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243-254, 1997
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TRANSPERSONAL
ARTS PSYCHOTHERAPY:
TOWARD AN ECUMENICAL
WORLD VIEW
The Transpersonal
Perspective
Transpersonally
speaking,
dysfunction
occurs
when individuals believe that all that exists is what is
empirically present. If I cant see it; it doesnt exist. Science has attempted to amend this assumption
by asserting that phenomena do exist by virtue of the
effect they have upon the observable, such as found in
subatomic particle research. However, most Westemers believe that a transpersonal view is a matter of
faith rather than anything that has scientific or experiential substantiation. Many transpersonal therapists
believe that this inability to experience the transpersonal in the West, or for that matter in any culture,
would inhibit ones capacity to unfold ones own
spiritual essence, karmic or soul path or to move beyond a self focus. Thus, techniques of active imagination through visualization, ritual, the use of the arts,
spiritual quests and awareness trainings as well as
Eastern meditational practices are encouraged in order
to avail individuals
numinous
experiences
of the
transpersonal. Such states as mystical or transcendental experiences,
satori or St. Francis-like
ecstatic
states are supported by many approaches as they serve
to awaken the person to greater consciousness or enlightenment. These states all have similar characteristics (Barber, 1976); among them are: an experience of unity, . . . a feeling of identifying with all
things, . . the experience of timelessness and spacelessness,
. . a sense of having been in touch with
ultimate reality . . . an experience of grace, joy and
peace, . . a feeling of the divine, and an inability to
put the experience into words (pp. 415417).
Faculty at Antioch-New
243
England Graduate
PENNY LEWIS
244
Many of the other traditional approaches in psychotherapy find the above altered states examples of
dissociative or psychotic episodes or, at best, reductively interpret them. I recall some fifteen years ago
having a casual conversation with a Freudian analyst.
I had mentioned that I was going to New York to train
as a Jungian Analyst. Why bother with that, he
There are many fine psychoanalytic
responded,
training programs here in Boston. Why dont you stay
here and go to one of them? Ill tell you why by
way of a question, I began. Some years ago I went
to a two-week long meditation retreat. One night toward the end I awoke and sat up in bed. I opened my
eyes and all I experienced was total white lightEverything, including myself, was part of this energy.
The experience was timeless, but when I returned to
this reality I felt profoundly moved, at peace and no
longer feared death. What do you make of that? I
asked this psychiatrist. Oh, he responded matter of
factly, You were probably longing for the breast. I
quickly said, . . . and that is why I am in training as
a Jungian Analyst.
History of Transpersonal
Psychotherapy
TRANSPERSONAL
ARTS PSYCHOTHERAPY
Approaches
to Psychotherapy
The first wave of the human potential movement of the sixties and seventies gave way to the
second wave of new age in the eighties and nineties. The belief in Buddhist and Hindu systems in the
first wave supported such approaches as mindfulness
and past life regression and therapy. Additionally,
shamanic practices from a variety of native cultures
around the world have rekindled spiritual channeling,
soul retrieval and active imagination
techniques,
which, like those of psychosynthesis,
draw the individual into contact with sentient beings.
Those who adhere to the existence of past lives
believe that individuals may at times need to heal
from abuse either they or others committed in former
lifetimes, thus expanding individuals consciousness
and clearing their karma. Utilizing much of the same
techniques that are employed in todays recovery
models (Lewis, 1993, 1996), therapists support individuals deeper discovery of the etiology of survival
patterns and the repeated re-experiencing of the same
karmic lessons. This healing is often at a soul level
and must always be respectful of the fact that karmic
clearing has its own time frame.
Shamanism, explored in a special issue of The Arts
in Psychotherapy journal (Vol. 15, No. 4), views individuals as capable of existing both in ordinary and
in non-ordinary states of reality. Vital for well-being
is the maintenance of ones personal power (Hamer,
1982). Individuals with diminished power are seen as
dis-spirited
and often experience harmful intrusions that can energetically reduce the individuals
life force (Eastern traditions refer to this as chi, ki, and
kundalini, and Western science as electromagnetic energy). Individuals are encouraged to employ active
imagination to enter into shamanic states of consciousness and channel power animals or more hu-
246
PENNY LEWIS
Frame
A man returned to therapy with me after a diagnosis of cancer was made with a removal of a metastasized tumor. With chemotherapy about to begin and
the possibility
of his own mortality facing him,
he wanted to understand more deeply what his path
was. Although raised as a Protestant, he reported having had very little interest in anything religious or
spiritual.
For several sessions synchronistic
phenomena
would occur during his therapy hour in the form of
animal appearances never before seen out my office
window. In his second session, two seals appeared at
rivers edge in front of us. Within a shamanic frame,
the unusual appearance of animals may suggest that
the individual may need to receive information from
those creatures who are in a deeper connection with
the nature of things on how to unfold ones own nature. With this perspective in mind, I suggested he
enter into the imaginal realm with the seals and dialogue with them. Be harmonious with nature, and
joy and pleasure will be yours, was their response.
In the next hour, he looked up to find a magnificent
8-point stag who appeared in the meadow out front
and stayed for his hour only. I knew from my research
that the stag is one of the major power animals of
shamans and is a symbol of Christ (Lewis, 1993).
TRANSPERSONAL
ARTS PSYCHOTHERAPY
247
Frame
PENNY LEWIS
248
Frame
The following example required a greater willingness to expand and join with anothers religious/
spiritual view than any other client I have had. For
three years I had to push and expand my beliefs and
face my fears regarding what were for me highly unusual circumstances.
I had heard of my next client
prior to her beginning recovery work with me. She
was a well-known highly respected medium and psy-
TRANSPERSONAL
ARTS PSYCHOTHERAPY
249
I
I
250
PENNY LEWIS
survival mechanism
TRANSPERSONAL
ARTS PSYCHOTHERAPY
and, tell God how I THE ADULT
came not to be afraid
of our dark memories
that pop and pierce us
day and night
251
SOUL
camp.
to be known as
5). An excerpt
to the powerful
her.
252
PENNY LEWIS
Soul Child
TRANSPERSONAL
ARTS PSYCHOTHERAPY
Figure 6. The soul child brings past life self into the light.
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PENNY LEWIS
254