Inner Voices: Distinguishing Transcendent and Pathological Characteristics Trauma, Psychotherapy, and Meditation the Transperson
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Volume 28 Number 1,1996 Inner voices: Distinguishing transcendent and pathological characteristics 1 Mitchell B. Liester Trauma, psychotherapy, and meditation 31 Ferris B. Urbanowski & John J. Miller The transpersonal movement: A Russian perspective on its emergence and prospects for further development 49 V. V. Nalimov & Jeanna A. Drogalina Transpersonal art and literary theory 63 Ken Wilber REVIEW Thoughts without a thinker: Psychotherapy from a Buddhist perspective, Mark Epstein John J. Miller NOTICE TO The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology is published SUBSCRIBERS semi-annually beginning with Volume l,No. 1, 1969. Current year subscriptions—Volume 28, 1996. To individuals: S24.00 per year; $12.00 either issue. To libraries and all institutions: $32 per year or $16 either issue. Overseas airmail, add $13 per volume, $6.50 per issue. Back volumes: Volumes 24-27 (2 issues per volume) $24 each, $12 per issue. Volumes 15-23 (2 issues per volume) $20 each, $10 per issue. Volumes 1-14 (2 issues per volume) $14 each, $7 per issue. All Journal issues are available. See back pages of this issue for previous contents. Order from and make remittances payable to: The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, P.O. Box 4437, Stanford, California 94309. The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology is indexed in Psychological Abstracts and listed in Chicorel Health Science Indexes, International Bibliography of Periodical Literature, International Bibliography of Book Reviews, Mental Health Abstracts, Psychological Reader's Guide, and beginning in 1982 Current Contents/Social & Behavioral Sciences Social Sciences Citation Index Contenta Religionum NOTICE TO Manuscript deadlines: Manuscripts may be submitted by any AUTHORS author at any time. Regular deadline dates are February 1 and July 1 for Summer and Winter issues, respectively. All manuscripts, and an abstract of not more than 150 words, should be submitted in triplicate, double-spaced to the Editor, 345 California Avenue, Suite No. 1, Palo Alto, California 94306 (with a postage-paid return envelope enclosed). BOOKS FOR REVIEW Send to Editor, 345 California Avenue, Suite No. 1, Palo Alto, California 94306. The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology and the Association for Transpersonal Psychology arc divisions of the Transpersonal Institute, a non-profit, tax-exempt organization. The views and opinions presented by authors and reviewers in the Journal do not necessarily represent those of the editors or the Transpersonal Institute. Copyright © 1996 Transpersonal Institute 345 California Avenue, Suite No. 1, Palo Alto, California 94306 Scan & OCR by Shiva2012 EDITORIAL Miles A. Vich, editor STAFF James Fadiman, Sonja Margulies, John Welwood, associate editors Ken Wilber, consulting editor Paul M. Clemens, technical editor Michael S. Hutton, assistant editor Francis G. Lu, David Lukoff, research review co-editors FIELD Marcie Boucouvalas, Virginia Polytechnic Institute EDITORS Jack Engler, Schiff Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts Jacques Maquet, University of California, Los Angeles BOARD OF J. F. Bugental, Santa Rosa, California EDITORS James Fadiman, Menlo Park, California Viktor Frankl, University of Vienna, Austria Daniel Goleman, New York, New York Elmer E. Green, Menninger Foundation, Topeka, Kansas Stanislav Grof, Mill Valley, California Herbert V. Guenther, University of Saskatchewan, Canada Stanley Krippner, San Francisco, California Lawrence LeShan, New York, New York John Levy, San Francisco, California Sonja Margulies, Sunnyvale, California Michael Murphy, San Rafael, California Huston Smith, Syracuse University, New York Charles T. Tart, Berkeley, California Frances E. Vaughan, Tiburon, California Miles A. Vich, Palo Alto, California Thomas N. Weide, Albuquerque, New Mexico Roberto Assagioli (1888-1974) Sidney M. Jourard (1926-1974) Hubert Bonner (1901-1970) Arthur Koestler (1905-1983) Medard Boss (1903-1990) Gabriel Margulies (1931-1981) Alister Brass (1937-1987) Abraham H. Maslow (1908-1970) Charlotte Buhler (1893-1974) Walter N. Pahnke (1931-1971) Alycc M. Green (1907-1994) Chogyam Trungpa (1939-1987) Robert Hartman (1910-1973) Alan Watts (1915-1973) Anthony J. Sutich (1907-1976), founding editor, 1969-1976 VOLUME 28, NUMBER 1, 1996 THE JOURNAL OF TRANSPERSONAL PSYCHOLOGY Editor’s note iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Inner voices: Distinguishing transcendent and pathological characteristics 1 Mitchell B. Liester Trauma, psychotherapy, and meditation 31 Ferris B. Urbanowski & John J. Miller The transpersonal movement: A Russian perspective on its emergence and prospects for further development 49 V.V. Nalimov & Jeanna A. Drogalina Transpersonal art and