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As we progress and awaken to the soul in us and things, we shall realize that there is consciousness also in the plant, in the metal, in the atom, in electricity, in every thing that belongs to physical nature.
—Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga
The difference between most people and myself is that for me the ‘dividing walls’ are transparent.
—C. G. Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections
The Worldview of Materialistic Science
According to Western science, the universe is an immensely complex assembly of material particles that has essentially created itself. Life, consciousness, and intelligence are insignificant and more or less accidental latecomers on the cosmic scene. These three aspects of existence allegedly appeared in a negligible portion of an immense cosmos after billions of years of evolution of matter. Life owes its origin to random chemical processes in the primeval ocean that gathered atoms and inorganic molecules into organic compounds. The organic material then acquired during further evolution the capacity for self-preservation, reproduction, and cellular organization. The unicellular organisms assembled into larger and larger multicellular life forms and eventually developed into the rich panoply of species inhabiting this earth, including Homo sapiens.
We are told that consciousness emerged in late stages of this evolution out of the complexity of the physiological processes in the central nervous system. It is a product of the brain and, as such, it is confined to the inside of our skull. From this perspective, consciousness and intelligence are functions that are limited to human beings and higher animals. They certainly do not and cannot exist independently of biological systems. According to this way of understanding reality, the content of our psyche is more or less limited to the information we have received through our sensory organs from the external world since the time we were born.
Here Western scientists basically agree with the old saying of the British empiricist school of philosophy: “There is nothing in the intellect that was not previously in a sense organ.” This position, first articulated by John Locke in the eighteenth century, naturally excludes the possibility of extrasensory perception (ESP)—access to information of any kind that is not mediated by the senses, such as telepathy, clairvoyance, or out-of-body experiences with accurate perception of remote locations.
In addition, the nature and extent of our sensory input is determined by the physical characteristics of the environment and by the physiological properties and constraints of our senses. For example, we cannot see objects if we are separated from them by a solid wall. We lose from our view a ship that passes beyond the horizon, and we are unable to observe the other side of the moon. Similarly, we cannot hear the sounds if the acoustic waves created by an external event do not reach our ears with sufficient intensity. When we are in San Francisco, we cannot see and hear what our friends are doing in New York City, unless, of course, this perception is mediated by some modern technological inventions, such as television or telephone.
Conceptual Challenges from Modern Consciousness Research
The experiences in nonordinary states of consciousness seriously challenge such narrow understanding of the potential of the human psyche and of the limits of our perception. What we can experience in these states is not limited to memories from our life after we were born and to the Freudian individual unconscious, as materialistic scientists have taught us to believe. Holotropic experiences reach far beyond the boundaries of what the Anglo-American writer and philosopher Alan Watts facetiously called “the skin-encapsulated ego.” They can take us into vast territories of the psyche as yet uncharted by Western psychologists and psychiatrists. In an effort to describe and classify all the phenomena that become available in holotropic states, I have sketched a new map of human experience that expands the conventional understanding of the psyche. In this context, I will only briefly outline the basic features of this new cartography. A more detailed description can be found in my earlier books (Grof 1975, 1988).
To account for all the experiences that can occur in holotropic states, I had to radically expand the current Western understanding of the psyche by adding two large domains. The first of these is a repository of intense physical sensations and emotions linked to the trauma of birth, such as extreme physical pains in various parts of the body, feelings of suffocation, experience of vital anxiety, hopelessness, and intense rage. In addition, this domain also contains a rich spectrum of corresponding symbolic images revolving around the issues of birth, death, sex, and violence. I refer to this level of the psyche as perinatal because of its association with biological birth (from the Greek peri = around or near, and the Latin natalis = pertaining to chilbirth). I will return to this topic later in the chapter exploring the spiritual dimensions of birth, sex, and death.
The second additional domain of the psyche included in my cartography can be referred to as transpersonal, since its basic characteristic is the experience of transcending the usual personal limitations of the body and the ego. Transpersonal experiences vastly expand the sense of personal identity by including elements of the external world and other dimensions of reality. One important category of transpersonal experiences involves, for example, authentic experiential identification with other people, animals, plants, and various other aspects of nature and the cosmos.
Another large group of transpersonal phenomena can be described in terms of what the Swiss psychiatrist C. G. Jung (1959) called the collective unconscious. This vast repository of ancestral, racial, and collective memories contains the entire historical and cultural heritage of humanity. It also harbors primordial organizing principles that Jung called archetypes. According to him, the archetypes govern the processes in our psyche, as well as the events in the world at large. They also are the creative force behind the infinitely rich imaginal world of the psyche with its pantheons of mythological realms and beings. In holotropic states, the contents of the collective unconscious become available for conscious experience.
