|
The following is from a research notes page by 
Allan Combs which is no longer on line (original url http://www.unca.edu/~combs/HCP/II/Narrative/6centaur.htm ). I have kept the quotations, which are interesting, but left out the correspondences Of Wilber's Centauric Realm with other systems, as I feel these are - like the tables in the back of Wilber's Integral Psychology - rather forced. - MAK
F-6 Centaur (Vision Logic)
An informal Phenomenological narrative:
"All things are related to all things. When I
first had that realization, perhaps when I was a young girl, maybe fourteen or
so, it completely changed my life! I would later learn names for this—holism and
so on— but at the time, all I knew was that all things were related to,
connected to, all things. Twenty years, two husbands, no kids, three jobs, and
one National Book Award later, I still believe this
firmly!
My book, To Re-weave the Web, is a detailed
account of this holistic view, based not only on all the late-breaking
scientific discoveries—and oh there are so many! from chaos theory to quantum
physics to complexity theories and systems theory, my head just spins, it's
so exciting!—~but also we have the holism of the indigenous peoples the
world over, who knew all this stuff way before modern science stumbled onto it.
The Great Goddess returns! Gaia is alive! All things are related to all
things.
This is wondrous, isn't it? Now that science is
catching up with this holistic interwoven view—why, I was writing about this
years ago!—I am looked upon as something of a forerunner. So I have become a
heroine, imagine that! I've been asked to be on this board and that, serve
on this journal and that, go to this conference and that. Me! Imagine
that!
Oh, I forgot. Not just the indigenous beliefs, but
Eastern mysticism, too. All saying the same thing, about the web of life, all
things and all things and all of that and so on. So I don't see why those Zen people keep
annoying me and asking if I meditate. What difference does it make?, I keep
asking them. If you believe that everything is connected to everything, what
else is there? You do it your way, which is meditation, and I do it my way,
which is called holistic thinking. They said, that was just an idea and could I
show them this oneness right now? And that made no sense to me at all. They're
just being obnoxious, I think, like they know it all. Imagine that!"
One Taste; pp.146-146.
"As consciousness begins to
transcend the verbal ego-mind it can… integrate the ego mind with all the lower
levels. That is, because consciousness is no longer identified with any of these
elements to the exclusion of any others, all of them can be integrated: the
body, the persona, the shadow, the ego- all can be brought into a higher- order
integration." Atman Project pg. 53
"One contacts and
stabilizes on the centaur level, the elements of the gross personality- the
body, the ego, the persona, the shadow, the lower chakras- tend to fall into
harmony of themselves. For the individual is beginning to transcend them, and
thus he ceases to compulsively manipulate and exploit them….This is the stage
describes as one of autonomy, of integration, of authenticity, or of
self-actualization…." Atman Project pg.54
"The centaur, the
integrated and total self, above and prior to body, mind persona and shadow, but
embracing as it were all of them as experiences." Atman Project
pg.54
"The implication
is that one's full potential springs from what Rogers calls the "total, ongoing
psychophysiological flow" or "total organismic experiencing," and not from any
aspect or fragment of that flow- ego, body, superego, self-concept, and so on.
In our terms self-actualization is intimately related to the centaur level, and
is not directly available to the ego or persona levels." Atman Project
pg.55
"Actual autonomy
(and self-actualization) would result, and could only result by definition, with
the conscious emergence of this
totality- a type of shift of identity from any of the fragments (ego,
persona, body) to their prior and higher integration. According to existential
thought, when an individual's self is felt or prehended as the prior, total
being, he assumes-can assume-
responsibility for his entire-being-in-the world….The individual starts to move
on the whole, as a whole- and that is what Leslie Faber has called the
"spontaneous will." Atman Project pg.56
"May equates in
general terms the spontaneous will of the total self with what is called intentionality by the existentialists,
which is why he says that intentionality "is the missing link between mind and
body…the body tends to be "involuntary" or "spontaneous"…The ego,, on the other
hand , we generally assume to be the home of many voluntary, controlled and
purposive activities. The total self, then, as the higher ego-and body union, is
a type of conjunction of both theses experiential realms- the voluntary and the
involuntary." Atman Project pg.56
"I call the
cognitive aspect of intentionality the
vision-image or higher phantasy
process. " Imagination," says May," is the home of intentionality." Or
better: "Intentionality is an imaginative attention which underlies our
intentions and informs our actions. We might say that the cognitive aspect of
intentionality is vision-image, and the conative aspect is intentionality, both,
I believe springing from the higher-order unity of mind and body called
centaur." Atman Project pg.57
"Intentionality is
the spontaneous will of the bodymind centaur, and vision-image or high-phantasy
is its language." Atman Project pg.57
"In Jung's own words, " the image is equally an expression of the unconscious as of the conscious situation of the moment. The interpretation of its meaning, therefore, can proceed exclusively neither from the unconscious not from the conscious, but only from their reciprocal relation."
