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Consciousness, Evolution, and the Self-Organizing Brain
Full text linkWhile evolution is guided by natural selection, it is internally driven by self-organizing processes. The brain encompasses these complementary forces and dynamics of evolution in both its structure and dynamics by embodying a historical record of the factors that have shaped it throughout its evolutionary past, as well as by being shaped by selective parameters in real time. Self-organization is evident in not only the brain’s structure and form, but also in the processes that support consciousness. From the convergence of complex structure and the novelty-generating dynamics of chaos that both characterize the brain arises the experience of explicit consciousness, with its endless scope of possible expressions
Investigating the Intersection of Physical Disability and Sexuality
No full textAbstract, Physical Disability Data:
The Physical Disability group collected social media data at the intersection of physical disability and sexuality as part of the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) Human Sexuality Summer Research Fellowship. For the purpose of this work, physical disability is defined as a self-disclosed disability which can include: impairments of the neuromusculoskeletal systems including, for example, the effects of paraplegia, quadriplegia, muscular dystrophy, neuromuscular disorders, cerebral palsy, absence or deformities of limbs, , arthritis, back disorders, bone formation or degeneration, and so on. The present definition of physical disability also includes blindness and vision impairment (not corrected by glasses or contact lenses), deafness, hearing impairment, hearing loss, speech loss, impairment, acquired brain injury resulting in deterioration in cognitive, physical, emotional or independent functioning. Key terminology for physical disabilities included a practical review of the efficacy of the search terms through a trial-and-error method on respective platforms as well as a review of relevant literature. All involved researchers remained conscious of language that reflected medical diagnosis, advocacy language, and layman’s terms. Key terms regarding sex/sexuality were discussed and used regarding general sexual function and practice, though items relating directly to sexual identity were frequent in the research. Recurring themes in the data included but are not limited to: advice videos for sex and disability, sharing and educating about what positions work well with different disabilities, creators of videos sharing their sexual/ dating experiences, gratitude for transparency about disability and sexuality, gratitude for representation in videos, critique about sexual surrogates/surrogacy and health care, hopefulness about finding interabled romance/relationships mirroring people on videos, normalization of interabled relationships, normalization of sexuality for/about people with disability, pushback on the idea that disabled people are not sexy, abled people being uncomfortable around disabled peoples’ sexuality, instances of both sexism and ableism toward disabled women, appreciating disabled sex in media, and chronic illness impacting sex life
Zen and the Art of Doughnut Economics: When Limits are Strangely Liberating
Full text linkKate Raworth\u27s celebrated book, Doughnut Economics: Seven ways to think like a 21st century economist, calls for a reconciliation of our design principles for society and the economy with the rhythms and tolerances of ecological systems. It will demand something akin to a new axial revolution that will have to be experienced as much in the body and in the intimacies of a renewed care and appreciation for our relational and ecological selves as in the collective re-design of our societies, democratic decision-making and collective provisioning. Buddhist scholarship offers a distinctive contribution to this conversation invoked in a book that has sparked a global movement
Path to Utopia
Full text linkThe way to survive in the Anthropocene and transform the world is to end capitalism. Humanity must stop commodifying everything and reifying its value for consumption for the sake of power and survival. The way to do this is through love. This is an inquiry into methods and processes for confronting and transforming the planetary destruction caused by capitalism, patriarchy, and colonialism among other phenomena. This paper challenges the idea that it is unrealistic to believe that love can change the world. It posits that loving is caring and caring is the way humanity will shift consciousness so that capitalism is no longer the dominant politico-economic paradigm. That is the key. If we care, no one will go hungry, homeless, or without what they need. Racial injustice, sexual violence, the maldistribution of wealth and resources, famine, and so many of the world’s ails can be radically halted if there is a critical mass of human beings caring enough to do something about it. If we care, no one will be murdered, discriminated against, exploited, starved, and oppressed. This love as a revolution to end capitalism and champion human rights and the welfare of all of Earth’s living systems must be a movement that generates momentum to catalyze change. This shift in consciousness occurs individually and collectively in order for global transformation of human created systems from Hell on Earth to a global, loving social utopia
Psychic Cartography: A Review of Tantric Psychophysics: A Structural Map of Altered States and the Dynamics of Consciousness
Full text linkIn 1920 Rudolf Steiner gave a lecture entitled Healing of the Social Organism which is collected in a small and fairly obscure book (Oswald Spengler: Prophet of World Chaos). The lecture was given after Spengler’s The Decline of the West had become a best-seller. In the lecture, Rudolf Steiner takes it upon himself to “deconstruct” his fellow German scholar/intellectual. In the piece, Steiner attacks Spengler’s opposition between “the man of blood” – the man who gets things done, the man of action -- versus “the man of contemplation” -- the theologian, the priest, the scientist with his concept world. Steiner points out that apparently for Spengler, the only thing that really matters in this opposition is the man of blood, the man of action – the Napoleon, the Julius Caesar, the statesman, the gambler – the person who gets things done; this is the person who makes world history, who brings history into being and makes it happen – thought/contemplation means nothing to this man..