Careful study of the perinatal and transpersonal experiences shows that the boundaries between the individual human psyche and the rest of the cosmos are ultimately arbitrary and can be transcended. This work brings strong evidence suggesting that, in the last analysis, each of us is commensurate with the totality of existence. What it means practically is that anything that we would, in our everyday state of consciousness, perceive as an object, can be also encountered as a corresponding subjective experience when we are in a holotropic state. In addition to all the elements of the material world throughout the entire range of space-time, we can also experience various aspects of other dimensions of reality, such as archetypal beings and mythological domains of the collective unconscious.
In holotropic states, we can experience in remarkable detail all the stages of our biological birth, memories of prenatal existence, and even a cellular record of our conception. Transpersonal experiences can bring forth episodes from the lives of our immediate or remote ancestors or take us into the realm of the racial and collective unconscious. They can provide access to episodes that appear to be memories from previous incarnations, or even vestiges from the lives of our animal ancestors. We might experience full conscious identification with other people, groups of people, animals, plants, and even inorganic objects and processes. During such experiences, we can gain entirely new accurate information about various aspects of the universe, including the data that we could not have possibly acquired in our present lifetime through the ordinary channels.
When we have experienced to sufficient depth these dimensions that are hidden to our everyday perception, we typically undergo profound changes in our understanding of existence and of the nature of reality. The most fundamental metaphysical insight we obtain is the realization that the universe is not an autonomous system that has evolved as a result of mechanical interplay of material particles. We find it impossible to take seriously the basic assumption of materialistic science, which asserts that the history of the universe is merely the history of evolving matter. We have directly experienced the divine, sacred, or numinous dimensions of existence in a very profound and compelling way.
The Ensouled Universe
Following powerful transpersonal experiences, our worldview typically expands to include some elements of the cosmologies of various native peoples and ancient cultures. This development is completely independent of our intelligence, educational background, or profession. Authentic and convincing experiences of conscious identification with animals, plants, and even inorganic materials and processes make it easy to understand the beliefs of animistic cultures that see the entire universe as being ensouled. From their perspective, not only all the animals, but also the trees, the rivers, the mountains, the sun, the moon, and the stars appear to be sentient beings.
The following experience shows how it is possible in holotropic states of consciousness to experience inorganic objects as divine entities. It involves John, an intelligent and educated American, who had a powerful experience of loss of his everyday identity and conscious identification with a granite mountain while camping with his friends at a high altitude in Sierra Nevada.
I was resting on a large flat slab of granite with my feet immersed in a pristine creek cascading down the mountain. I was basking in the sun, absorbing its rays with my whole being. As I was getting more and more relaxed, I felt deep peace, deeper than I could ever imagine. Time was progressively slowing down until it finally seemed to stop. I felt the touch of eternity.
Gradually, I lost the sense of boundaries and merged with the granite mountain. All my inner turmoil and chatter quieted down and was replaced with absolute stillness. I felt that I had arrived. I was in a state of ultimate rest where all my desires and needs were satisfied and all questions answered. Suddenly I realized that this profound unfathomable peace had something to do with the nature of granite. As incredible as it might seem, I felt that I became the consciousness of granite.
I suddenly understood why the Egyptians made granite sculptures of deities and why the Hindus saw the Himalayas as the reclining figure of Shiva. It was the imperturbable state of consciousness that they worshipped. It takes tens of millions of years before even the surface of granite is broken by the assaults of weather. During that time the mercurial organic world undergoes countless changes: species originate, exist, and get extinct; dynasties are founded, rule, and are replaced by others; and thousands of generations play out their silly dramas. The granite mountain stands there like a majestic witness, like a deity, immovable and untouched by anything that happens.
The World of Deities and Demons
Holotropic states of consciousness, can also provide deep insights into the worldview of the cultures that believe that the cosmos is populated by mythological beings and that it is governed by various blissful and wrathful deities. In these states, we can gain direct experiential access to the world of gods, demons, legendary heroes, suprahuman entities, and spirit guides. We can visit the domain of mythological realities, fantastic landscapes, and abodes of the Beyond. The imagery of such experiences can be drawn from the collective unconscious and can feature mythological figures and themes from any culture in the entire history of humanity. Deep personal experiences of this realm help us realize that the images of the cosmos found in pre-industrial societies are not based on superstition or primitive “magical thinking,” but on direct experiences of alternative realities.
A particularly convincing proof of the authenticity of these experiences is the fact that, like other transpersonal phenomena, they can bring us new and accurate information about various archetypal beings and realms. The nature, scope, and quality of this information often by far surpasses our previous intellectual knowledge concerning the respective mythologies. Observations of this kind led C. G. Jung to the assumption that, besides the individual unconscious as described by Sigmund Freud, we also have a collective unconscious that connects us with the entire cultural heritage of all humanity.
