The
following article is based on a presentation made during the Second International
Conference on Integral Psychology, held at Pondicherry (India), 4-7 January
2001. The text has been published in:
Cornelissen, Matthijs (Ed.) (2001) Consciousness and Its Transformation,
Pondicherry: SAICE
Models of consciousness
and its
transformation
V. George Mathew
The Western perspective
starts from the external material reality while the Oriental approach
regards consciousness as the base and material reality as an experience
in consciousness. According to the Western point of view consciousness
is the product of matter and consciousness exists in matter. From the
perspective of Eastern spirituality, matter exists in consciousness and
matter is the product of consciousness. Consciousness is primary; time,
space and matter originate and exist in consciousness.
There is an absolute
view in the East which says that only consciousness is real. Consciousness
is consciousness and it cannot have a model and it cannot be transformed.
According to this view, this is a bogus paper. However, there is a relative
view which conceives different gradations of reality. There is an apparent
transformation of consciousness. Sri Aurobindo belongs to this category.
Reality is a continuum
extending from absolute pure consciousness (beyond time and space) to
the gross physical plane. This distance can be divided into several planes,
like physical, astral, causal, etc. Ordinarily a man is fully aware only
of his gross physical body, but his personality extends to all planes.
The notion of mind derives from our subtle awareness of those aspects
of personality which are in the subtler planes. Here the term awareness
is used in a relative sense as awareness of something; consciousness is
awareness of awareness or pure awareness.
Mind can be conceived
as a band of vibrations (in consciousness). Ordinarily, this has a main
(average) vibration and a number of smaller constituent vibrations. This
can be understood in analogy with the speaking voice of a person which
has an average frequency band with a number of sub-frequencies giving
it a uniqueness.
Qualities of mind
Ancient Indian thought,
particularly Sankhya Yoga, speaks of three qualities (gunas) in all nature:
Inertia (Thamas), Activation (Rajas) and Stability (Sathwa). An individual’s
mind also can be described and differentiated from minds of other people
in terms of the extent to which it has these three components. No doubt,
there are contrasted brain processes going parallel with the contrasted
behavioral inhibition (resulting from fear) in Inertia and behavioral
excitation (resulting from compensatory aggressiveness) in Activation.
Stability (freedom from both fear as well as need for compensatory aggression)
possibly involves brain transcendence through quiescence. Fear is responsible
for dissociation, rigidity, defensive ego and compensatory desires. Freedom
from fear leads to flexibility, spontaneity and unitiveness which is the
same as self-control or will. In terms of the analogy of vibrations, “I”
(Thamas) may be regarded as a band of consciousness constituted by a few
independent weak vibrations of high frequency, “A” (Rajas) one strong
predominant medium frequency vibration and “S” (Sathwa) several well integrated
weak low frequency vibrations. S involves greater sensitivity (similar
to Weber-Fechner law which postulates greater differential sensitivity
at lower levels of sensation), awareness, flexibility and control). SS
(Gunatheetha state) is the absence of any particular vibration at all.
An SS individual, can at will create any vibration in his mind and usually,
when he functions in the relative plane, creates a network of low frequency
vibrations.
S generally involves
maximum capacity with minimum of desire, dependence or involvement (in
the matter of sex or any other activity or work). I involves minimum capacity
with wishful thinking. A is medium capacity with maximum desire, egoistic
effort or indulgence.
According to the Sankhya
concept, the sum of the three qualities is always a constant; differences
are in terms of the relative strengths of the three components. The IAS
Rating Scale (Mathew, 1995) measures the relative predominance of these
three characteristics in an individual.
1. I: Inertia Root fear
(death or survival anxiety, existential insecurity) at this level or type
of personality is accompanied by –defensive non-awareness or inhibition.
Inertia is introverted instability or proneness to develop introverted
type of maladjustment under stress.
This is characterized
by lethargy, laziness, fear, inhibition, anxiety, shallowness of emotions,
low initiative, low self-confidence, low self-respect, etc. People having
a large degree of I lack energy; they are slow, late, not venturing, shy,
withdrawn, weak-willed, suggestible, submissive, masochistic, intropunitive,
and so on. They are unable to refuse, assert or argue individually; but
are collectivistic and show hysteric collective aggression. They show
blind conformity and inability to mix with strangers. They do not have
strong emotional ties. The strong emotion they show is fear. They believe
in fate and luck (external locus of control) and are superstitious. They
have least awareness and show poor moral control and they have simple
sensuous values only.
