Author: Radvile

To be studied, the psyche has been reduced to an object, made to coincide with the mind and placed in the brain. In this way it was possible to know its neurophysiological, cognitive and behavioral implications, its side we could say objective (Wilber 2011), but neglecting its subjective side. The psyche, in fact, which from now on we will call Psyché, is not only the object but also the subject of experience, an integral, complex phenomenon that involves all the domains of being.

This integral vision opens up the perspective of spirituality, and although it has spanned the millennia of human history from its earliest beginnings under the diverse and confused guise of magic, religion, mysticism, gnosis, hermeticism, the term spirituality as we know it today is relatively recent. It is a delicate concept to define that also represents a historical break with the past, as it belongs to modernity. 

You will find here more background information on the foundation of this research together with a complete bibliography.

In this context, this updated version of the survey aims to collect data about the respondents’ representations, experiences and behaviors in relationship with awakening and personal perspectives. The questionnaire leverage on the findings elaborated through an initial version used in 2021-22. 

Answering the survey will take about 20 minutes, the answers will be saved only at the end. It is therefore necessary to answer in a single session. There is no right or wrong answer, just the one that better describes your perspective; don’t overthink and trust your first impression or understanding.

We value your contribution and thank you in advance for taking the time to support us in our research.

Xavier Bronlet

Scholar 

P.L. Lattuada M.D. Psy. D., Ph. D

At each stage of our life, at each circle we manage to close, we have to dive back into the Shadow, we have to begin the Work again. Not everyone understands. Not everyone knows and does. The alchemy of living is not for everyone. Indeed, the further one is from his Centre, the less he will understand, even though the paths to enlightenment are infinite.

In the end, alchemy is for initiates. And we would like to be those initiates. But the seed does not grow because we push it, it will grow when its time comes, and it will take all the incubation it needs. That is why the Great Work is only for a few, different people who are not understood by the world, because they understand things that the world does not even see. The initiate is the one who begins the search again each time, he has subtler antennae, he is in the world while being outside of it, he lives defended by a purity that preserves him. He sees things that others do not see, he speaks words that others do not understand, but he enters the heart of the world and communicates with its spirit because he goes against the tide, like the Buddha’s bowl on the river water. Others may seek him out of greed, out of a sense of usefulness, to buy cheap transformations from him, out of a desire for use or possession… because they are immersed in matter and seek ways of power.

The alchemist has the power, but not the power, of the world over the world. Those who want to become alchemists believe that they are pursuing the spirit, but often seek only something that distinguishes them from others. But the goal is not success or wealth, power or health, but the overcoming of contradictions to reach the place where one energy circulates in all things. And how is this power achieved? By connecting with the Collective Unconscious, which is the great ocean that surrounds our psyche, that is, with the soul of the world.

On this path, the consciousness is aided by the unconscious and its bridge is the soul: “…connection between our conscious ego and the great sea of the personal unconscious flowing into the still larger collective one.

– Jung – The Secret of the Golden Flower – The Great Work

The transpersonal is not the pre-personal

Ken Wilber (Wilber, 1995) paid constant attention on distinguishing between transpersonal and pre-personal, the last being the result of the infancy of conscience.

In his turn, Grof (Grof 2000) distinguishes between a lower subtle level and a higher subtle level. In his articulate discussion about what he calls ‘the pre/trans mistake’, Wilber (Wilber,1995) refers to Hegel and Aurobindo, to Aristotle and Teillhard de Chardin to define the evolutional direction of the world, along a line that goes from the lower to the higher levels of organization, characterized by an increasing degree of complexity and awareness.

According to Hegel and more in general to perennial philosophy, the history of evolution is that of the spirit self-realization, “the process through which the Spirit knows itself in the form of Spirit.”(5) Hegel describes it in a sequence of three stages of development, unwinding through the levels of nature, humanity and divine. These three stages overlap with those that Wilber defines from a psychological point of view: pre-personal, personal and transpersonal. The pre-personal or unconscious is what Hegel defines as the nature stage, in which the Spirit self denies the level of the physical sensations and perceptions in matter. The personal is the phase in which the spirit goes back to the spirit, overcoming self-denial through self-awareness. It is the place of the “I”, of the mental, rational conscience. The transpersonal is, in Hegel’s model, the level in which the spirit discovers itself to be spirit, the place of the divinity, the super-conscious.

