PSYCHIC EDUCATION: A WORKBOOK
Jan and I have been working for quite some time on presenting a view of the workings of the brain and nervous system that is consistent with Mother and Sri Aurobindo’s integral yoga psychology. I’m writing about this here on this blog because I think between on the one hand, the new insights on neuroscience and practical psychology, and on the other, the best of Indian psychology, particularly integral yoga psychology, I think we now have an ideal bridge between the predominantly materialistic science of today and the ‘new”, “greater” science which Sri Aurobindo predicted almost a century ago.
I plan to explore in some detail, a wonderful book by educator Neeltje Huppes, “Psychic Education: A Workbook”. It is one of the clearest, simplest outlines of integral yoga psychology (or “IYP”) available. And not only does she give a clear summary of IYP, she provides wonderful, practical exercises to implement yogic psychology in our daily lives. Developed over a series of years with Dr. Matthijs Cornelissen (largely at the Mirambika school in Northern India), it has been used mostly with young children and teenagers. But as someone who has “practiced’ (or tried to practice!) yogic disciplines for approximately 4 decades, I still find many of the exercises – even beginning ones – quite useful.
I’ll start with an overview of the book, and then I will start commenting in detail on chapter 2, “Self-Observation.” I like particularly that the opening chapters are quite explicit about the need to deal with the surface nature, and to make efforts in “purification” of the mind, heart, instincts and body (or as IYP refers to them, the mental, vital and physical consciousness). There seem to be 2 distinct problematic trends in contemporary spirituality (at least, in Europe and the Americas; I don’t know how much this applies to Asia, though from Asians I’ve met in America, it sounds like it’s becoming very similar, unfortunately).
On the one hand, the followers of Eckhart Tolle and others interested in what has come to be called “non-duality” reject personal effort, since, as there is no “doer” – it is only an illusion – “who” is there who can make any effort?
At the other extreme, there are those more attraced to a “bhakti” approach, who – in a very interesting ironic twist – also reject effort, since the Divine is so vastly superior to us, and our minds are completely useless when it comes to spiritual practice, what use is our effort?
I think that both of these attitudes are actually rooted in Protestant theology (or pseudo-theology) related to a dualistic vision of the world that emerged after the Renaissance, and in particular has been fostered by the ever-increasing split between religion and science (mirroring an inner split between left-hemisphere and right-hemisphere – or “left mode” and “right mode” – feeling/thought that is tearing apart global civilization. But that is material for another past, and now with much relief, I’ll return to Neeltje’s book.
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Neeltje explains in the introduction that the book is really 2 books in one. The first 10 chapters are a ‘workbook” for finding the psychic being – the true soul, what in ancient Indian literature was referred to as the “chaitya Purusha” – and integrating our mind, heart, instincts and body around that “soul center.” The latter half of the book is aimed more directly at educators, those who seek to make education what it was in the ancient world, a drawing out (“educare”) of the latent knowledge of the soul that we all possess but so rarely use.
In the first chapter, titled “The Great Discovery”, Neeltje, in inspired, simple and at times beautiful language, invites us to understand the soul in the context of evolution.
The following is an excerpt from the first chapter:
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The Great Discovery
The first work to be done is to have a closer look at ourselves. We live day in and day out, but how well do we know who we are? Does this seem to be a strange question to you? Probably yes, at least if you define yourself only by the body you live in, the relation- ships you have, the work you do. But what is meant here is your real, inner self—your psychic being, the divine in you. We talked about “the ignorance” in the previous chapter. It is due to this igno- rance in our surface awareness that the psychic is hidden from us. So it takes effort to become really aware of the psychic being, it takes effort to regularly look for it inside ourselves, it takes effort to live within constantly. This chapter is written to help you decide if you really want to start this effort of preparing yourself for the psychic discovery .
“Is it then really so important to go in search of my psychic?” you may ask. Here is, in short, a description of the different parts of our being. It may help you to look at yourself with more clarity.
There are three main parts: each human being has an outer nature, an inner nature and an innermost core. The outer nature is made up of the physical, the vital and the mental nature. It is everything in you that is visible on the surface for others. Through your outer nature you deal with your surroundings. All that you see, hear, taste, smell, touch comes to you through the outer na- ture. All your actions, your interactions and communications with others belong to it. Reading this book, cooking a nice dish, hav- ing a good conversation with a few friends, it all belongs to, is done by your outer nature.
Next comes the inner nature. It is everything in you that is going on behind the scene, that is not visible to others and often not even to yourself. Here also there are three main parts. There is an inner mental, inner vital and inner physical. For example, a noble character typically comes from special qualities in the in- ner vital. Some people are afraid of dogs, others love them. The outer vital being notices and expresses the fear or love for dogs, but this fear has its origin in the inner nature; you do not exactly know why it is so that you love or fear them.
Lastly, there is our core, our central being. This has two main parts: the Self and the soul. The Self, also called Atman, is im- mortal and remains the same through all our lives. You can con- tact it just above the head. Then there is the psychic which you can find behind the heart. The Mother mentions in one of her Playground talks that each human being is unique and that each one has a role to fulfil. The uniqueness is in our psychic being and it can express itself in the world through some special quali- ties of our inner and outer nature. These qualities may change or may be perfected from birth to birth, but our essence remains always the same.