Mentality characterized
by high I is most susceptible to dissociation, as the vibrations are not
well integrated by the unitive overall awareness process. Ordinarily,
each constituent vibration is modified by the general vibrational quality
of the mind and each new experience modifies the total vibrational quality
a little bit. The person with high I has a loosely structured mind and
it may have more than one relatively independent component. He has least
control of his own mind and therefore may function like different persons
(multiple personality) in different situations with different patterns
of memory and action tendencies. He is also capable of having circumscribed
amnesia for events.
2. A: Activation This
is characterized by restless overactivity, uncontrolled energy, high drive,
and inability to remain alone or silent. Activation is extraverted instability
or proneness to develop extraverted types of maladjustment under stress.
Persons having high
A are compulsive mixers, impatient, hasty, risk taking, rash, adventurous,
analytical, efficient in planning practical things for the future, competitive,
go-getting, assertive, aggressive, maniacal, proud, egoistic, rebellious,
dominant, individualistic, greedy, possessive, dogmatic, etc. They show
considerable sportsman spirit. They recognize, admire and encourage excellence
in others, and allow others to keep the benefits and earnings of rightful
effort. Their predominant emotions are anger and passionate, possessive
love. They often show intense ambivalence. They have a high degree of
practical intelligence and mechanical ability. They show organizational
abilities and strong group identifications. They show inability to be
restful. They value power, are autocratic, need rigid external moral control,
have moral conflicts, and so on. They are ready to die to defend their
honour or the group. They believe in self-effort and freedom of the will
(internal locus of control). They are usually struggling all the time
and have mental conflicts. They are sadistic or extra-punitive; they have
good anticipation and awareness of material things. The two sub-types
of A are the physically aggressive type (manifested often as interest
in sports or war) and the hyperintellectual type (showing interest in
science and technology). The A type person has more awareness (of physical,
practical things) than the pure I type person but less than the pure S
type. His mind has more integration than the I type. However, he also
experiences some dissociative tendencies like often losing temper or getting
into mood swings altering the mode of functioning; but he will have at
least some awareness or memory of his experiences when he changes the
mode of functioning.
3. S: Stability Stability
is characterized by high self-awareness, sensitivity, freedom, flexibility
and control. Stability is stress tolerance and freedom from fear and maladjustment
tendencies. People having a high degree of S are present centred, egoless
and non-conventional.
Persons having a high
degree of S can be fast or slow, can work or rest as they choose or as
the situation demands. They can be very sociable or be alone with equal
ease. They can assert if they want to. They show meta-motivation and are
capable of detached action. They are wise, mature and intuitive. They
are creative, self-actualizing, holistic, balanced, even-tempered and
dispassionate. They are capable of the deepest (at the same time detached)
emotion and their predominant emotion is altruistic love or compassion.
They are relaxed, peaceful, self-sufficient, democratic, fair, unselfish,
tolerant, altruistic, transcending, and broad-minded. They have a natural
moral sense based on mature love. Their autonomy operates within their
awareness of inherent morality. They believe in the value of self-effort,
which results from will which in turn is regarded as part of the predetermined
chain of events in nature. They are impunitive.
The two sub-types are
artistic and philosophical. The pure S type person has a very well integrated
personality. He may be able to function differently in different situations,
but with full control, awareness and memory. From the holistic point of
view, cognitive (intellectual), affective (emotional) and volitional (will)
capacities are mutually dependent and a Stable person has all these potentialities
though for the actual skills (ex. mechanical ability or musical talent)
he has to depend on specific ancestral experiences as well as practical
training. Usually high S persons find more satisfaction in actualizing
their artistic or philosophical potentialities than in exercising practical
skills in dealing with material things.
Formation and dissolution
of mind
The mind is formed
as result of the formation of the three qualities I, A and S. Gradual
dissolution of the three qualities through personality change results
in pure consciousness. The Poorna Chakra (Fig.1) gives a model of the
formation and dissolution of mind including both the materialization phase
and the spiritualisation phase.
Figure 1. Poorna Chakra
Pure
consciousness or the pure field (Picture 0) is the absolute state and
it forms the basis of all relative experience. Therefore it is given at
the centre also. The pure field is also the field of all possibilities.
Accessing the pure field makes paranormal intervention possible. Individual
consciousness (ego) or experience of the separate limited self (P. 1)
is a superimposition on the pure field. The first quality to be formed
is Inertia (I) (P. 2). The second quality to be formed is Activation (A)
(P. 3). The position of a person on each of these two can be marked on
the two axes. Stability (S) is the central point and this can be obtained
by subtraction of the other two from a constant.
