Psychosis and Spirituality: Inner Journeys in a Time of Transition

1. Psychosis and Spirituality: Inner Journeys in a Time of Transition Psychology and Mysticism: Refining our Maps of Mind Les Lancaster Professor of Transpersonal Psychology, School of Natural Sciences & Psychology, Liverpool John Moores University, UK Honorary Research Fellow, Centre for Jewish Studies, University of Manchester, UK. John Moores University, Tom Reilly Building, Byrom Street, Liverpool L3 3AH, UK. Tel: +44 (0)151-231-4036 Fax: 0151-231-4033 e-mail: B.L.Lancaster@ljmu.ac.uk

2. Spirituality and our narrative construction of reality historical flow of events ‘religious’ ‘secular’ Ordained by God Dependant worldview Surface meaning Reductive worldview ‘spiritual’ Co-created meaningparticipatory worldview Religion / theology Scientism / physicalism Transpersonal psychology

3. What do you see?

5. Cognitive neuroscience: Split brains and the construction of reality (Gazzaniga, 2005) ‘I’ (as constructed by left hemisphere language structures) have selected a shovel and a chicken and have done so … because you need a shovel to clean out the chicken coup.

6. Constructed sense of agency (Wegner, 2008) Dijksterhuis, A., Preston, J., Wegner, D. M., & Aarts, H. (2008). Effects of subliminal priming of self and God on self-attribution of authorship for events. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44, 2-9. Who caused the letters to disappear – you or the computer? gewws gewws xxxxxx me xxxxxx Subliminal prime: computer God me participant computer

7. Actual causal path Unconscious cause of thought Actual causal path Unconscious path Unconscious cause of action Wegner’s theory of apparent mental causation Experience of conscious will Theory of Mind 1 Apparent causal path thought action Theory of Mind 2

8. Levels of explanation and the sense of value in transformation

9. Who / what am ‘I’? Concept of ‘God’ Outer world constructed on basis of expectancy etc. ‘I’ = retrospective construct(agency; thinker) spiritual psychodynamic cognitive neurological • Evidence from psychology • Writings from spiritual / mystical traditions • Levels of explanation

10. Reminders of God lower goal-directed motivation (Laurinet al, 2011) Phase 1: priming. Produce sentences of four words from set of ten. Group 1 – words include ‘reminders of God’ (egdivine, God, sacred, spirit, and prophet) Group 2 – words include positives (sun, flowers, puppy, beautiful, and party) Group 3 – only neutral words included Phase 2: Task “highly relevant to their career aspirations” Form as many words as possible in 5 min, using any combination of the letters R, S, T, L, I, E, and A. Result: God-primed participants generated fewer words than did participants primed with positive or neutral concepts. Laurin, K., Kay, A. C., & Fitzsimons, G. M. (2011, October 24). Divergent effects of activating thoughts of God on self-regulation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1037/a0025971.

11. Narrative construction of reality historical flow of events God-schema ‘religious’ ‘secular’ Ordained by God Dependant worldview Surface meaning Reductive worldview ‘spiritual’ Co-created meaningparticipatory worldview Religion / theology Scientism / physicalism Lowered motivation Lowered motivation Transpersonal psychology Highermotivation?

12. Kabbalah & Jung: the participatory vision “For the companions [i.e., kabbalistic mystics of 13th century], reading the Torah is not only … about knowing or discovering the secrets of divinity; nor is it only about acting for the sake of God. Reading the Torah … involves an active participation in the world of divinity and the Companions … step into this flowing dimension of being.” Wolski (2010), pp. 42-43. “ … [M]an is indispensable for the completion of creation; … in fact, he himself is the second creator of the world…. Human consciousness created objective existence and meaning, and man found his indispensable place in the great process of being.” “If the Creator were conscious of Himself, He would not need conscious creatures….” Jung (1963), pp. 284-5 & 371.

13. Kabbalah: Eros and the participatory vision “The desire of the female toward the male arouses only when a spirit enters her and she gushes fluid corresponding to the upper, masculine waters. Similarly [the Shekhinah] arouses desire in The Holy One, blessed be He only by the spirit of the righteous entering Her. Then the fluids flow within her corresponding to the male fluids, and all becomes one desire, one togetherness, one bond. A rapturous embracing of all.” Zohar 1:50a & 1:60b “Come and see: When the priest focuses to light the lamps below and offers the aromatic incense, at that time, the supernal lights illuminate, and all is bound as one, and joy and delight abide in all the worlds, as it is written, Oil and incense rejoice the heart (Proverbs 27:9)…. Zohar 1:230a, 3:151b & 3:149a NB. Heb. Ketoret= incense. Aramaic root Ktr= bind; tie; join.

14. Maps of mind are intrinsically maps of the spiritual journey Limitless transcendence creation Journey of return Holy One, blessed be He ‘Ten sefirot of nothingness …; understand with wisdom and be wise in your understanding. Investigate with them and explore from them. Establish every item on its correct root. You will lead the Creator of all forms back to His intended foundation.’ SeferYetsirah(c4th Century CE kabbalistic source) Shekhinah (divine feminine)

15. Maps of mind are intrinsically maps of the spiritual journey EGO C O N S C I O U S C O N S C I O U S P E R S O N A L U N C O N S C I O U S SHADOW C O L L E C T I V E U N C O N S C I O U S Jung S E L F

16. Maps of mind are intrinsically maps of the spiritual journey Assagioli

17. 6. object/event + ‘I’ stored in memory ‘I’ see a pen Memory ink Neuronal Input Model pen 'I'-tag Interpreter pencil Other current inputs+ ‘I’-tags 1. feature analysis in V1 etc. 2. neuronal oscillation 3. activation in memory 4. matching - neural equilibration 5. incorporation into ‘I’-narrative ‘Refining our maps of mind:’Buddhist Abhidhamma and cognitive neuroscience Buddhist stages:sense receive examine establish ‘I’ see register

18. Increase awareness of ‘preconscious’ processes shift leading edge of consciousness Augment associative process Attenuate interpreter function Consciousness and mystical practice ‘I’ Memory "wheel" of words/letters Interpreter Altered state Reality orientation

19. “ … if he unties the knots from himself, he may cleave to Him who is above them.” “ … when he becomes accustomed to the [meditative] separateness, he will strengthen [his] seclusion and connectedness [to the divine] and know how to unify the Name.” Kabbalah and transformation - Abulafia ‘I’ Memory "wheel" of words/letters Interpreter “… and begin by combining this Name, namely Y-H-V-H, at the beginning alone, and examine all its combinations and move it and turn it about like a wheel returning around, front and back, like a scroll”