Stanislav Grof and the Transpersonal Experience

Grof delineates a complex model with multiple categories in his attempt to map the variety of transpersonal experiences. He divides such experiences in three fundamental categories:

• experiential extension within consensus reality and space/time
• experiential extension beyond consensus reality and space/time
• transpersonal experiences of a psychoid nature

Within these he differentiates a vast array of experiences. Merging with the consciousness of a plant, rock, animal or the whole of creation. Perinatal experiences, pre-perinatal experiences (such as past life and ancestral recall), collective experiences. Psychic phenomena, archetypal experiences, extraterrestrial encounters, meeting with beings of light or guides. Paranormal kinds of psychic phenomena, ceremonial magic and energy healing. This are just a sample of the items considered in Grof's descriptive model.

His categories seem quite adequate, in fact there are few things I can think of that he has not covered and even these would still belong to one of the three main sub-groups. I am thinking here of experiences of merging with one's Soul, experiences of other dimensions, experiences of the multidimensionality of one's own individualized consciousness, for example. Even if these specific experiences are not mentioned here, they do still belong to the second main category. I observe also that I do not believe that Grof was claiming to have exhausted all possible experiences in his descriptions. I assume that the categories he describes are by nature open ended and that the items gathered in his categories seem to be of an illustrative nature rather than a definitive and complete list. Grof seems to be a very open minded individual, or at least this is the impression I have of him, and I cannot imagine him thinking he created a complete and closed descriptive system.

According to the model used here by Grof, I do not think there is much of a difference between transpersonal and spiritual experiences. His definition of transpersonal seems to include all what would be traditionally considered spiritual experiences. In general, the distinction between these two categories of experience - the transpersonal and the spiritual-depends completely, in my opinion, on what we define as transpersonal and what we define as spiritual. If by transpersonal we are considering the experiences that go beyond the personal, where a person becomes aware of their belonging to a greater whole i.e. a cell of the body of humanity, an atom of the living organism of Gaia, but still belonging to this space/time, then this particular experience belongs to Grof's first category and although an expanded experience, it is still horizontal in nature: it belongs to this plane of existence, to the experiences that are normally perceived on this plane. I would define then a spiritual experience as a vertical experience, where the veil of the five ordinary senses is pierced and a larger reality is revealed that is beyond this plane. A penetration of the higher planes and of the cosmic transcendent realities.

However, these distinctions can easily be overturned, if the definition of such terms is changed. In fact, my instinctive response is that there is no experience that is not spiritual, and although we often choose to distinguish events, experiences, people, things into spiritual/non-spiritual, there is no such distinction, as we live in a holographic reality of no separation in which each part contains the whole. There is no experience, no person, no object that is not a manifestation of Spirit. There is no separation. All is one. Even if the One is multifaceted and infinitely varied in its expression.


©2004 Katie Gallanti. All rights reserved. http://katiespapaers.blogspot.com. This article was an assignment for a class on Theories of Consciousness.