I will describe here as an illustration one of the most interesting experiences of this kind I have observed during the years of my work with holotropic states of consciousness. It involved Otto, one of my clients in Prague, whom I treated for depression and pathological fear of death (thanatophobia). In one of his psychedelic sessions, he experienced a powerful sequence of psychospiritual death and rebirth. As the experience was culminating, he had a vision of an ominous entrance into the underworld guarded by a terrifying pig-goddess. At this point, he suddenly felt an urgent need to draw a specific geometrical design.
Although I generally asked my clients to stay during their sessions in a reclining position with the eyes closed and keep the experiences internalized, at this point Otto opened his eyes, sat up, and urgently asked me to bring him some sheets of paper and drawing utensils. He drew an entire series of complex abstract patterns and, with great dissatisfaction and despair, he kept impulsively tearing and crumpling these intricate designs as soon as he finished them. He was very dissatisfied with his drawings and was getting increasingly frustrated, because he was not able to “get it right.” When I asked him what he was trying to do, he was not able to explain it to me. He said that he simply felt an irresistible compulsion to draw these geometrical patterns and was convinced that drawing the right kind of design was somehow a necessary condition for a successful completion of his session.
The theme clearly had a strong emotional charge for Otto and it seemed important to understand it. At that time, I was still under a strong influence of my Freudian training and I tried my best to identify the unconscious motives for this strange behavior by using the method of free associations. We spent much time on this task, but without much success. The entire sequence simply did not make any sense. Eventually, the process moved to other areas and I stopped thinking about this situation. The entire episode had remained for me completely mysterious until many years later, when I moved to the United States.
During my stay in Baltimore, a friend of mine suggested that Joseph Campbell might be interested in the implications of my research for mythology and offered to arrange a meeting with him. After a few initial encounters, we became good friends and he played a very important role in my personal and professional life. Joseph has been considered by many to be the greatest mythologist of the twentieth century and possibly of all times. His intellect was remarkable and his knowledge of world mythology truly encyclopedic. He had a keen interest in the research of nonordinary states of consciousness, which he considered to be very relevant for the study of mythology (Campbell 1972). We had many fascinating discussions over the years, during which I shared with him various observations of obscure archetypal experiences from my work that I was not able to understand. In most instances, Joseph had no difficulties identifying the cultural sources of the symbolism involved.
During one of these discussions, I remembered the above episode and shared it with him. “How fascinating,” said Joseph without any hesitation, “it was clearly the Cosmic Mother Night of Death, the Devouring Mother Goddess of the Malekulans in New Guinea.” He then continued to tell me that the Malekulans believed they would encounter this deity during the Journey of the Dead. She had the form of a frightening female figure with distinct pig features. According to the Malekulan tradition, she sat at the entrance into the underworld and guarded an intricate sacred labyrinthine design.
The Malekulans had an elaborate system of rituals that involved breeding and sacrificing pigs. This complex ritual activity was aimed at overcoming the dependency on their human mothers and eventually on the Devouring Mother Goddess. The Malekulans spent an enormous amount of time practicing the art of the labyrinth drawing, since its mastery was considered essential for a successful journey to the Beyond. Joseph, with his lexical knowledge, was able to solve an important part of this puzzle that I had come across during my research. The remaining question, that even he was not able to answer, was why my client had to encounter specifically this Malekulan deity at that particular time of his therapy. However, the task of mastering the posthumous journey certainly made good sense for somebody whose main symptom was pathological fear of death.
C. G. Jung and the Universal Archetypes
In holotropic states we discover that our psyche has access to entire pantheons of mythological figures, as well as domains that they inhabit. According to C. G. Jung, these are manifestations of primordial universal patterns that represent intrinsic constituents of the collective unconscious. The archetypal figures fall into two distinct categories. The first one includes blissful and wrathful beings embodying various specific universal roles and functions. The most famous of them are the Great Mother Goddess, the Terrible Mother Goddess, the Wise Old Man, the Eternal Youth (Puer Eternus and Puella Eterna), the Lovers, the Grim Reaper, and the Trickster. Jung also discovered that men harbor in their unconscious a generalized representation of the feminine principle that he called Anima. Her counterpart, the generalized representation of the masculine principle in the unconscious of women, is the Animus. The unconscious representation of the dark, destructive aspect of human personality is in Jungian psychology called the Shadow.
In holotropic states, all these principles can come to life as complex protean appearances condensing in a holographic fashion countless specific instances of what they represent. I will use here as an example my own experience of an encounter with the world of the archetypes.
In the final sequence of the session, I had a vision of a large brilliantly lit stage that was located somewhere beyond time and space. It had a beautiful ornate curtain decorated with intricate patterns that seemed to contain the entire history of the world. I intuitively understood that I was visiting the Theater of the Cosmic Drama, featuring the forces that shape human history. I began to witness a magnificent parade of mysterious figures who entered the stage, presented themselves, and slowly departed.