The psychic is often called the soul; it is your divine centre. The psychic is constantly in touch with the Divine. It is the por- tion in you that remains permanent and comes down again and again in a human body. From life to life the psychic can grow from a small presence behind the veil into a fully developed psy- chic being. You can help it grow. It does so every time you put in the effort to allow it to develop and manifest itself. This effort has many facets but we can give it the common name “self-prepa- ration”.
The psychic being
Because this book is about psychic education here follows a more detailed description of the psychic being. Each one of us has at the centre of our being a spark of the Divine Consciousness; this is what is called the soul. This core is permanent, it generally enters the body at birth. After it has entered the body it gathers around itself elements for the development of a psychic conscious- ness. In this way, slowly, around the soul, grows a psychic pres- ence. This presence is the beginning of a psychic individuality. Over many lives this psychic presence can grow into a psychic being. There comes a moment when the psychic being is so well formed that it expresses an individual and independent Divine Consciousness. Thus each psychic being is unique and expresses a unique part of the individual Divine. Another way to put this is to say, that the psychic being is the part in you that expresses the Divine Truth in a unique way.
The role of the psychic being is to support the evolution or the unveiling of the Divine Consciousness on earth, so that one day there will be a Divine Life possible right here on earth. The psychic being is the link between your outer nature, (mind, vital and physical) and your highest Self or Atman. The psychic as- pires that the inner and outer nature may open themselves to the Divine so that they can express the divine will here on earth. The outer nature which is full of ignorance has to be prepared for this, and this process is called purification. Sri Aurobindo in his letters to sadhaks and The Mother in her Playground Talks have often spoken about purification. You will read more about it in the two chapters about Purification .
The psychic aspires to feel the presence and power of the Di- vine within the heart, it really wills that your whole being be- comes one with the Divine. It aspires for contact with the higher consciousness so that this may penetrate your outer and inner nature. This process is called unification, and this is discussed in the chapter called Unification .
Then there is what Sri Aurobindo calls the transformation of your mind, life and body. This individual psychic being is able to make a beginning with the transformation of your outer mental, outer vital and outer physical nature into divine mental, divine vital and divine physical nature. This divine nature will become an instrument for expression in the world. The full transforma- tion can happen only after the psychic being is fully developed.
NEXT: some comments on the above passages, with some details from current neuroscientific discoveries about consciousness in evolution.
Hi this is another participant at Indian psychology workshop..and an psychology professor as well….i wholly solely agree with the “initiation of a revised system of education” where large amount of work needs to be done to fill the void or the drift between the “western school of thought and eastern psychology”…..one is entirely “quantitative and just believes in objective/scientific methodology” whereas thn comes the complete “reliever” and “stress-buster” with more humane and life-fulfilling qualitative approach.
But i also know that we just can’t revolutionise the change—-there has to be a middle-way to take both of them hand-in-hand and work out an more evolving and resolving study of “the being”. I m all ears to the successful developments on “how this divine or psychic learning ” can be made part of the mainstream classroom learning in colleges and universities.
Best regards
Aman
Hi professor Gill:
I’m sorry I couldn’t get back to you sooner. And I should add I’m sorry I won’t likely be answering in a very detailed manner, but I’ll offer a few thoughts:
I’ve followed the work of the Indian Psychology Institute for some years, but I’m afraid I don’t have much familiarity with psychology departments in Indian Universities, so I don’t know how much what I have to say is relevant to them. I’m mainly addressing the changes I’ve seen over 30 years in US psych depts.
PHILOSOPHY: in the last few years, the American Psychological Association has published some excellent material on non-materialist foundations for psychology – a book, “transcendent mind,” by Imants Baruss, and just last month – sorry I don’t have the title here – a journal publication that was quite positive regarding parapsychology. Ed Kelly’s group in Charlottesville, VA is doing fabulous work, including his two books “Irreducible Mind” and “Beyond Physicalism” (there are very good reviews on Amazon of both). There are 14 psychologists, physicists and philosophers in Ed’s group, and Michael Murphy, of Esalen, who sponsors their work, has written “Evolutionary Panentheism” to describe their overall philosophy. Neil Theise and Menas Kafatos have put together a paper, “Fundamental Awareness,” which may be the best of all. All of these are absolutely necessary intellectually to provide a new foundation for psychology.
PRACTICAL: way over at the other end, closer to what Neeljte is writing about, is the global mindfulness movement. the “Mindfulness in Education Network” would be a fantastic forum for you to join. Teachers from kindergarten to graduate school from all over the world (including many mental health workers) are members (there’s over 1000 members) and they provide VERY good resources. There’s a fellow in Israel, for example, who writes on creating a whole cognitive transformational program related to mindfulness. Much much more as well. To hear about what’s happening in schools around the world, it may be the single best resource.
Well, that’s enough to keep you going for some months. I would say there’s a lot of stuff these days pretty far beyond what Neeltje has written about, so what’s going on already is quite amazing. If you want something specifically contemplative, by the way, you might also look into Arthur Zajonc’ work.
