by
colleagues, Grof became unalterably convinced that something extraordinary was
going on. “After years of conceptual struggle and confusion, I have concluded
that the data from LSD research indicate an urgent need for a drastic revision
of the existing paradigms for psychology, psychiatry, medicine, and possibly
science in general,” he states. “There is at present little doubt in my mind
that our current understanding of the universe, of the nature of reality, and
particularly of human beings, is superficial, incorrect, and incomplete.”
Grof coined the term transpersonal to describe such phenomena, experiences in which the consciousness transcends
the customary boundaries of the personality, and in the late 1960s he joined
with several other like-minded professionals, including the psychologist and
educator Abraham Maslow, to found a new branch of psychology called transpersonal
psychology.
If our current way of
looking at reality cannot account for transpersonal events, what new
understanding might take its place? Grof believes it is the holographic model.
As he points out, the essential characteristics of transpersonal
experiences—the feeling that all boundaries are illusory, the lack of
distinction between part and whole, and the interconnectedness of all
things—are all qualities one would expect to find in a holographic universe. In
addition, he feels the enfolded nature of space and time in the holographic
domain explains why transpersonal experiences are not bound by the usual
spatial or temporal limitations.
Grof thinks that the
almost endless capacity holograms have for information storage and retrieval
also accounts for the fact that visions, fantasies, and other “psychological
gestalts,” all contain an enormous amount of information about an individual's
personality. A single image experienced during an LSD session might contain
information about a person's attitude toward life in general, a trauma he
experienced during childhood, how much self-esteem he has, how he feels about
his parents, and how he feels about his marriage—all embodied in the overall
metaphor of the scene. Such experiences are holographic in another way, in that
each small part of the scene can also contain an entire constellation of
information. Thus, free association and other analytical techniques performed
on the scene's miniscule details can call forth an additional flood of data
about the individual involved.
The composite nature of
archetypal images can be modeled by the holographic idea. As Grof observes,
holography makes it possible to build up a sequence of exposures, such as
pictures of every member of a large family, on the same piece of film. When
this is done the developed piece of film will contain the image of an
individual that represents not one member of the family, but all of them at the
same time. “These genuinely composite images represent an exquisite model of a certain
type of transpersonal experience, such as the archetypal images of the Cosmic
Man, Woman, Mother, Father, Lover, Trickster, Fool, or Martyr,” says Grof.
If each exposure is
taken at a slightly different angle, instead of resulting in a composite picture,
the piece of film can be used to create a series of holographic images that
appear to flow into one another. Grof believes this illustrates another aspect
of the visionary experience, namely, the tendency of countless images to unfold
in rapid sequence, each one appearing and then dissolving into the next
as if by magic. He thinks holography's success at modeling so many different
aspects of the archetypal experience suggests that there is a deep link between
holographic processes and the way archetypes are produced.
Indeed, Grof feels that
evidence of a hidden, holographic order surfaces virtually every time one
experiences a nonordinary state of consciousness:
Bohm's concept of the
unfolded and enfolded orders and the idea that certain important aspects of
reality are not
colleagues, Grof became unalterably convinced that something extraordinary was
going on. “After years of conceptual struggle and confusion, I have concluded
that the data from LSD research indicate an urgent need for a drastic revision
of the existing paradigms for psychology, psychiatry, medicine, and possibly
science in general,” he states. “There is at present little doubt in my mind
that our current understanding of the universe, of the nature of reality, and
particularly of human beings, is superficial, incorrect, and incomplete.”
Grof coined the term transpersonal to describe such phenomena, experiences in which the consciousness transcends
the customary boundaries of the personality, and in the late 1960s he joined
with several other like-minded professionals, including the psychologist and
educator Abraham Maslow, to found a new branch of psychology called transpersonal
psychology.
If our current way of
looking at reality cannot account for transpersonal events, what new
understanding might take its place? Grof believes it is the holographic model.
As he points out, the essential characteristics of transpersonal
experiences—the feeling that all boundaries are illusory, the lack of
distinction between part and whole, and the interconnectedness of all
things—are all qualities one would expect to find in a holographic universe. In
addition, he feels the enfolded nature of space and time in the holographic
domain explains why transpersonal experiences are not bound by the usual
spatial or temporal limitations.
Grof thinks that the
almost endless capacity holograms have for information storage and retrieval
also accounts for the fact that visions, fantasies, and other “psychological
gestalts,” all contain an enormous amount of information about an individual's
personality. A single image experienced during an LSD session might contain
information about a person's attitude toward life in general, a trauma he
experienced during childhood, how much self-esteem he has, how he feels about
his parents, and how he feels about his marriage—all embodied in the overall
metaphor of the scene. Such experiences are holographic in another way, in that
each small part of the scene can also contain an entire constellation of
information. Thus, free association and other analytical techniques performed
on the scene's miniscule details can call forth an additional flood of data
about the individual involved.
The composite nature of
archetypal images can be modeled by the holographic idea. As Grof observes,
holography makes it possible to build up a sequence of exposures, such as
pictures of every member of a large family, on the same piece of film. When
this is done the developed piece of film will contain the image of an
individual that represents not one member of the family, but all of them at the
same time. “These genuinely composite images represent an exquisite model of a certain
type of transpersonal experience, such as the archetypal images of the Cosmic
Man, Woman, Mother, Father, Lover, Trickster, Fool, or Martyr,” says Grof.
If each exposure is
taken at a slightly different angle, instead of resulting in a composite picture,
the piece of film can be used to create a series of holographic images that
appear to flow into one another. Grof believes this illustrates another aspect
of the visionary experience, namely, the tendency of countless images to unfold
in rapid sequence, each one appearing and then dissolving into the next
as if by magic. He thinks holography's success at modeling so many different
aspects of the archetypal experience suggests that there is a deep link between
holographic processes and the way archetypes are produced.
Indeed, Grof feels that
evidence of a hidden, holographic order surfaces virtually every time one
experiences a nonordinary state of consciousness:
Bohm's concept of the
unfolded and enfolded orders and the idea that certain important aspects of
reality are not
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