Transpersonal realities or neurophysiological illusions?
pp. 199-222
in: Rolf von Eckartsberg (ed), Metaphors of consciousness, Berlin, Springer, 1981Abstract
Although psychologists like to emphasize the empirical nature of psychology, every psychologist starts more or less with his own personal experience of himself and his world, experience which creates both explicit and implicit guides as to what is important to study. Western psychologists have focused on our ordinary, Western state of consciousness, appropriate in a culture highly concerned with manipulation of the external world, and much of our research interests reflect this. There are a large number of experiences, however, that we might call transpersonal, experiences which, while not actively encouraged in our culture, nevertheless happen, and seem to imply a much broader view of man than our Western psychological one. Let me give you some brief examples of such experiences.