literary theory 63 Ken Wilber Book review 93 Books our editors are reading 95 Books noted 96 About the authors 98 Abstracts 99 Back issues 100 editor’s note In the study of human experience, a transpersonal approach has considerable capacity to reduce ambiguities. A classic example is the categorization of the "inner voice” as hallucination or revelation. This widely known, widely misunderstood phenomena has now been reconceptualized by Mitchell Liester as manifesting rather unambiguously along a pathological-transcendent continuum of psychological experience. Ambiguity has also troubled the relationship between meditation and psychotherapy. Now, as Ferris Urbanowski and John J. Miller report, meditative techniques, when used appropriately with psychotherapy, appear to be capable of reducing the pain and terror of long-standing trauma. In the arts, ambiguities abound, and contemporary theories of art have yet to completely resolve them. But in a powerful and art-affirming new approach, Ken Wilber proposes an inclusive, sweeping, “holonic” view of the arts. This is an important extension of transpersonal thinking to the turbulent context of art and literary theory. It is ironic that a study of “the transpersonal movement” should come from a person who survived the radical ambiguities and anti-spirituality of the Russian revolution ary period (see About the Authors). V. V Nalimov and Jeanna A. Drogalina have given us not only a Russian perspective on “the transpersonal movement” but also a significant analysis of the contents of the Journal, 1969-1989. INNER VOICES: DISTINGUISHING TRANSCENDENT AND PATHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS Mitchell B. Liester Colorado Springs, Colorado HISTORICAL CONSIDERATIONS Inner voices have been described for thousands of years. One of the earliest known accounts comes from the Athenian philosopher, Socrates, who heard such a voice throughout his life. This voice advised him against certain actions that were not in his best interest, but never told him what to do. Socrates referred to this voice as daimon, or “the divine” (Waterfield, 1990, p. 35). Similar descriptions can be found throughout history. The ancient Egyptians, Ro mans, Babylonians, Tibetans, and Greeks consulted oracles for guidance (Hastings, 1991). These entranced channelers heard inner voices that were believed to originate from the gods (Guiley, 1991; Jaynes, 1976). The early Hebrews also believed that the inner messages they heard and trusted were divinely inspired. Numerous passages from the Torah described God talking through his followers. One such passage is 2 Kings 21:10 which reads: “Now the Lord spoke through His servants the prophets.” In China during the first century a.d., individuals called the wu received guidance from inner voices. In eighth-century Japan, the imperial court turned to the kan-nagi for advice, and local Japanese villagers used the kuchiyose for this same purpose. These trusted advisors relied upon inner voices for guidance (Klimo, 1987). Medieval Jewish rabbis conversed with disincamate teachers known as maggidim who spoke via inner voices (Gordon, 1949). Christian mystics heard inner voices which they attributed to divine sources such as angels, the Holy Ghost, and deceased saints (Warren, 1975; Flanagan, 1989; Sackville-West, 1991; Brenan, 1973; Tsanoff, 1968). The Incas spoke directly to the gods via inner voices (Perkins, 1990). Shamans throughout the world also conversed with inner voices (Achterberg, 1985; Hamer, 1980; Niehardt, 1972). Many revered contemporaries have heard inner voices. Sigmund Freud, for example, related: Copyright © 1996 Transpersonal Institute The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 1996, Vol. 28, No. 1 1 During the days when I was living alone in a foreign city—I was a young man at the time— 1 quite often heard my name suddenly called by an unmistakable and beloved voice (Freud, 1960, p. 261). Respected leaders who have listened to and benefited from inner voices include Mohandas Gandhi, Emanuel Swedenborg, Carl Jung, Martin Luther King, Jr., Paramahansa Yogananda, Black Elk, George Washington Carver, Winston Churchill, M. Scott Peck, General George Patton, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, Rudyard Kipling, and Krishnamurti. INTERPRETATIONS OF INNER VOICES For at least two thousand years, inner voices have been valued as a source of creative inspiration, divine guidance, and intuitive knowledge. Dating back to the time of the ancient Greeks, through the Middle Ages, and continuing into the modem era, these voices were believed to originate from divine sources. During the days of the Old Testament, the act of receiving God’s words was known as revelation, and the speaking of such words was called prophesy (Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, 1985, pp. 190, 532). Those who spoke for God were known as prophets ox seers, and descriptions from the Bible indicate that Moses,