A summary of a great work by a great man. Note that it was published in 1983, and extensions of the ideas contained herein can be found in Wilber's later works, in particular Integral Spirituality (2006).
A brief tome for Wilber, in this book we see the author outline a heuristic framework for a popular sociological hobby of the time, comparative study of 'the new religions', offered from a transpersonal psychology perspective. We see a blending of perennial philosophy with functionalism, hermeneutics, and developmental structuralism in order to arrive at a set of methodologies that the author proposes can be used to test, and validate, the legitimacy and authenticity of the resurgent religious movements that have been a feature of approximately the last forty years.
In my brief one year of exploring Integral Theory, one notable aspect has been the focus on interiority of the subjective experience, and in unpacking the phenomenological hermeneutics of religion Wilber asks that if we are to approach empathic interpretation of the Buddha, Krishna or indeed any religious leader, we're required to achieve an inside understanding and interpretive, intersubjective engagement. We can acknowledge the historical context, the 'symbolic realism' we encounter, but any external judgment is deemed, always, to be partial. Cultural relativism falls completely away in this moment. Squarely against this the author sits the notion of a hierarchy of psychosocial development, and it is purported that, insofar that we see a development of consciousness that in every individual represents a growth in awareness from sensorimotor to pre-operational to operational to formal operational and post-formal operational, so too does religion as a social phenomenon follow a developmental path. Each higher stage is said to transcend and include the lower, and the developmental structures of the lower are always available to the higher but not vice versa (until transformation is reached).
Religion is purported to be a component of the 'food' encountered at each developmental level - so a 'magical' god in a pre-operational child is the 'food' of that consciousness (food = the symbolism as needed by the process of thinking undertaken by the organism at that point in time). We typically, as humans, move through a process of increasing recognition of differentiation (nope, God's not magical, and further, I'm not God, you're not God and us, we're not God either) but as we develop so too does our capacity to recognise a coherence, a oneness towards which all things vibrate.
Movement through deep structures is entitled 'transformation' (vertical), movement around different surface structures (different religions for example) is deemed 'translation' (horizontal), the relationship between the deep and the surface structure is 'transcription'.
Mana and taboo are key terms used to differentiate between horizontal and vertical structures, where Mana is the cohesive horizontal food of religion that keeps society together, legitimises the purpose of that particular group. Taboo provides the means of authentic spiritual growth, in deeming particular symbolisms as transcendent, spirituality is recognised with an increased valence for compassion and a decreased representation of violence, for example. Death-apprehension of the psyche, that fundamental terror, drives us towards life sustaining activity. Part of that requires the sustenance of a social group that protects 'our' needs. Great liberation only takes place when we are completely free of this organism sustained subject and object relationship, where we realise that we are the Godhead.
To transcend the levels of development, we need to construct a little 'death and rebirth' at each level. Whileever we retain conscious lives, we retain the use of all the internal structures we've collaborated on to date.
Religion is defined by the author as:
1. Non-rational engagement - faith as a type of magic-voodoo belief;
2. Extremely meaningful engagement - the mana of a horizontal level of constructed understanding of the world;
3. An immortality project - a death denial to assuage anxiety;
4. Evolutionary growth - increasing self-realisation in movement to higher structures of understanding;
5. Fixation/regression - an extension of 1. and 3.
6. Exoteric religion - a belief system to support faith, often in preparation for esoteric experience;
7. Esoteric religion - inward aspects of mystical experience;
8. Legitimate religion - validating translation, crises in legitimacy and degrees of legitimacy refer to the degree of integration of the religion with other, currently understood, symbols;
9. Authentic religion - validates transformation, again, crises and degrees of authenticity refer to actual transformative value as achieved/able.
Distinction is made between belief, faith and experience, where belief is chiefly a fund of immortality symbols that the conscious will not allow to be questioned, faith allows for doubt to arise, for questioning to be posed against an intuition of God, and experience, with direct authentic peak religious experience illuminating the intelligence of the person. Vertical insights attributable to experience will be healthily integrated into the psyche to the extent that a reasonable level of psychological development has taken place beforehand.
A review of the work of Robert Bellah is offered, though it is surmised that an improvement on this work is achieved through the work of Anthony and Robbins (!) with a focus on structuralism and deep and surface patterning.
So in conducting a sociological structural analysis of any religion, the author proposes determining:
A. AUTHENTICITY
1. Structurally analyse the occasion that defined membership in the group - what series of interactions or belief structures must be internalised by a person to be socially recognised as a member? What is the mana that the person must digest to have base level initiation?
2. Once central structure has been established, determine it's developmental level - archaic, magical, mythical, rational, psychic, subtle or causal? Are there archaic fusion elements? Delusional reference systems such as totem confusion, animism? Extreme mythic membership conformity in cults and passive dependence on authority? Neuroses in adoption of rational structures? Alienation from the mainstream in psychic, subtle or causal structure?
3. In order to ascertain developmental potential of a given religious order, with regards to the higher levels it is proposed that research is undertaken via:
a) Hermeneutical reading of authentic texts - following the work of Daniel Brown with respect to the Mahamudra, observing deep structures in cross cultural parallels to draw conclusions;
b) Direct investigation - of populations of exemplars;
B. LEGITIMACY
1. How well integrated is the group in and of itself (content) , and then within the wider society (context)? Normative structures are sought for tension management, pattern maintenance, boundary determinations, latent and manifest functions so that full-time observable interaction patterns can be validated.
2. An array is proposed of interaction - pre-law, counter law, law, anti law, trans-law on one axis and legitimate or illegitimate, read within the group itself and across the broader societal background.
C. HERMENEUTICAL MOMENT
1. In the final analysis, a phenomenological hermeneutical moment consists of us reading another human being, while the human attempts in the same moment to read us.
2. Because of the importance of historical syntax in the formation of any given symbol for a person's own subtext, knowledge of the hierarchical structuralisation can provide clues as to where shadow might hide (un-digested, un-transformed symbols, isolated and privatised either to the individual or to the group).
3. Inevitably the map is not the territory, so the hermeneutical moment is extraordinarily difficult to assess in validity whileever we're on the outsides of each others' skins.
D. EMANCIPATORY MOMENTS
A desire to clear up past failures of horizontal-emancipatory moments (mistranslations) in an effort to achieve vertical-emancipatory advances is proposed in principle as a part of a developmental evolutionary drive.
E. THE METHODOLOGY OF DIRECT GNOSTIC VERIFICATION
Spiritual gnosis is not in itself symbolic,m and to validly utilise mandalic-logic to represent it's incurrence we require:
1. Injunction - an act
2. Apprehension - a cognitive awareness of the proposed change state
3. Communal confirmation - with others who have completed 1. and 2.
Good-o.
So do I continue to pursue both Gnosticism via St Uriels and Buddhism via the Tibetan Buddhist Society?
Quite rhetorical, that question is, methinks!
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