Personal development and natural evolution:

1. Personal development and natural evolution: The role of transcendent experiences

2. Keith Beasley School of Theologyand Religious Studies,Bangor University, Wales

3. OUTLINE • Evolution & development: the holographic principle • Natural evolution: an imperative • Growth & experiential learning • Transcendence (beyond dualism) • Natural and normal transcendence

4. As above, so below Personal development reflectsand is reflected inhuman evolution

5. Evolutionary imperative Hardy argued that this awareness is like a sense; it is there because it has an important function. It has indeed been 'naturally selected' in the process of evolution because it helps us to survive. Hay 2006, p37

6. REFLECT EXPERIENCE ACCEPT Experiential learning

7. Transcend • to rise above • to surmount • to surpass • to exceed • to pass or lie beyond the limit of Chambers English Dictionary 1990

8. Transcending what? • Dualism • Fears • Conditioning • Our sense of separateness

9. Transcending fear with love Only our fear-driven egos use judgements to protect us – protection that ironically prevents us from self-realization. We must be prepared to love all we have feared Ford 1998, p92

10. Naturally . . . to truth In the march towards Truth, anger, selfishness, hatred etc., naturally give way, for otherwise Truth would be impossible to attain. Gandhi 1957 p345

11. Transcending . . . concepts? A successful search for Truth means complete deliverance from the dual throng such as love and hate happiness and misery. Gandhi 1957 p345

12. Evolution 1: from the ‘Modern’

13. . . . through the ‘Postmodern’

14. . . . to the ‘Post-postmodern’

15. 5 stages of natural grieving • Denial • Anger • Bargaining • Depression • Acceptance Kübler-Ross 1969

16. Two Dimensions / Facetsof Transcendence ‘Thought’ or Mental Transcendence – Integrated / Holistic thinking ‘Felt’ Transcendence- Whole Body / Non-local

18. ‘Thought’ Transcendence

19. We always have questions to ask and are always learning. We try to be open minded, but always ask for real evidence. F47 (Ref 13) I take on beliefs and practices yet I acknowledge that my thoughts and beliefs change over time. I reflect on my experiences and see the lessons in the everyday F34 (Ref 3)

20. I know loads and loads of people who have so called supernatural experiences which to them are totally normal and absolutely natural. It’s just that people have different radars and different radios that, you know, they may be tuned to just one frequency where somebody may be tuned to three, or two, or ten. It depends on your development and your sensitivity, your experiences and all those sort of things. ‘Toddy’ Interview 29/7/10

21. What is ‘natural’ and ‘normal’?

22. The most natural thingin the world Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go into the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius. Mozart, quoted by Boldt 1997 p73

23. Keith Beasley aka The Algarve Owl www.algarveowl.com keith.beasley@bangor.ac.uk