research sleuth: Stanislav Grof saves the day

This is my drawing of of a dream I had about 'floating canvases' but I thought it might symbolise floating books.....

After 3 years of reading and research I have found one sentence that begins to define my theoretical position on an idea that is critical to my thesis. I am ecstatic. I found the obscure 288 page Pdf on page 5 of a Google Scholar search, recently published by Stanislav Grof (I thought he was dead, he is mature but very much alive) - I love research.

And this is it:

To distinguish transpersonal experiences from imaginary products of individual fantasy, Jungian psychologists refer to this domain as imaginal.

Now I can go on to talk about what my definition of imaginal actually is. And sort out the philosophic/psychological framework once and for all. Yay!

But back to Grof. I stumbled on him in Tarnas's Passion of the Western Mind during my Honours whilst trying to get some much needed background in philosophy (I am new to academia) He sounded interesting but I put him aside because doctoral research needs to go deep and the tendency is that it just gets broader because there are so many damn interesting links and crossovers. (I recommend Tarnas's book for anyone interested in a very readable and systematic overview of Western philosophy. Each chapter is self contained so you can read about one particular framework without having to read the book from front to back)

Grof is scathing of Western science and its arrogance in equating the 'spiritual dimensions of reality' with 'pathological processes of the brain'. Go Stanislav! In his own critical evaluation of science he says:

In their contemptuous dismissal of ritual and spiritual life they do not distinguish between…. fundamentalists’ literal interpretations of scriptures, and sophisticated mystical traditions and Eastern spiritual philosophies based on centuries of systematic….exploration of the psyche.

He believes that Western psychology has formulated its theories on ‘the basis of experiences ….from ordinary states of consciousness’ and systematically ignored ‘evidence form non-ordinary states….’. (7) Grof uses the word holotropic (moving towards wholeness) to indicate those states of non-ordinary consciousness. These states and their relationship to images encountered through art practice are the ones I am concerned with in my thesis.

For a short but clear explanation of the term holotropic, check him out on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mA1hDI5IiJQ.

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