Conversion

We have seen how the transition stage to the 3^rd band is often associated with an existential crisis leading to a consequent deepening of the unconscious aspect of the personality.

Thus the disillusionment with conventional activities and expectations at the time can serve as the very means for substantial dynamic negation of conscious phenomena, enabling a personality switch in an unconscious direction.

After a period of time spent in anguish in the dark, the duration and severity of which will be unique to the circumstances involved, an eventual resolution is generally achieved.

In the spiritual literature this is identified as a conversion which does indeed describe its true nature.

The basic problem at issue is a conflict as between an emerging authentic spiritual identity and habits of behaviour and thought, based on immersion in more conventional worldly concerns.

So for a while one is held in a kind of suspense, unable to decisively choose between either aspect.

Then eventually with sufficient growth in underlying unconscious awareness, finally one can willingly vote - as it were - in favour of one’s higher self.

Therefore though considerable uncertainty may yet exist with respect to the precise course of one’s future life, one at least can now freely choose an overall orientation based on genuine spiritual conviction.

With the resolution of this crisis, which sometimes can happen in dramatic fashion, a new stage of development starts to unfold.

Basically the continual questioning, that served to fill a hidden intuitive well of meaning in the unconscious, now ceases. This causes a switch in direction, whereby this intuitive energy can now be suddenly released into conscious experience.

This then becomes associated with a new spiritual illumination, whereby all customary phenomena become bathed in a spiritual light.

In the religious traditions this would then serve as a striking validity of the choice of one’s spiritual vocation, centred in God, thereby fortifying one to persevere faithfully against future “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune”.

However as well as the direct spiritual aspect (centred on the volitional aspect of personality) equally we have associated with this stage new affective and cognitive structures. Indeed without the growth of such structures, it would not be possible to properly consolidate the stage.

So we are referring here to the 1st level of the 3^rd band (which has many stages and sub-stages). In the Eastern mystical traditions this is sometimes referred to in terms of both the psychic and subtle realms. However, to be honest, I have never particularly liked this terminology.

Therefore coming from a holistic mathematical perspective, I have generally referred to the 1st level of this 3^rd band as the circular level. 

So what happens in fact with respect to the structures of this level is that rigid linear dualistic type understanding gradually breaks down to be replaced by a new more refined circular type of awareness that - from a dualistic perspective - seems paradoxical.

Naturally the more superficial senses are the first to be imbued with this new intuitive understanding which is thereby supersensory.

Indeed from an affective point of view, this can lead to a spiritualised form of nature mysticism.

So each natural symbol while maintaining its customary local identity does so now in a merely relative manner whereby it equally serves as an archetype of a more universal spiritual reality. Put another way, this represents the starting process by which whole/part reductionism is surmounted.

When we seek to relate parts to wholes (and wholes to parts) in a merely conscious manner, gross reductionism is inevitable. So in conventional scientific terms, wholes are effectively treated as merely the sum of their quantitative parts!

However when we allow for the interaction of conscious and unconscious in experience, the whole spiritual identity of objects can be mediated in a truly qualitative fashion (that is not confused with their quantitative identification as parts).

Personal relationships are likewise seen in a new light.

In my own case, I remember this time as one where the appreciation of feminine beauty became especially intense.  One woman in particular - who was a work colleague - struck me, immediately I met her, as the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. Though I was still relatively young - in my late teens - I remember being strongly convinced that I would never meet any woman again whose beauty would impress me in the same way.

Of course I could objectively recognise that there were other - perhaps even more beautiful women - out there with whom I was not acquainted. Rather it was a realisation that the experience was unique due to the especially strong manner in which these spiritual affective feelings were evoked at that particular time!

So when I look back now I would say that the arm’s length relationship with this colleague provided a key archetype of feminine beauty that proved immensely important in subsequent development. 

And this has been a recurring pattern that I have noticed throughout development, where associated with each stage is a unique capacity that is especially suited for some particular task.

Therefore though from one perspective it is valid to maintain that with the successful unfolding of further stages on the spectrum, one’s development advances in a more comprehensive mature manner, however it is equally true that each new stage when unfolding, brings a special capacity (the intensity of which is at a peak during its initial phase of unfolding).

Cognitive understanding can likewise change.

In my own case this was evoked through a keen interest in Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity.

However what fascinated me at the time was the fact that there was also a psychological aspect to the physical notions of space and time that he was outlining.

So in effect this was my first excursion into Holistic Science (based on complementary positive and negative poles). So in this instance the physical nature of space and time (as relative in physical terms) would be complemented by their corresponding relativity (in a psychological manner).

Indeed I have always considered it fascinating that when Einstein was once asked to explain relativity in simple terms he in fact expressed it in psychological terms:

“Put you hand on a stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour and it seems like a minute. THAT’s relativity”

However this begs the huge question, not addressed by Einstein with respect to the relationship between physical and psychological notions of space and time!

Also at this time I was a fan of Teilhard de Chardin’s “Phenomenon of Man”.

Again the attraction here is that he is trying - despite the limitations of his approach – to express natural and human evolution in a holistic manner i.e. that allows for the interaction of physical and spiritual aspects!

So this supersensory stage - where the senses are imbued with a strong spiritually intuitive awareness - has major implications for the very nature of science.

What it entails is that we cannot hope to divorce the (external) physical world from the (internal) psychological interpretation we place upon it. Conventional Science thereby seeks to reduce this relationship in terms of just one pole (i.e. in the mistaken view that reality can be understood in a merely objective fashion)!

So the physical world reflects our psychological interpretation in a dynamic relative manner; equally our psychological interpretation reflects the physical world in dynamic fashion. Thus both are dynamically interdependent with each other!

We will look at the deeper holistic mathematical implications of this in the next entry!