Part. 10.
For example, in the cognitive line, there is sensorimotor, preoperational,
concrete operational, formal operational, vision-logic, and so on.
Researchers are unanimous that none of those stages can be skipped, because
each incorporates its predecessor in its own makeup (in the same way that
cells contain molecules which contain atoms, and you cannot go from atoms to
cells and skip molecules).
As on page One there is a rapid shift away from familiar if unexplored
philosophical concepts to jargon.
The researchers cited are not named and no indication of their research is
given.
The relationship among concepts and terms given are those of Wilber's own
devising and therefore has little corroboration.
No true stages in any developmental line can be skipped, nor can higher
stages in that line be "peak experienced."
The term, 'Peak experience' is one of A. H. Maslow's.
Maslow was President of the American Psychological association from 1967 to
1968 and is highly regarded. However, Wilber, although using the term, 'Peak
experience' does not refer to him at all.
A person at preoperational cannot have a peak experience of formal
operational. A person at Kohlberg's moral-stage 1 cannot have a peak
experience of moral-stage 5. A person at Graves's animistic stage cannot have
a peak experience of the integrated stage, and so on. Not only are those
stages in some ways learned behaviors, they are incorporative, cumulative,
and enveloping, all of which preclude skipping.
But the three great states (of waking, dreaming, sleeping) represent general
realms of being and knowing that can be accessed at virtually any stage in
virtually any line--for the simple reason that individuals wake, dream, and
sleep, even in the prenatal period (Wilber, 1997a, 2000b). Thus, gross,
subtle, and causal states of consciousness are available at virtually any
structure/stage of development.
However, the ways in which these altered states will (and can) be experienced
depends predominantly on the structures (stages) of consciousness that have
developed in the individual (Wilber, 1983, 2000b). As we will see,
individuals at, for example, the magic, mythic, and rational stages can all
have a peak experience of a subtle realm, but how that subtle realm is
experienced and interpreted depends in large measure on the structures of
consciousness that are available to unpack the experience.
Rapid movement to jargon.
At one stage in this exposition it almost appears that Wilber is stating,
albeit in rather convoluted language, that waking, dreaming and sleep are
what people do.
(Technical point: the lower reaches of the subtle I call the "psychic"; and
the union of causal emptiness with all form I call "nondual." This gives us
the four major transpersonal states that I mentioned [psychic, subtle,
causal, and nondual]; but they are all variations on the normal states
available to virtually all individuals, which is why they are generally
available at almost any stage of development. See Integral Psychology [Wilber
, 2000b] for a full discussion of this theme.)
The reader is invited to read the Wilber corpus again.
It is implied that a reading of the corpus will relieve the reader from high
level exposition and reveal to him/her transpersonal states the availability
of which have been stated.
Evidence suggests that, under conditions generally of prolonged contemplative
practice, a person can convert these temporary states into permanent traits
or structures, which means that they have access to these great realms on a
more-or-less continuous and conscious basis (Shankara, 1970; Aurobindo, 1990;
Walsh, 1999). In the case of the subtle realm, for example, this means that a
person will generally begin to lucid dream (which is analogous to savikalpa
samadhi--or stable meditation on subtle forms) (LaBerge, 1985); and with
reference to the causal, when a person stably reaches that wave, he or she
will remain tacitly conscious even during deep dreamless sleep (a condition
known as permanent turiya, constant consciousness, subject permanence, or
unbroken witnessing, which is analogous to nirvikalpa samadhi, or stable
meditation as the formless) (Alexander and Langer, 1990). Pushing through
even that level, the causal formless finds union with the entire world of
form, a realization known as nondual (sahaja, turiyatita, bhava) (Alexander
and Langer, 1990; Wilber, 1999a).
Is the evidence suggested of a scientific, textual, or of a testimonial
nature?
Can the evidence suggested be verified by the author's own experience?
The boundary between knowing and unknowing is blurred.
Part. 11. follows.
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