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Self and Society Trying to find the date
PRACTICAL MYSTICS, ENERGY WORKERS AND THE TRANSPERSONAL
Teaching meditation and what is now becoming known as ‘energy medicine’
over the last twenty years, I have often been curious about the
background of the large number of professional carers who come on my
courses.
It is usually obvious why they come: the techniques
and concepts of practical mysticism and energy medicine help therapists
and carers maintain a clear personal centre; and they also give
insights into the energetic dynamics which can distress and release
their clients. (Energy medicine and mysticism accept that the universe,
nature and human beings are made up of wave-fields of moving
energy with which we can consciously work.) Also because of my
own therapeutic background, I teach this work in a way that is, I
hope, emotionally literate and aware of the psychological
dynamics. My most popular course over the years has been on psychic
protection which teaches very specific and simple strategies for
maintaining an attitude of confidence and encouragement even in
distressing situations.
Originally I assumed that the carers attracted to my
courses had some background in transpersonal psychology or
psychosynthesis, from Jung or Buddhism or Assagioli. Some did ,
but listening to my students I learnt that most had no formal
knowledge of transpersonal psychology, but were much more familiar with
or trained in humanistic psychology.
Many of my students have also regularly fed back to
me that the energy approach I teach has more in common with existential
or humanistic psychology than it does with the transpersonal schools.
This surprised me because the techniques that I teach all derive
originally from mystical schools. They are essentially metaphysical,
which I assumed was the starting point of the transpersonal approaches.
All of this has led me to pondering on the possible
differences between the energetic approach of the practical mystic and
that of transpersonal psychology. In fact, sometimes, there appears to
be a direct conflict. This paper then, I trust, offers something
useful to the ongoing ‘What is the transpersonal in transpersonal
psychology?’ discussion in Self & Society.
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For practical mystics and energy workers, the paramount drive and
purpose of life is to achieve a complete and ongoing full-body
experience of being an integral part of a benevolent, interdependent
and purposeful universe. This is not an intellectual or theoretical
concept. It is an existential here-and-now experience. It has much in
common, in fact, with the bioenergetic approach to full body flow and
presence. It is also, of course, Maslow’s peak experience par
excellence. The energy worker, however, is interested in discovering
and pursuing the practical strategies which will turn the peak
experience into an ongoing plateau. To live continuously and
consciously in the peak experience of connection is the energy worker’s
concept of fulfilment and actualising human potential.
All is one. That is the major experience which the
fulfilled mystic and energy worker is seeking. That is the cognition,
the interpretation, the perception and the experience. The practical
mystic is working towards an integration of the self, the psyche and
the body with the benevolent power that runs through nature and
the universe. Different mystical schools teach different ways of doing
this — from meditation, through dance to attuned love-making. The
process is not haphazard but is structured and it is always internally
observed by a detached aspect of the mind — a witness who is kind,
philosophical and compassionate, and carefully experimenting with
energy work and altered states of consciousness.
Sometimes the peak experience can be overwhelming
and the witness can get temporarily lost. The practical mystic, the
energy worker, however, focusses to maintain a calm and watchful
centre.
But beneath all this jargony and perhaps for some banal holistic
language, what is actually going on in these peak experiences of
connection? It is possible, I believe, to be specific and
grounded about it all.
There are, I suggest, two major dynamics running
through the peak experience of connection. The first dynamic is
body-based and is made up of first, flowing endorphins and second,
melting bioenergetic armour. First, the feel-good sensation of
connection is experienced physiologically because there is a flood of
morphine-like neuro-peptides rushing through the body. (1) Second, they
flow easily through the body because the tension and body armour,
created by past traumas and usually blocking a healthy physical and
emotional fluidity, are relaxed. (2) This relaxation can be facilitated
by many different triggers — meditation, love-making, sport, landscape,
art, dance, companionship and so on.
