Human nature and the nature of reality: conceptual challenges from consciousness research.

Holotropic states (a large special subgroup of nonordinary states of consciousness) have been the focus of many fields of modern research, such as experiential psychotherapy, clinical and laboratory work with psychedelic substances, field anthropology, thanatology, and therapy with individuals undergoing psychospiritual crises ("spiritual emergencies"). This research has generated a plethora of extraordinary observations that have undermined some of the most fundamental assumptions of modern psychiatry, psychology, and psychotherapy. Some of these new findings seriously challenge the most basic philosophical tenets of Western science concerning the relationship between matter, life, and consciousness. This article summarizes the most important major revisions that would have to be made in our understanding of consciousness and of the human psyche in health and disease to accommodate these conceptual challenges. These areas of changes include: a new understanding and cartography of the human psyche; the nature and architecture of emotional and psychosomatic disorders; therapeutic mechanisms and the process of healing; the strategy of psychotherapy and self-exploration; the role of spirituality in human life; and the nature of reality.

[Theoretical and empirical foundations of transpersonal psychology]. / Teoretické a empirické základy transpersonální psychologie.

In this lecture, the new insights and strategies that transpersonal psychology offers will be discussed in relation to the global crisis. Western academic psychiatry, psychology, and psychotherapy are ethnocentric; they tend to see their point of view as being superior to the perspectives of all the other cultural groups. They are also pragmacentric in that they take into considerations only experiences and observations made in the ordinary state of consciousness (with the exception of dreams). Such an approach makes no distinction between mysticism and psychosis and pathogizes spiritual and healing practices of ancient and aboriginal cultures. In this lecture, the results of serious study of the entire spectrum of human experience will be discussed, including non-ordinary states of consciousness. Such research logically leads to transpersonal psychology, a system that includes and honors the specific contributions of all cultures throughout ages and sees spirituality as an essential dimension of the human psyche and existence.