Keep us posted here on how your investigations go.
Actually I quit my job as a researcher at university and am going to work as a physics and math teacher in a high school from September on. My long term aim is a new university based on a completely different education paradigm which in essence is what Mother had in mind, but since this seems to be still somewhat hard to swallow also among most advanced pedagogues it looks like that the road to it will need several intermediate steps. In fact, the missing link between present new primary and secondary level schools based on new educational paradigms and a future academy for adults based on similar concepts, are high schools which are truly free and “liberated” learning centers. I have nothing against mindfulness in educational settings, contemplative inquiry and spiritual practice, quite the contrary (for example would like to apply contemplative observation and Zajonc’s experience with Goethes color theory in physics teaching): in some sense these are in fact the final aim. Unfortunately however, I’m afraid that bringing these things within the given institutions will not lead us far enough. After a long experience in these settings, I reached the conclusion that things should go also the other way around. Conventional educational settings are a hurdle in itself and need also to be restructured in order to accomodate spiritual practices. The first step must be that of building a place that allows full time freedom for personal growth. And I would like to see spiritual practices to be extended in the professions **AS** a research and working paradigm, not just as an added chunk of practice in the established classrooms or working places, and this is an environment that actually does not exists (I know this is the most difficult aspect to explain…). And to do that a “liberated” context is needed. From the secular point of view the concept which nears most this vision are the Summerville, Sudbury-Valley-Schhols (SVS) or more broadly so called “democratic schools” (even though I don’t like the word ‘democratic’). Without this context, which (not coincidentally) I like to call “free progress education”, I’m skeptic ordinary education will go much beyond the conventional paradigm towards a spiritual approach. But so far this SVS approach is implemented only at the primary and secondary school. The missing link between these and college education are the existence of “democratic high schools” (there seems to be only one exception in Denmark, perhaps). I consider my new professional phase as a teacher in high school as an introduction ‘to learn the ropes’, hopefully finding some freedom to exercise new teaching/learning approaches, with the aim to open one day such a democratic high school, which then could serve as a springboard towards a free progress university. Another possibility which is insistently knocking at the doors of my mind (perhaps the first signs of OCD…), is a university on conflict resolution. I’m in touch with some people who would like to open a campus in this sense with quite similar ideas on education and who are spiritually inclined, and can’t refrain to think at Mother’s original idea of the University for Human Unity. Stay tuned…. 😉
I’ve been so caught up in my current website (www.remember-to-breathe.org) – which is focused mostly on bringing mindfulness, heartfulness and related information about the brain to mainstream folks, institutions, etc, that I’ve let go a bit of my “revolutionary” self:>))
Reading your letter is balm to my soul. I first got the bug to completely turn inside out and upside down the whole educational world in – 8th grade – for real. George Leonard was editor of Look magazine at the time, and featured an entire issue on education called ‘Education and Ecstasy.” It was a bit “of the times” (1960s) but it lit a fire in me that’s never gone out. I almost went into music education and music therapy while working as a musician, and later as a psychologist my interest (at least, in the clinical or applied field) was always much more about education than “therapy”.
It’s such a delight to be reminded of how far we need to go and just how radical a change a truly spiritual education could be. Thank you.
Marco – these are great questions. Can you say more about the situation you’re working in? There’s lots of resources, and you might not believe how many thousands of people around the world are asking the same questions. I just put out a brief comment on the “Mindfulness in Education Network”, asking how people were applying these things (Mindful, heartful attention and many related practices I think you’d find very helpful in your teaching) in spite of heavy curriculum requirements.
Within 2 days, I got answers from people full of enthusiasm, working in various parts of India, Japan, China (mainland as well as Taiwan), South America and Africa. I’d strongly recommend joining.
You might also look up “Contemplative Mind in Society”, and in particular Arthur Zajonc, a physicist who has devoted a lot of time to what he calls “contemplative inquiry.” I heard back in the 90s that the dean of students at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, put out a call to every teacher at the school to try to make “spirituality” a core aspect of all classes – I don’t know how they’re doing but I think just the fact that there’s such a strong interest suggests a major shift happening.
I know Larry Dossey said a survey in the 1990s showed 2/3 of medical schools in the US had some class on spirituality and medicine. I imagine – particular with growing interest in “spiritual but not religious” perspectives among younger people, it may be a much stronger thing nowadays.
But do tell me a bit more about what kind of situation you’re teaching in. I’d be very curious to hear.
Hi Don, yes it looks interesting. I hope the book will go also in the more practical aspects. Actually I’m going to work as a teacher. Of course there is some freedom for instructors to chose their own pedagogical and didactical approach in the classroom, and I will try to do work in the direction of a psychic education. But there are state laws which force everyone, i.e. students and teachers, to follow the official (quite strict and heavy) curriculum and that nobody can escape from. The result is that there is not much time and space left for an opening towards other dimensions. How do we apply psychic education in schools and beyond it, in higher education and on the working place? What kind of educational environment, context and structure could favour psychic education? These are the central questions which our society must urgently find an answer for. Marco