The Meaning of Self-Liberation and Some Loops From The Source of Danger Is Fear

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Beyond Mind II: Further Steps to a Metatranspersonal Philosophy and Psychology

Some of Wilber’s “holoarchies” are gradations of being, which he views as truth itself; however, being is delusion, and its gradations are gradations of delusion. Wilber’s supposedly universal ontogenetic holoarchy contradicts all Buddhist Paths, whereas his view of phylogeny contradicts Buddhist Tantra and Dzogchen, which claim delusion/being increase throughout the aeon to finally achieve reductio ad absurdum . Wilber presents spiritual healing as ascent; Grof and Washburn represent it as descent—yet they are all equally off the mark. Phenomenologically speaking, the Dzogchen Path is “descending,” but not in Washburn’s or Grof ’s sense—and “transpersonal” is not a synonym of “sanity.” A synthesis of Wilber, Grof, Washburn, Jung, Laing, Cooper and non-transpersonal authors in the framework of Wisdom traditions is imperative

Beyond Mind Steps to a Metatranspersonal Psychology

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Book Review The Fall: Evidence for a Golden Age, 6,000 Years of Insanity and the Dawning of a New Era, by Steve Taylor

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A Reply to Abramson’s Response to My “Beyond Mind” Papers and Some Reflections on Wilber V

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Evaluating the roles of directed breeding and gene flow in animal domestication

Peer reviewedPostprin

Beyond Mind III: Further Steps to a Metatranspersonal Philosophy and Psychology (Continuation of the Discussion on the Three Best Known Transpersonal Paradigms, with a Focus on Washburn and Grof )

This paper gives continuity to the criticism, undertaken in two papers previously published in this journal, of transpersonal systems that fail to discriminate between nirvanic, samsaric, and neithernirvanic- nor-samsaric transpersonal states, and which present the absolute sanity of Awakening as a dualistic, conceptually-tainted condition. It also gives continuity to the denunciation of the false disjunction between ontogenically ascending and descending paths, while showing the truly significant disjunction to be between existentially ascending and metaexistentially descending paths. However, whereas in the preceding paper the focus was on Wilber’s so-called integral system, in this paper the focus of the main body is on the systems of Washburn and Grof. It features an appendix discussing psychedelics and the use of the term entheogens in their regard, and another appendix showing Wilber’s system to give continuity to the Orphic dualism of Pythagoreans, Eleatics, and Plato, and the covert Orphic dualism of Neo-Platonics

Buddhism and Transpersonal Psychology

In the debate between Freud and Romain Rolland the latter asserted the infants’ oceanic feeling to be saner than the adults’ limited sense of self, and that mystics recover the oceanic feeling without losing the learning achieved during socialization. Freud retorted that the oceanic feeling involved a sense of shelterlessness, and whoever went through derealization was psychotic and needed to be cured. However, the feeling of shelterlessness comes from the fledging sense of separation, and although derealization is a dangerous process, when it develops unhindered the result is greater sanity. So, Buddhism and TP agree in valuing transpersonal and holotropic experiences, but TP must learn from Buddhism to distinguish between kinds of holotropic and transpersonal experiences, and attribute different value to them: the formless realms of the highest tier of samsara, the neutral condition of the base-of-all in which the precious human possibility is squandered, Awakening, different types of nirvana..

The many faces of LGBT inclusion

"A year after Fellows met at Schloss Leopoldskron, Austria in 2015, the Salzburg Global LGBT* Forum gathered in Chiang Rai, Thailand for its first meeting outside of Europe to both learn from diverse Asian LGBT communities and to contribute to expanding the plurality of global LGBT discussions. As in previous years at the Forum, participants shared stories, joined causes and raised sensibilities. This is crucial at a time when the tides affecting LGBT human rights worldwide are mixed, with continued anti-LGBT violence happening in parallel with remarkable progress in favor of LGBT inclusion at the national and international levels. The opportunity to reflect in a comforting environment is not to be taken lightly. In the often-tough road of LGBT activism, policymaking, creative work and research, the impact of finding new collaborators, confidants and kindred spirits is beyond measurement. The Forum this year brought together 58 Fellows and staff representing 33 countries. They engaged in 20 scheduled activities during 100 hours that produced 60,000 words of minutes. Plenty of valuable material was left out because of space and security aspects, yet it is hoped that this report is insightful, informative, and motivating to the reader. Since its beginnings, Salzburg Global Seminar has encouraged open and candid discussions and supports session participants to speak as individuals and not as representatives of their organizations. A guiding principle for participants that have chosen to become part of the Salzburg Global LGBT Forum community is to protect one another. All session attendants ensure the comfort and safety of any participants in need of greater protection, and treat the diffusion of audiovisual, photographic or written media with great care. Under the Chatham House Rule, no direct statement attribution in print, audiovisual or digital form is made without the author’s expressed permission. In line with these principles, some identities have been omitted in the report.