The second dynamic — which is usually new
information for therapists — is that as the body armour melts and the
whole body-personality relaxes into an endorphin feel-good, it now
becomes very easy physically to feel the benevolent wave-fields of
energy that permeate nature and the universe. Of course this may not be
a conscious experience. In general, people do not pause in the
middle of love-making or sport or dance to reflect, “Ahhh, I am feeling
so good because I am now relaxed and sensing the good vibrations and
atmosphere of a benevolent universe.” Though pausing and acknowledging
this is precisely what practical energy workers do do.
The endorphin and armour-melting experience is
triggered by many diferent circumstances and may start in different
parts of the body depending on the psychological history of the
individual. Not surprisingly, many men — often meditators — have this
first experience of melting and endorphin flow in the actual tissue of
their brains: ‘white light’ and so on. Equally unsurprising, many women
first experience this melting and feel-good in their hearts and bellies.
This leads us now to the distinguishing feature of a
practising energy worker. Having triggered both a flow of endorphins
and a melting of armour, she then consciously works with both the body
and the wave-fields to deepen and expand the experience. The
contemporary scientific metaphors of wireless and television
transmissions, of holographic technology, of quantum physics, of chaos
and emergence — all help to make the language and concept of working
with energies less flaky and more accessible.
In learning how to engage with these wave-fields and
harmonics — partly through mental focus and kinaesthetic visualisation,
and partly through an attitude of receptive surrender — the energy
worker also needs to learn balance, discernment and generosity.
The worry here is that the energy worker might fall into a
selfish state of feel-good, a pool of personally and socially
harmful narcissism. In general, though, because the mystic connection
is felt as flowing and interconnected, there is a strong instinct to
circulate and radiate the connection as goodwill into relationships and
community.
But all of this is meaningless unless grounded in
daily life. Although the mystic experience may start for some people as
a transcendent head or heart trip, as beautiful experiences of expanded
consciousness, of samadhi, of white light and of bliss, all these must
sooner or later be guided into full body incarnation and manifestation.
This is to say that the whole person must show up. Be fully present. Be
here now. Incarnate.
This process of grounding and integrating the
feel-good peak experience into our day-to-day three-dimensional reality
is painful and long hard work. It requires bringing the feel-good deep
into the suffering, the psychological wounds and shadows which have
previously been denied. The practical mystic therefore needs the
skills, taught as practical energy exercises, for staying fully in the
body and able to hold a calm and confident centre whilst meeting very
uncomfortable psychic realities. (3)
All of this asserts that the practical energy
approach is, or at least ought to be, fully existential and
body-present. It is concerned with here-and-now experience. This
of course is precisely where it is relevant to the humanistic approach.
It directly supports counsellors, carers and therapists no matter
what their training or methodology. It is concerned with the presence
of the therapist.
All the strategies of the practical mystic to come
fully present are directly applicable to the carer. But more than
that, the practical mystic also knows that if she is fully present,
then there is a benevolent wave-field emanating from her which touches
and holds her client, companion or friend. There is an atmosphere which
directly transmits or radiates to the client. It is not superficial
body language or communicated cues. It is a distinct atmosphere and
supportive energy. It supports, deepens and sustains
compassionate co-presence and ‘holding’. (And please note that
co-presence and holding are worthless if practised with cool detachment
and alienated witnessing; they only make the therapist feel clever or,
worse still, enlightened.)
In a sense, as many of you must have thought by now,
this is almost pure Carl Rogers. He was right, I believe,
when he said that the actual methodologies of therapists
are more or less irrelevant. What really matters is the attitude and
quality of the therapists’ presence: the degree of unconditional
positive regard, authenticity and full presence. These are precisely
the attitudes developed by the practising energy worker. The only
difference is that the energy worker understands what is going on here
in a metaphysical and energetic way.
Following the hierarchy of human needs, the energy
experienced and radiated by a practical mystic — by someone who senses
their connection with a benevolent universe — creates an
atmosphere and presence of supportive safety, a prerequisite for many
first steps in psychological growth and the process of
self-actualisation.