I realized that what I was seeing were personified universal principles, archetypes, that through a complex interplay create the illusion of the phenomenal world, the divine play that the Hindus call lila. They were protean personages condensing many identities, many functions, and even many scenes. As I was watching them, they kept changing their forms in extremely intricate holographic interpenetration, being one and many at the same time. I was aware that they had many different facets, levels, and dimensions of meaning, but was not able to focus on anything in particular. Each of these figures seemed to represent simultaneously the essence of his or her function, as well as all the concrete manifestations of the principle they represented.
There was Maya, the magical ethereal figure symbolizing the world illusion, Anima, embodying the eternal Female, the Warrior, a Mars-like personification of war and aggression, the Lovers, representing all the sexual dramas and romances throughout ages, the royal figure of the Ruler or Emperor, the withdrawn Hermit, the facetious and elusive Trickster, and many others. As they were passing across the stage, they bowed in my direction, as if expecting appreciation for their stellar performance in the divine play of the universe.
The archetypal figures of the second category represent various deities and demons related to specific cultures, geographical areas, and historical periods. For example, instead of a generalized universal image of the Great Mother Goddess, we can experience one of her concrete culture-bound forms, such as the Virgin Mary, the Hindu goddesses Lakshmi and Parvati, the Egyptian Isis, the Greek Hera, and many others. Similarly, specific examples of the Terrible Mother Goddess could be, besides the Malekulan pig-goddess described in the above example, the Indian Kali, the Pre-Columbian serpent-headed Coatlicue, or the Egyptian lion-headed Sekhmet. It is important to emphasize that these images do not have to be limited to our own racial and cultural heritage. They can be drawn from the mythology of any human group, even those we have never heard about.
Particularly frequent in my work have been encounters or even identification with various deities from different cultures who were killed by others or sacrificed themselves and later came back to life. These figures representing death and resurrection tend to emerge spontaneously when the process of inner self-exploration reaches the perinatal level and takes the form of psychospiritual rebirth. At this point, many people have, for example, visions of crucifixion or experience an agonizing identification with Jesus Christ on the Cross. The emergence of this motif in individuals with a Euro-American background seems to make sense, because of the important role Christianity has over the centuries played in Western culture.
However, we have also seen many powerful experiences of identification with Jesus during our holotropic breathwork seminars in Japan and India. They occurred in individuals whose background was Buddhist, Shinto, or Hindu. Conversely, many Anglo-Saxons, Slavs, and Jews identified during their psychedelic or holotropic breathwork sessions with Shiva or Buddha, the Egyptian resurrected god Osiris, the Sumerian goddess Inanna, or the Greek deities Persephone, Dionysus, Attis, and Adonis. Occasional identifications with the Aztec deity of death and rebirth, Quetzalcoatl or the Plumed Serpent, or one of the Hero Twins from the Mayan Popol Vuh, were even more surprising, since these deities appear in mythologies not generally known in the West.
The encounters with these archetypal figures were very impressive and often brought new and detailed information that was independent of the subjects’ racial, cultural, and educational background and previous intellectual knowledge of the respective mythologies. Depending on the nature of the deities involved, these experiences were accompanied by extremely intense emotions ranging from ecstatic rapture to paralyzing metaphysical terror. People who experienced these encounters usually viewed these archetypal figures with great awe and respect, as beings that belonged to a superior order, were endowed with extraordinary energies and power, and had the capacity to shape events in our material world. These subjects thus shared the attitude of many pre-industrial cultures that have believed in the existence of deities and demons.
However, none of these individuals perceived their experiences of archetypal figures to be encounters with the supreme principle in the universe, nor did they claim to have gained an ultimate understanding of existence. They experienced these deities to be creations of a higher power that transcended them. This insight echoes Joseph Campbell’s idea that the deities should be “transparent to the transcendent.” They should function as a bridge to the divine source, but not be confused with it. When we are involved in systematic self-exploration or spiritual practice, it is important to avoid the pitfall of making a particular deity opaque and seeing it as the ultimate cosmic force rather than a window into the Absolute.
Mistaking a specific archetypal image for the ultimate source of creation leads to idolatry, a divisive and dangerous mistake widespread in the histories of religions and cultures. It might unite the people who share the same belief, but sets this group against others who have chosen a different representation of the divine. They might then try to convert others or conquer and eliminate them. By contrast, genuine religion is universal, all-inclusive, and all-encompassing. It has to transcend specific culture-bound archetypal images and focus on the ultimate source of all forms. The most important question in the world of religion is thus the nature of the supreme principle in the universe. In the next chapter, we will explore the insights from holotropic states of consciousness regarding this subject.