Before I get into how the stages work in real life I'd like to share a little about states of consciousness. Then I'll link both together and look at how all this effects our interpretation and experience of Jesus.
When I was a youth leader in El Paso (Hi Val!) we took our college age kids to a WorshipTogether Conference. On the last morning David Crowder was to lead about 30 minutes of worship and then we would go to some classes. The place was filled with a couple of thousand worship leaders ready to enter in to the "heavenly realm". At the end of the worship set Crowder's band began to drop out one by one and then with only Crowder left onstage he slowly and quietly left the stage. This huge place was completely silent. Not just for a minute, but for many minutes, and then someone in the audience began to sing a hymn and the couple thousand people joined in. The conference leaders began to look at each other, and then someone began to sing another hymn. Then everyone erupted in applause to the Creator. It was exactly 9:00am and time to go to class. We found out after the fact that the leaders were worried the spontaneous singing would go on forever with a couple thousand worship leaders in the house. But it ended just when it should of....as if God had orchestrated the whole thing.
I had an extremely intense experience during this worship time. I had no idea that David Crowder and his band had walked off the stage. My eyes were closed and I was experiencing an intense inner state of consciousness. My whole self seemed filled with light. There was abundance of overflowing peace and joy. Tears were flowing down my cheeks. I felt "undone". I had experienced similar things before, usually during worship times, in fact I think the goal of worship really was trying to provide a context for helping others reach this state. Bottom line. I had a very deep, intense "spiritual" experience with very little context with which to understand it. So, I went on living life as I normally did at the time. IMO, it just is not something that fundamentalist Christianity values (and a few denominations seem to give lip service, but no practical teaching).
When I started reading about Buddhism and stumbled across Integral Theory I had very little exposure to anything regarding States of Consciousness. In fact, as a fundamentalist Christian it was strongly encouraged not to do things like meditate, which could open you to the "influences of the devil". Eventually, I did begin to experiment with Lectio Divina and contemplative prayer, but there was no "we" to support it. Let's just say it would be a stretch to say these were common practices in my strain of Christianity.
Wilber, using his experience with deep meditative states and knowledge of Buddhism claims there are three natural states of consciousness EVERY human experiences (yes, even fundamentalist Christians): waking, dreaming and deep formless sleep. I had never given these three states much thought in my Christian experience. They were just part of life and taken for granted.
There are five meditative/contemplative states: gross, subtle witnessing, causal and non-dual. Here are some general definitions.
Gross/Waking States - what I experience riding a bike, writing or reading this post, exercising etc.
Subtle/Dream States - such as I might experience in a vivid dream, daydream or visualization exercise, as well as in certain types of meditation.
Causal/Formless States - such as deep, dreamless sleep and types of formless meditation and experiences of vast openness or emptiness.
Witnessing States - which is a capacity to witness all other states; for unbroken attention in the waking states and capacity for lucid dreams.
Non-dualism - ever-present awareness which is not so much a state as an ever-present ground of all states (and can be experienced as such).
If you are a conservative Christian, you might be thinking I've gone off the deep end, and you might be right, but that's another story. The fact is that Christian mystics have explored these states too. Here are some examples: St. Teresa's Interior Castles, the cartographies of St. John of the cross, the Early Church Fathers such as St. Gregory of Nyssa, Origen, and St. Dionysius.
In fact, check out St. Dionysius whose "way of purification, way of illumination, and way of unification" is as short and succinct a summary as you will find: purify the body via discipline and still the gross mind via concentration; find subtle interior illumination; surrender even illumination in a prayer of quietude and divine ignorance; thereby the soul and God find union in Godhead, on with the radiant All. However, if you are open to what other religions have to say, Buddhism has a rich 2000 year history in exploring these states of consciousness.
Some interesting points about these states:
- Natural states do not show development. Meditative/Contemplative states can be trained and do show devlopment.
- I can have peak experiences of states. In other words, I can get a peak into the next higher state without having permanant access to it, which may explain my experience above. Please note that I CANNOT skip stages or have peak experiences in stages, only states.
- These states are available at any stage. This is perhaps one of the most interesting point because each experienced state will be interpreted according the stage one is functioning in.
7 comments:
Real brief comments here. I agree (based on my limited understanding) that these states can be developed/trained. I'd go so far to say that they only develop through concentrated effort and discipline--hopefully under the guidance of a mentor/director/rabbi/guru.
But I think caution should be used in regard to 'peak experiences'. Much of the abuse in "charismania" (excesses/abuses in the Charismatic movement) come from people turning into peak experience junkies. A stable spiritual director would be very important in keeping the disciple from to much desire of the peaks.
I've only really experimented with Benedictine spirituality which is (IMO) well-rounded. The scrubbing of the floor and the exuberant singing of psalms of praise are of equal value in their own contexts. It is pretty common to go to a group-think experience (like a worship conference or a real estate workshop or a demo of the latest kitchen gadget) and be swept into a peak experience. But that isn't real.
"It is pretty common to go to a group-think experience (like a worship conference or a real estate workshop or a demo of the latest kitchen gadget) and be swept into a peak experience. But that isn't real."
I would have to disagree. The experience is very real, just not permanent. However, if the states can be cultivated, it might be able to be accessed/experienced permanently.
To be honest Bob, I personally have walked through a lot of these things alone. Now that we have verbage to put to what we've experienced, it makes it easier to describe to others. I would only now want a mentor etc.. Now that I have walked through fire alone, I'd like a little clearer direction... Walking through fire has to come first. This is of course Trishopinion!
Roger,
You're right. The experience is real. Just as real as the high one gets from drugs. But a high isn't what one should be seeking, is it? That's what I mean by not real.
Trish,
But I think you have had a mentor already...take a quick survey of the voices that have been speaking into your lives over the past years--living or dead; those have been your mentors.
Bob,
There is a difference between an exogenous and endogenous state. I think you are misunderstanding if you view it as getting "high". Waking, dreaming and deep sleep are natural states and the meditative states are gross, subtle and causal they have nothing to do with drugs.
Quite to the contrary, if these are natural states we should seek to develop them, that is the whole point.
I see my analogy is lost on you.
Good luck in your pursuit of nirvana.
Wow Bob, I don't know what to say....apparently we are speaking different languages. Peace.
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