The therapists and human beings who feel a
connection with the creative ‘juice’ of life are far better to pass
time with than dry and earnest do-gooders. I would go so far as to
suggest that therapists who do not, consciously or unconsciously, have
this sense of connection with the creative and benevolent power of life
burn out. They burn out because they have no real support. (Holidays,
relaxing baths, watching television, good meals and so on are not
tangential requirements in a therapist’s life. They are central planks
of sustenance because they all create opportunities to connect back
with life.) Equally, I am prepared to suggest that there comes a
certain point in a client’s progress when she can go no further without
some internal joie de vivre whose precise source is of course this
sense of connection. It is this connection with the benevolence of life
which provides the ultimate resource for healing and transformation.
The good therapists — whether or not they are
conscious of it — precisely provide this connection. The good
therapists actually model it: full presence, unconditional positive
regard, authenticity. In fact, we can easily say that when therapists
are not actively intervening, it is the warmth of their presence which
feeds and holds the client and is (whether their therapeutic
model owns it or not) healing.
And here let me point out another fine and very
relevant paradox. This experience of connection with the benevolent
wonder of nature and the universe requires no religious belief system.
In fact there are self-professed atheists and agnostic humanists who
are filled with the joy and brilliance of life; just as there are
self-professed mystics and transpersonal therapists who are miserable
wallies. My own analyst was a famous atheist, but he loved me.
Occasionally therapists use me for supervision and
recently one man phoned me, overwhelmed by one of his clients. He
described how he lost centre and became uncomfortable with this client,
and I asked a few more questions. We then decided to move his chair so
that he could see out of the window when working. When he started to
feel overwhelmed, he would then withdraw attention from the client,
calm his breath, centre his body energy and look out of the window —
using the sky and clouds to connect with the universe and nature. Using
this method, he stabilised his relationship with his client and was
then able to look more contemplatively at the psychodynamics that were
triggering his abreaction. His own process and his usefulness as a
therapist were supported by something as simple looking at the sky.
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But there are many criticisms levelled at both the transpersonal
psychologists and the mystics. The major fear of humanistic,
biologically based and existentially oriented therapists is that the
mystics’ basic concepts and methodologies will abstract away from their
clients’ actual situation and experience. A subtle form of
conceptual denial will inform both the therapists’ life and their
client work. To put it at its most harsh, the mystics or transpersonal
therapists may be more interested in their clients’ symbolic stories
and mystic realities rather than in the flesh and blood
experiences which require help.
But as I have already written above, the practical
mystics are also profoundly concerned about any tendency to space out
or lift away from reality, either theoretically or when dealing with
life challenges. Time and time again, practical energy workers —
drawing on strategies as widespread as Taoist medicine, Jewish Qabalah,
Wicca or Yoga — are using breath and centring to bring them back to
their bodies, securely anchored in their lower bellies, compassionately
watchful, sensing everything. Equally, the practical energy worker
understands that you cannot radiate a benevolent atmosphere
unless you are first fully in your body.
I wonder then whether the transpersonal schools need
to adopt this form of energetic body awareness, not as a useful add-on,
but as a primary plank in their training — especially as so much
transpersonal and mystic stuff goes on in and out of the head, in the
imaginal realm.
The actual psychological model of the transpersonal
and mystic schools is of course absolutely necessary. All the
dimensions of the psyche must be on the map and understood, and then
drawn into play at appropriate times in the therapeutic process. (4)
But there is this ongoing suspicion that, conceptually and in practice,
transpersonal and mystic therapy does abstract away from the real
problems of the client (and the therapist.) This appears to be a clear
tendency in transpersonal sources. Let me give a few well-known
examples.
a. The Buddhist and Eastern sources of transpersonal
psychology often regard daily reality as an illusion to be transcended.