Atman Project pg.58
"For the mature
phantasy of the centaur is definitely prior to language, but it is not
preverbal. It is transverbal." Atman Project pg.59
"As Robert Masters
puts it: The distinction between
noetic imagination (vision-image) and fantasy (primary process) has been stated
in various ways by philosophers and mystics through the ages. Paracelsus
doubtless meant the same thing when he cautioned against confusing the imagination vera of the alchemists with
fantasy. " that cornerstone of fools." The imaginal world is the
visionary-world, the world of theophanic as of other visions, and it becomes
perceptible to us only through a special cognitive imagination." Atman Project pg.63
"The phantasy
process is not now a way to regress to preverbal phantasies, but a way to
contact transverbal realities. It serves as a transition ( and a symbol of
transformation) from the existential realm into the transpersonal. It is an
extremely important cognitive mode, not just for the centaur levels but for the
higher levels as well, which is why deep imagery and visualization, but never
abstract conceptualization, are used I many forms of transpersonal
meditation." Atman Project pg.63
" There is preverbal (primary process), and there
is verbal (secondary process)- and
above and beyond both, as a magic synthesis, there is transverbal: intentionality,
high-phantasy, and the vision-image." Atman Project pg.65
"The infantile
bodyego is preconsensus, premembership, presocial, preadjustment. The mature
bodymind or centaur begins to go transconsensus, transmembership, transsocial,
transadjustment…..the dividing line is membership cognition." Atman Project pg.65
"(Biosocial Band)
….Bio-" denotes "body" (typhon) and "social" denotes "membership" and
"membership concepts"-thus the biosocial band represents the upper limit of membership cognition and gross
bodily orientation, beyond which lie those realms of being which transcend
conventional, egoic, institutional and social forms." Atman Project
pg. 66
"At the mature
centaur level, the immediate and vivid present is indeed the dominant mode of
time, but the individual now has complete
access to the entire conventional world of extended temporal realities as
well. He is not confined to the present (like the child bodyego), he is simply
grounded in it; and he is not
ignorant of historical time, he is just no longer bound to it (like the
ego). The typhon is presequential time, the centaur is transsequential
time." Atman Project pg.68
"Since the mode of
time of the existential level is the immediate, vivid and living present, many
centaur therapists use this as one of the new translations given to the client. That
is ( in addition to some of the other centaur translations we have discussed,
such as vision-image and intentionality), the translation of " seeing all
reality as present" is commonly used (as in Gestalt Therapy- "only the now is real".) The individual learns to
see thoughts of yesterday as present occurrences, and
anticipations of tomorrow as present
activities…. He then transforms to
existential time; the whole abstract and ghostly world of linear time- now that
it has served its purpose- collapses into the intensity of the present. The
individual simply continues this translation (the "working through") until the
transformation is more or less complete and he is generally grounded in, but not confined
to, the living present." Atman Project pg.68
"The infantile
bodyego can see only the present; the
centaur can see all time from the
present." Atman Project pg.69
"In the mature centaur, "this immediate discharge" appears as spontaneity and impulse expression…And again, studies of impulse expression and spontaneity show that the child and the most developed adults share these traits, whereas the individuals in the intermediate stages ( the average ego/persona realms) do not…. The infant bodymind has a preverbal, preinhibition spontaneity, whereas the mature centaur evidences a transverbal, transcontrol, transinhibition freedom. But let us finish this discussion by noting, with Loevinger, that this fact " does not justify the conclusion that intermediate stages of (membership and egoic) rigid controls can be bypassed."
Atman Project pg.69
"While this level
is trans-verbal, it is trans-personal. That is, while it
transcends language, gross concepts , and the gross ego, it does not transcend
existence, personal orientation, or waking psychophysiological awareness. It is
the last stage dominated by normal forms of space and time- but those forms are
still there." Atman Project pg.70
"This whole level-
which is a disidentification with the ego and a higher-order identification with
the total bodymind- marks the highest potential that can be reached in the
existential or gross realm. It is very much what John Lilly (following
Gurdjieff) called "state +12", which is "blissful state; cosmic love, reception
of grace (higher energies), heightened bodily awareness (supersensory); highest
function of bodily consciousness." Atman Project pg.71
"This state is
also similar to the initial stages of the path of Da Free John, where, relaxing
thought and desire through attentive inquiry, one intuits an "unqualified sense
of relationship". This unqualified sense of relationship, enjoyed while,
paradoxically, still aware of the perception of the world and one's bodily presence within it, is
intuition of the all-pervading Divine Presence." Atman Project
pg.71
"The existential
centaur, then, is not only the higher-order integration of ego, body, persona,
and shadow, it is also the major transition towards the higher subtle and
transpersonal realms of being. ( Notice that Stan Grof's research seems to
support this thesis very strongly) This is so in both the centaurs
"supersensory" modality, and in its cognitive process of intuition,
intentionality, and vision-image. They are all intimations of the higher realms
of transcendence and integration." Atman Project pg.72
cognitive style-
transverbal vision-image, high-phantasy, synthesis of primary and secondary
processes; transconsensual affective elements- prehension, spontaneity, impulse
expression, supersensory, heartfelt conative/motivational factors-
intentionality, creative wish, meaning, spontaneous will, self-actualization,
autonomy temporal mode- grounded in the present moment, aware of linear time as
exfoliating from the present mode of self- integrated, autonomous,
transbiosocial, total bodymind being" Atman Project
pg.71
 |
|
 |
 |
 |