Experiencing a set of
characteristics of personality and identification with it, attachment
to it and involvement with it produce feelings of limitation which induce
fear of death as well as compensatory desire for unlimitedness (P. 4).
Desire leads to dynamic effort and action (P. 5). Material aggrandisements
only increase the desire and consequent struggle, making the person all
the more restless and confused (P. 6). Finally the person reaches the
point of rebirth or conversion from materialism to spiritualism (P. 7).
The Materialism—Spiritualism Scale (Mathew, 1980) can be used to measure
a person’s materialistic vs. spiritualistic orientation. The momentum
of materialistic desire and action cannot be nullified all on a sudden,
but its direction gets reversed, the person directing his activation into
spiritual quest (P. 8). Spiritual pursuits gradually reduce the confusion
and the person gets some insight into his personality and condition (P.
9). Further personal growth leads to cessation of compulsive spiritual
activities, but spiritual desires remain (P. 10). With further evolution,
even spiritual desires disappear and the person becomes aware of his root
personality (P. 11). Then he gradually loses A or the aggressive component
of his personality (P. 12). This is frequently referred to as the aesthetic
state. At last, with more spiritual awareness, he loses the I component
also, but retaining the feeling of a separate limited self (P. 13). Further
purification of awareness leads him back to the pure field (P. 0).
The aesthetic state
of consciousness is associated with nullification of Activation (aggressiveness,
masculinity). This is the reason why the aesthetic disposition is often
accompanied by femininity, sex-role interchangeability, androgyny, unisex
temperament, and the like. This may also, under some situations create
sex-role confusion or lead to maladjustment or homosexuality. Absence
of rigidity or dogmatism and the experiential orientation also make people
with a moderate degree of S vulnerable to addictions (like alcoholism)
which suppress the brain and deautomatise providing temporary release
from instinctuality. These drugs in the long run damage the system. People
with a very high degree of S do not need these drugs for achieving transcendence.
Beauty is close to truth
because the aesthetic state comes close to pure consciousness, the absolute
basis for all relative experience. Art also becomes a channel for the
release of surplus energies resulting from unfinished sequences in a person
who has partially transcended instincts and instinctual sequences. The
aesthetic experience is also associated with the experience of increase
of integration resulting from ego dissolution. Perceptions which reduce
fear and increase security (now or in ancestral experience) and therefore
make for real or symbolic integration or change towards purity of consciousness
produce aesthetic feelings.
The ego
Identification with
the limited self activates the self-processes of self-importance, self-value
and self-centredness. All mental processes (like sensation, perception
and memory) operate through this exaggerated picture of self (often called
the ego). The ego identifies with the body at the conscious level; but
the identification extends to all the subtle levels. All notion of external
value derives from the basic self-value. Reality is experienced only when
this personal equation is nullified through the dissolution of the ego.
Figure 2 illustrates the different planes.
Figure 2. Self-processes across different planes
S
is basically harmony across the different planes. I & A represent
two types of disharmony. An individual is an apparent continuous projection
across all the planes. Any disharmony increases rigidification. S increases
flexibility of the point of operation across the planes. When a person
is fully harmonized he can consciously and voluntarily shift the point
of operation to any desired plane. Separate individuality increases as
we proceed from pure consciousness towards the physical plane. Reharmonisation
involves getting harmonized with the group mind, species consciousness,
etc., step by step.
Group mind or collective
consciousness
We appear to possess
totally separate and independent bodies at the physical level. Our minds
certainly overlap and as we move from the physical to the subtler layers
of our being, our subtler bodies overlap more and more and when we reach
the level of pure consciousness there is unity. Consciousness is always
singular and there is only one consciousness and only one ultimate will.
The overlapping nature of subtler parts of mind makes it justifiable to
speak of a group mind. The group mind influences all individual minds,
and changes in one mind in turn influences group mind also. A marked profound
change in the mind of one member of a species can change an entire species
and the course of its evolution. Therefore the sacrifice of Jesus or the
bringing down of the supramental by Sri Aurobindo can be regarded as attempts
to alter group mind by altering an individual mind.
Personal growth
Personal growth is
the holistic and humanistic approach to personality development. Personal
growth implies change from I or A to S. Contrary to some popular suppositions,
the position taken here is that S is not the mid-point between I and A;
it is transcendence of both. Also it is not necessary to go from I to
A to go to S; it is possible to move from I to S directly. Many popular
personality development programs like assertive training have exercises
which seem to see A as the ideal position. Here I and A are seen as two
deviations from the ideal state of S.