As the pre-personal and transpersonal are both not personal, their manifestations can be easily mistaken, being similar.

Wilber describes two kinds of mistakes frequently made: reducing the transpersonal to the pre-personal, and elevating the pre-personal to the transpersonal. The first one derives from the mechanistic vision of science, the second from the description of the world made by the orthodox religions.

The transpersonal is not the extra personal

Investigating the difference between transpersonal contents and extra personal contents the borderline seems to locate on the edge of the sacred. This means that different phenomena, apparently similar, are expressions of different levels of conscience.

Phenomena such as telekinesis, levitation, radioestesis, radionic, fakirism, work with crystals, extra sensorial perceptions, walking on fire, the action of the mind on the body and so on are utterly extra-personal. While the experience of the self, of the super-conscious, the contact with superior archetypes, as well as intuition, creativity, mystic experiences, spiritual healings, the experience of subtle energies and certain phenomena of trans-identification, of embodiment and of “past lives” are transpersonal.

The Transpersonal is not New Age

The last decades of the twentieth century have been characterized by the outburst of the New Age phenomenon, particularly in music, in literature and in healing methods with an esoteric or spiritual bend.

The culture of which all this is expression of is often superficial, irrational and fideistic (believing unquestioningly). It is usually directed at a mass consumer market, in which people do not really want to know who they are and are simply looking for easy and effortless solutions.

Healing or spiritual achievements are often offered in the same simple way used to achieve success and riches, while emphasis is put on the positive aspects and a guaranteed result. Sacrifice, care and a critical mind are usually left aside.

The transpersonal vision does not contrast reason but transcends it with the intuition that includes it. It does not exclude the shadow, but rather gives suggestions on how to contact and know it; it does not ask for a blind acceptance but offers models of validation of the inner experience. It is not looking for proselytes and neither does it promise shortcuts to heaven; it is not for everybody, but only for those who are willing to take a long and difficult journey towards their own true nature. It does not have an antiscientific, fideistic attitude; it rather works in favor of the widening of scientific methods and their fields of action.

The Transpersonal is not a religion

The transpersonal movement does not view itself as a religious movement or as an alternative to the religious doctrines and the organized spiritual traditions. Rather, it studies and tries to favor the religious experience, that is, the inner experience of the Self. Its fields of interest are not dogmas, beliefs or revealed truths, but are the more truly human qualities and the instruments used to awaken them.

In other words, it deals with the ways through which each one can achieve a personal religiosity and with the related problems.

May you discover the life

Which is free of sorrow.

May your mind be illumined

In the Truth.

May you conquer the fear of death.

May you never be ashamed

Of the presence of the Holy Spirit,

Nor feel the need to defend yourself

In any personal way.

May your trust be great,

Your heart full of love,

And may you carry the perfume

Of the Lord’s presence

Wherever you go.

This is the prayer

That I make for you

In the name of

The holy spirit of God

So be it

Om

Shanti shanti shanti

– Mooji Il Mala di Dio

We all need someone to look at us. We can be divided into four categories according to the kind of look we wish to live under.

The first category longs for the look of an infinite number of anonymous eyes, in other words, for the look of the public.

The second category is made up of people who have a vital need to be looked at by many known eyes. they are the tireless hosts of cocktail parties and dinners. They are happier than the people in the first category, who, when they lose their public, have the feeling that the lights have gone out in the room of their lives. This happens to nearly all of them sooner or later. People in the second category, on the other hand, can always come up with the eyes they need.

Then there is the third category, the category of people who need to be constantly before the eyes of the person they love. Their situation is as dangerous as the situation of people in the first category. One day the eyes of their beloved will close, and the room will go dark.

And finally there is the fourth category, the rarest, the category of people who live in the imaginary eyes of those who are not present. They are the dreamers.”

– Milan Kundera