Consciousness-Centered Education: An Innovative Approach to Art and Design Curriculum
Full text linkThis paper introduces and discusses a consciousness-centered, integrated education model, implemented at the College for Creative Studies. Consciousness, Creativity, and Identity, a liberal-arts course offering, is designed to offer students a greater understanding of human connectivity and empowerment through empathy for themselves and others. This result is achieved in part through the inclusion of meditation training as a core component of the course. By integrating the skills of introspection, silence, and reflection with intellectual engagement, consciousness-centered education initiatives encourage the relationship between compassion, connectivity, inclusion, and wellness as key pedagogic themes in art and design curriculum. This paper offers evidence that this curriculum encourages art and design students to understand the ways compassionate action in creative practice advances social justice and develops a sense of global citizenship
Good, Bad, or Not-Even-Wrong Science and Mathematics in Transpersonal Psychology: Comment on Rock et al.\u27s Is Biological Death Final?
Full text linkRock et al. (this issue) used a Drake-like equation to provide an estimate of the mathematical likelihood of survival of consciousness after death based on combining a number of probability guestimates. Although it is refreshing to see a mathematical paper within transpersonal psychology, as this subdiscipline of psychology suffers from a shortage of quantitative research, it is uncertain whether this contribution is good, bad, or not-even-wrong science. The original Drake equation, and its derivative Drake-like equation spinoffs, have been criticized for combining numbers that produce results that lack meaning and thereby perhaps can be seen as using pseudomathematics. This concern is discussed in relationship to problems related to romantic scientism within transpersonal science, including methodolatry involved in privileging qualitative over quantitative approaches. Self-expansiveness is discussed as an example of transpersonal psychology appropriately using good science, while the critical positivity ratio is discussed as an example of bad science, and astrology is discussed as an example of pseudoscience that is not-even-wrong. Questions are raised about the proper use and the misuse of mathematics within the transpersonal area, and comment is made about advances in mathematics that might become useful within transpersonal psychology
Buddhism and Transpersonal Psychology
Full text linkIn the debate between Freud and Romain Rolland the latter asserted the infants’ oceanic feeling to be saner than the adults’ limited sense of self, and that mystics recover the oceanic feeling without losing the learning achieved during socialization. Freud retorted that the oceanic feeling involved a sense of shelterlessness, and whoever went through derealization was psychotic and needed to be cured. However, the feeling of shelterlessness comes from the fledging sense of separation, and although derealization is a dangerous process, when it develops unhindered the result is greater sanity. So, Buddhism and TP agree in valuing transpersonal and holotropic experiences, but TP must learn from Buddhism to distinguish between kinds of holotropic and transpersonal experiences, and attribute different value to them: the formless realms of the highest tier of samsara, the neutral condition of the base-of-all in which the precious human possibility is squandered, Awakening, different types of nirvana..
Requisite Wisdom: Transpersonal Psychology in the Treatment of Clinical Depression
Full text linkThis paper describes the relationship of Transpersonal Psychology (TP) to the theorizing and treatment of clinical depression. It argues that, rather than TP’s being one of many equivalent clinical lenses that can be applied to depression, TP is actually a necessary framework for understanding the phenomenon of depression, and at least in the case of more severe/chronic depressions, it is required to obtain results beyond mere symptom management. The construct “ungrieved futility” is used to essentialize the structural dynamic nature of depression, and the cybernetic perspective on depression is used to explain why depression’s intrinsic structure mandates a TP lens (what is referred to as depression’s “transphilic” nature). The implications of this view on the treatment of depression are described, in terms of impacts on outcomes and both client and therapist experiences of treatment
Review of Steve Taylor’s DisConnected
Full text linkThis article presents a review of Steve Taylor’s (2023) book, DisConnected: The Roots of Human Cruelty and How Connection Can Heal the World. Taylor makes a significant contribution to the study of psychological development, spiritual growth, and the overall evolution of consciousness by thoughtfully examining the disconnection that underlies violent crime, terrorism, dishonest business practices, authoritarianism, religious extremism, surrender of autonomy, culture wars, and polarized politics. He convincingly argues that disconnection is not the default state of humanity, but rather an aberration, and that dark aspects of human nature emerge from an environmentally conditioned sense of separation and inability to empathize with others. Based on his research and enlightened understanding of connection as the basis of spirituality, Taylor charts a course from a world governed by pathocracy to one thriving under empathocracy