Everyday life is Maya. Wisdom comes from transcending it. As a
therapeutic approach, therefore, it may encourage strategies of escape
into an inner world. The enlightened man, according to this approach,
is therefore observant and not engaged. This is not a functional full
bodied human being.
b. Then there is Jungian archetype and dream work,
which may very easily become more interested in the client’s story than
the client’s actual lived experience. The clients become walking
symbols, like weird tribal folk observed by a visiting anthropologist.
The pain in your left breast is interesting, but even more interesting
is the fact that it is in your breast and your left one at
that. So much for the client’s distress. But the symbolism is engaging.
This is therapy as a headtrip. (I remember my fury at Van der
Post as he surveyed a group of boys and adolescents going through
circumcision rites. He commented ingeniously, obviously fascinated, on
the archetypal symbolism of the rite, without a nod to the boys’ fear
and physical wounding.)
c. The psychosynthesis model deliberately seeks to
connect individuals with the core source of their being and creativity
— their soul. But, in so doing, there is a tendency to lift away
from physicality. There is for example a well known and much used
psychosynthesis mantram: I have a body, but I am not my body. I
have emotions, but I am not my emotions. I have a mind, but I am not a
mind. This is very similar to another awful Buddhist mantram: I am a
sack of skin filled with unpleasant things . . . .(Interestingly
Assagioli, the founder of psychosynthesis, was a dedicated mystic
and student of meditation but he tried desparately to keep the two
sides of his life separate. He feared that if his mystic tendencies
were known it would devalue his academic credibility. And I have to
note that in general the transpersonal schools from Jung onwards have
separated from universities, thus avoiding the real rough and tumble of
academic challenging; whereas the humanistic approach has a firmer base
in higher education. Nevertheless the transpersonal schools are eager
for formal academic accreditation.) I would rather the psychosynthesis
mantram read: I have a body and I am more than my body . . .
d. Within the transpersonal and mystic models there
is also a tendency to create a hierarchy of importance. The soul or
core self is very important. The mind is less important. The emotions
even more unimportant and the body itself is an irrelevant nuisance.
But what are the criteria for this valuation?
Possibly that the core self lasts longer than the rest of the package.
But this is akin to asserting that a butterfly is less important than
an elephant, less worthy of attention and appreciation. It is an absurd
approach. Historically this approach tends to belong to religious
patriarchs, seeking to transcend a bestial body and incapable of
harmonious relationships and honest sex.
__________________
So what in the end am I saying?
I am clearly suggesting that it is right to be
suspicious of those approaches which abstract away from the body and
existential suffering. But do not place and judge practical energy
workers and mystics in the same framework. I am also suggesting
that all therapies can benefit from the strategies of practical
mysticism and energy work which centre and connect us. No one surely
will argue against any strategies which support and inculcate the
warmth of compassionate co-presence.
Practical energy work also provides a clear and
integrating bridge between the body-based and the transpersonal schools
of therapy. The comfortable acceptance in bioenergetics of flowing
waves of energy running through the body and the universe can be an
essential building block in the foundations of transpersonal
psychology.
Equally, the energy worker goes one step further
than the usual transpersonal approach, asserting that true health
comes not only from an alignment with the individual’s core or soul,
but also from an experiential connection with the benevolent energies
of nature and the universe, with the soul of all life.
(1) Candace Pert, Molecules of Emotion, Simon & Schuster, 1998.
(2) Alexander Lowen, Bioenergetics, Penguin, 1976.
(3) William Bloom, Psychic Protection, Piatkus, 1997.
(4) John Rowan, The Transpersonal : Psychotherapy & Counselling, Routledge, 1993
William Bloom has a doctorate in social psychology from the LSE
where he also taught. He spent three years in formal psychoanalysis
with Edward Glover and worked with special needs teenagers and adults
for ten years. He has also benefited from and worked with
co-counselling, gestalt, psychosynthesis, holotropic breathwork,
rebirthing, dance, yoga, deep tissue bodywork, eating and sex. He is
the author of many books and a founding partner of Holistic
Partnerships, an educational consultancy which trains people in core
energy management.
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