Contrary to popular
supposition, I is not inferior to A. High I people have simple minds and
they do not have as much egoistic rigidity as the high A people (especially
of the hyperintellectual type of A). The dissociability of high I people
itself is a kind of flexibility. I people often have more artistic talents
(particularly capacity to imitate) than A people, though the artistic
nature of I people is very plain and not as spiritual as those of high
S people. High I people are generally happy and contented so long as they
do not have any immediate threat as their fears are kept in check by superstitious
beliefs and ceremonies, unlike high A people who are generally discontented
and restless. The main block for I people (to go to S) is lack of motivation
and absence of the concept. The main block of A people is wrong concept
of S as an egoistic achievement, overmotivation and inability to let go.
I is low integration because of dissociability and A is low integration
because of conflicts.
A diagrammatic representation
of personal growth involving change from I or A to S is given in Fig.3.
S involves high sensitivity and therefore some vulnerability to develop
I or A. SS is Super Stability (the Gunatheetha state) which is the same
as pure consciousness. SS may be regarded as absolute sensitivity at the
same time with absolute integration, stress tolerance, invulnerability
and transcendence. The zero point on S indicates maximum instability which
has to express itself as deviations in the direction of either I or A.
SS is the end-point of personal growth.
People with different
initial personalities should emphasize different practices to change their
personality. For example, a person with predominance of I, should take
the required physical exercise, need to develop autonomy by learning to
function independently of the group by moving away from the group periodically,
learn new languages to come out of cultural conditioning and practise
passive morality (honesty, dependability, etc.) to develop S. He may also
need externalized ceremonial forms of religion for control. A person with
high A should practice active morality (channellise his energies through
social service activities) and gradually replace religious practices like
ordinary prayer which partly reinforce insecurity, by the practice of
mindfulness. Counselling and psychotherapy have become very popular in
competitive A societies because of the need for social interaction to
convert competitiveness to cooperation through personal interaction for
growth. Meditation (direct increase of pure awareness) is the most important
practice for an S person to increase S. Progress from high S to SS very
often is by insight and not the result of any intentional, linear or effortful
process. Existential questions arise naturally in the mind of a high S
person leading to either gradual or sudden disappearance of self-processes.
A high S person, as a result of the high degree of self-sufficiency, also
reaches the “break off” point where he transcends the dependence on most
of the conditions for the maintenance and development of personality.
For example, he may be able to break off totally from society and live
in a cave, without losing any S.
Figure 3. Model of personal growth
Personal growth essentially
involves improving and purifying the vibrational quality of mind. Deliberately
digging up the past (e.g.. reliving traumatic experiences) is not only
unnecessary, but can even be harmful also. However, often there may be
spontaneous revival of forgotten incidents when one gains stability and
has the capacity to review them straight. Repression and dramatic revival
of forgotten memories, however, occurs only for people with too much I
in their root personality. Similarly deliberate cathartic exercises also
can be harmful as they may strengthen the wrong kind of emotions. Spontaneous
catharsis may occur when the personality changes as result of more acceptable
naturalistic practices like cultivation of awareness.
The integral approach
to personal growth
The quality of mind
(in terms of the constituents I, A and S) are influenced by a large number
of factors which can be classed into physical factors (closeness to nature,
climate, food, exercise), social factors (population density, closeness
to man’s natural social environment, etc.), and psychological factors
(degree of right company of right type of people, right type of social
interaction, degree of availability of right extent of privacy, etc.).
In fact any condition, influence or response makes for a change in personality
in terms of I and A, or S. The integral yoga of Sri Aurobindo can be regarded
as a holistic attempt at personal growth. Yoga involves a world view,
a way of life, a style of life and an integral attempt to improve all
aspects of one’s life and environment. This involves identifying those
aspects needing more attention and more emphasis at any point of time
at a given level of growth. Reduction of I and A leads to –increased S
which is greater awareness and this awareness is awareness of one’s total
self (pure consciousness) and its transformation across all the different
planes. The Sreechakra (traditional diagram) is a model of this awareness.
Figure 4. Sree chakra
The dot at the centre
signifies pure consciousness. The diagram also brings out the holistic
interconnected nature of personality or transformation across various
planes as we move from the innermost point of pure consciousness to the
outermost physical plane.
References
Mathew, V. George
(1995). IAS Rating Scale. Department of Psychology, University of Kerala.
Mathew, V. George
(1997). Integrative
Psychology. Department of
Psychology, University of Kerala.
Mathew, V. George
(2001). “Mind in Integrative Psychology”. In V.M.D. Namboodiri (Ed.), Perspective on Mind.
Gyan Publishing House, New Delhi.