A Phenomenological Study of the Transpersonal
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A PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDY OF THE TRANSPERSONAL EXPERIENCE OF "ACTING FROM FIELD": THREE CASE STUDIES / by Gayl Welch A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in Counseling Psychology The Professional School For Humanistic Studies The Dissertation of Gayl Welch is approved and is acceptable in quality and form: / ` Committee Chairperson Committee Member Committe Member The Professional School For Humanistic San Diego, 1983 Studies DEDICATED TO Georgette Krummenacker Martin Muller Annie Muller Without whom this never would have been possible. / ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: First, I wish to thank my committee, Ted Orcutt, Oscar Schmiege, and Wayland Myers for the sensitive way they guided the initial development of this work and their insightful suggestions as the work progressed. !am especially grateful for the ongoing techn ical guidance given by Wayland Myers. I also want to acknowledge a much larger group which range from San Francisco to San Diego who participate directly in and generate a backing for the experiences described by the subjects. I give this / dissertation as a gift to them, with the hope that in some way it will aid them. Two people contributed in very special ways. Christine Vecchio helped me dare to choose the topic, and though at times I despaired at having done so, now that it is finished, I really appreciate her insight. Nicolas Vasquez catalyzed development of the basic form within which the nonverbal experience was finally placed. This was one of the most difficult steps. My heartfelt thanks is given for the thoroughness, creative intent, and patient focus offered as well as for all the relevant references he unearthed in unlikely places. There were many people who read chapters in various stages of development and provided helpful comments. Among them, I want to especially acknowledge Rosemary Miller, Daniel Krummenacher, Caroline Hawley, and Kurt Rosi. In the later stages, Pat Burke, Marsha Burach, and Yoram Braun proofread and offered further suggestions. I also want to thank typists Portia Metras and Pam Kepner who helped smooth my rough drafts. A special thanks goes to Ellen Maung who rescued me in the final stages with her wordprocessor. There are many others, both nameable and unnameable, who gave support, offered clarifying ideas, suggested resources, healed my tornness, and helped me mature to meet the challenge. I am grateful to them all in the awareness that this is truly a group effort. Last, and perhaps the most important, there is a very special thank you to Dee Klocow, without whose sustaining love and steadfast faith that I was capable of bringing out onto paper the experience we share, I would never have finished. There is no way I could list all the varieties of selfless support she gave over the long four years this has taken me. ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION A. Phenomenological Study of the Transpersonal Experience of "Acting from Field": Three Case Studies by Gayl Welch Doctor of Philosophy in Counseling Psychology The Professional School For Humanistic Studies San Diego, California 1983 This research is a contribution to the literature of unusual human experience and extends the possibilities beyond what had previously been known. Vocabulary was adapted from the physics and consciousness research of Bohm and Pribram in order to place the experience of acting from Field in the context of psychology and religious literature. The study is based upon a phenomenological description of functioning from a field rather than from an organismic/ personality base. The field encompasses and affects the organism, and its personality but is not created or controlled from the organism/personality. The three subjects are psychologists who function Field based, both in their private lives and professionally with clients. The significant themes of their common experience are compared with the closest descriptions in the literature of transpersonal psychology, Christianity, Buddhism, Taoism, and the current physics and consciousness research. The essential structures of functioning from Field are compared to phenomenological descriptions of schizophrenia, usual Western organismic-based consciousness, and Zen. Though decidedly different from all three, action from Field is most closely related to Zen and least similar to schizophrenia. Elements of acting from Field which have not been described prior to this study include: (1) A movement which starts from Field and moves to the more obvious, including the organism and its personality. (2) When they act from the Field, participants know simultaneously what they are doing, but not beforehand. There is no rule, system, idea, or precedent to follow. (3) Acting from Field is common in the presence of other people, usually a group action. (4) The experience is communicable by entrainment, living it together from the Field. (5) A new mode of consciousness results, called Actinic mode to distinguish it from Deikman's Receptive and Active modes. Extensive references are included. TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION ..................................... iii ACKNOWLED ........................... iv GEMENTS ..................................... vi A E S T RA C C O N T E N T S T viii ............................. ......... TABLE OF xi LIST OF ................................. xii FIGURES LIST OF TABLES INTRODUCTION .................................................................... 1 Chapter Definition of Specialized Terms ...................................... 3 1. Statement of the Problem ................................................. 39 Importance of the Problem ............................................... 39 Delimitations ........................... 42 Personal Motivation Behind this Project .................. 46 Presuppositions ........................... 48 2 REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE ............................................ 50 Western Psychology ...................... 51 Buddhist Psychology ...................... 65 Chinese Taoism ........................... 90 Christian Mysticism ...................... 93 Science and consciousness ............................................ 99 Transpersonal Psychology ............................................. 114 viii Ontology Group .................................................. 125 Summary of Literature Review 128 3 METHODOLOGY .................................................. 132 132 Choice of Method ............................................... Research Design ................................................ 137 Methodological Problems in the Appraisal of Results .......................................................... 152 Reliability ........................................................... 161 Validity ............................................................. 161 Significance ........................................................ 162 4 RESULTS ........................................................... 164 164 Introduction ....................................................... Section 1: Interviews ...................................... 165 Section 2: Metathemes ......................................... 218 5 SUMMARY .......................................................... 241 Conclusions ........................................................ 241 Recommendations for Further Research ............... 28i REFERENCE ..................................... 283 S 303 APPENDICES .......................................... A ACTING FROM FIELD IN A THERAPY SITUATION ....................................................... 304 DEVELOPMENTAL STRUCTURE: WILBER B AND ZEUCHNER ................................................. 313 C DEVELOPMENT OF CONSCIOUSNESS: G C VIN D A ........................................................ 317 D BUDDHIST MEDITATION AND WESTERN COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY: BROWN .................................................................................. 320 E WAVES AND VIBRATIONS: JENNY ................................................................................... 327 F MIND NIA PS .......................................................................... 330 G CONSENT FORMS ......................................................... 334 LIST OF FIGURES Figure • Page 1. Developmental Interrelation of Experiential Approaches to Implicate-Order Fields and Their relation to Acting (from) Field ..................... 13 2. Implicate-Order and Semi-Implicate Order Fields in Hierarchical Scheme ...................................... 15 3. Acting, (from) Field Related to a Developmental "Ladder." ............................................ 17 4. Hierarchy of Basic Structures of Consciousness: Wilber .................................................. 314 5. Developmental Order for Uncovering Ground: Zeuchner ....................................................... 315 6. The Structure and Development of Consciousness: Govinda ............................................. 317 LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1 Van Dusen (1958) compiled in tabular form compared to Acting Field ............................................. 268 2. Laing (1965) compiled from The Divided Self and compared to Acting Field ..................................... 270 Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION This study can be characterized as consciousness research into some transpersonal aspects of an implicate order Field and its activation in the explicate order by holomovement. The purpose is to obtain a preliminary description that stands out clearly, rather than an exhaustive catalog