Undergone
experience
Mental:
Conceptualization
and Reflection
Seeing and
Measuring
Rational: causal,
directed
Projective speculation:
oceanic, paradoxical,
then perspectival
thinking
Representation
Conception, Ideation
Integral:
(Concretion and
Integration "Verition“
and Transparency)
(Arational:
acausal, integral)
Integrating, rendering
diaphanous
Verition
Forms of Realisation and Thought II
Structure
e) Formulation
11. Forms of realization and thought
f) Limits
g) Valence
Archaic:
World-origin
Magic:
World-knowledge, the
"recognized" world
Conditioned
Univalent
Mythical:
World-image or
Weltanschauung:
the contemplated and
interpreted world
Temporally bound
Ambivalent
Mental:
World-conception: the thought
and conceptualized world
Limited
Trivalent
Integral:
World-Verition: the world
perceived and imparted in
truth
Open, free
Multivalent
Forms of Expression and Articulation
Structure
12. Forms of Expression
Archaic:
Magic:
Mythical:
Mental:
Integral:
Magic:
Mythologeme
13. Forms of Assertion or Articulation
Graven images
Idol
Ritual
Gods
Symbol
Mysteries
Philosopheme: God
Dogma (Allegory, Creed)
Method
(Eteologeme:) (Divinity)
(Synairesis)
(Diaphany)
Petition (Prayer): being heard
Wishes (Ideals: Fulfillment
"wish (pipe-) dreams")
Volition: attainment
(Verition: Present)
Forms of Relationships
Structure
a) temporal
Archaic:
_
14. Relationships
b) social
_
c) general
Universal or
("cosmic“)
Magic:
Undifferentiated
Tribal world [clan/kith and
kin] natural
Egoless
Terrestrial
Mythical:
Predominantly
past-oriented
[recollection, muse]
Parental world
[Ancestor-worship]
predominantly matriarchal
Egoless
"we"-oriented
psychic
Mental:
Predominantly
future-oriented
[purpose and goal]
World of the first-born son,
individuality [child-adulation]
predominantly patriarchal
Egocentric
materialistic
Integral:
(Presentiating)
Mankind,
neither matriarchy nor
patriarchy but integrum
Ego-free, amaterial,
apsychic
Forms of Bond and Motto
Structure
15.Localization of
the soul
Archaic:
(Universe)
Magic:
16. Forms of bond or tie
17. Motto
_
(All)
Semen and blood
Proligio (prolegere) emotive
and point-like
Pars pro toto
Mythical:
Diaphragm and heart
Relegio (relegere)
observing,internalizing
(recollecting) and externalizing
(expressing)
Mental:
Spinal cord and brain
Religion {religare): believing,
knowing and deducing
Integral:
Cerebral cortex,
humoral
Praeligio (praeligare):
presentiating, concretizing,
integrating
Soul is identical to life
(and death)
Thinking is Being
Origin: Present
Perceiving and
Imparting Truth