John Curtis Gowan, an early authority on gifted children and a member of the founding faculty at California State University, Northridge. MGMJohn Curtis Gowan, who spent decades researching the gifted, authored over 100 papers, and was the president of the NAGC, actually called positive disintegration "developmental forcing".
In most cases identification requires an IQ of 130 or above based on an individual test, such as the Stanford-Binet; (2) consent of the child's parent(s) or guardian must be obtained for the child to participate; (3) indi- vidual case study records must be maintained; and (4) goals, student activities, and plans for evaluation of proposed programs must be written and made avail- able for public inspection.4 Summer programs in the demonstration centers have taken some of the many forms of approved programs. They include special classes in humani- ties combined with counseling for junior high school students; special summer sessions in lieu of grade three for children in the acceleration program; or enrichment classes in science, mathematics, creative writing, or social science for gifted pupils of the middle grades. Sometimes the summer program is the only provision a district is able to make for elementary school children with specialized and creative talents.
Manifestations of Talent Pupils identified for the special class on the basis of IQ only will show great variability on all the characteristics related to but not identical with intellectual giftedness: creativity, artistic talent, motivation, mathematical aptitude, verbal facility, accuracy of articulation, Spelling skill, social poise, gregariousness, and leadership. A perceptive project teacher pointed out that her pupils were individuals and not types and that the characteristics of gifted children cannot be assumed about any particular child. The gifted are not all highly motivated, are not all good readers, and are not all tall and healthy. Giftedness is manifested in many ways. Some of the variations in special ability which may require special nurture on the part of the school include at least five general categories: the social-empathic, the artistic-creative, the kinesthetic-mechanical, the symbolic-structural, and the verbal-receptive pupils.
Social-Empathic Individuals whose greatest gifts are in the realm of interpersonal relation-ships show sensitivity to the moods, feelings, and aspiration of others. From this group come eminent political figures, outstanding salesmen of productsor ideas, and great teachers. Special classes need to be involved with student government and other activities that permit the early development of leadership.
Artistic=Creative Productive artists develop the ability to interpret their perceptions of the physical and social worlds. Their medium of expression -- whether words, paint, sound, or steel -- is selected because of experiences that were rein- forced.The Pasadena schools have offered special classes in music, literature, and art for elementary school pupils. Opportunities for original, aesthetic production should be part of the school experience for all children so that those with unusual talent c an be screened for further specialized opportunities.
Kinesthetic-Mechanical Famous athletes, ballet dancers, and some inventors have developed their body control mechanisms to outstanding levels. They respond at very high levels of sophistication to proprioceptive stimuli. Gifts that are not academic frequently are not valued in schools oriented to middle-class values. One intellectually-gifted girl created consternation in her community when she decided to become a dancer and said that if she did not make the grade, she would then enroll in college.
Symbolic- Structural Mathematical and scientific abilities are built upon the symbolic-structural constellation of intellectual talents. The special classes in Lompoc were taught methematical logic in addition to modern mathematics. Individual projects were organized to develop and to exploit interest in science. Some pupils, particularly girls, who previously had shown no special ability in symbolic-structural areas were observed to have increased their competence markedly. This kind of potential has always been academically respectable and has become more so in the climate of cold war technology.
Verbal- Receptive Most teachers tend to nominate for the gifted programs the child with the verbal-receptive type of ability. These are the children who become scholars, reading fantastic quantities of material which they classify and r e member for subsequent retrieval. Many intelligence tests, including the Stanford-Binet, are weighted in favor of verbal facility over other intellectual strengths. Children selected for special classes because of this type of superiority* can likely be encouraged to develop other forms of talent.
Professor JOHN CURTIS GOWAN TAXONOMY OF CONSCIOUSNESS
This book is concerned with a taxonomy of the cognitive representation of numinous experience arranged in a hierarchy. The theme of the book addresses itself to the most important issue which exists for man: how to get in touch with the ground of being (the numinous element) without losing ego-consciousness.
The taxonomy therefore goes from a state of complete cognitive chaos (such as schizophrenia) through other types of dissociation and trance (which are regarded as prototaxic modes), to a middle ground of parataxic mode which involves some amelioration of the relationship with the conscious ego through successive stages of archetype, dreams, ritual, myth, and art, finally to the syntaxic mode, in which there is some cognitive control (involving creativity, biofeedback, and meditation) among others.
Such an analysis is a continuation of ideas presented in The Development of the Psychedelic Individual. In that volume the explication was given a developmental presentation which is absent from the present book. Instead we have here focused on a more careful examination of the various modes of representation, which may be considered as ascending values of the main parameter.
Apollonian, Faustian, and Promethean man exemplify a paradigm of relationship between the conscious ego in man and what we shall hereafter refer to as "the numinous element," which is the central thesis of this book. This historical relationship is typified in various styles of the human condition in today's world in an associated paradigm of three modes of cognitive relationship to experience.
These modes were discovered independently by Sullivan (1953:xiv) and Van Rhijn (1960), and may be described using the Sullivan terminology as follows: prototaxic (experience occurring before symbols), parataxic (experience using symbols in a private or autistic way), and syntaxic (experience which can be communicated). Sullivan coined the phrase "consensual validation" to characterize the consequent validation of symbolic representation which he pointed out led to healthy development.1
Van Rhijn's theory (1960) is that the subconscious receives a mixed input of stimulus, memory, and libido loadings which is then fed to the higher areas of the cortex. Using Sullivan's terminology, it may percolate through the symbolic level into conscious thought - the most desirable result. If rejected there, it may still find expression through parataxic representation as a presentational sign which includes gesture, body language, myth, ritual, and art. If rejected there, it may still find a lower outlet through prototaxic representation which includes the symptom formation of psychosomatic illness manifestations.
Thus the mental health potentiality of full cognition and the mental illness potential of less than full cognition is reinforced. Less than full symbolic cognition of experience results at best in parataxic and presentational images of art and archetype, which is the organism's way of working off the excess energy unused in full cognition, and at worst in neurosis, and psychosomatic externalization of the misspent energy onto the psyche, body, and immediate environment.
Gowan's Books Creativity, ESP, and Meditation; the JOHN CURTIS GOWAN Memorial Website of Psychic Phenomena, Mental Health, and Paranormal Psychology
BOOK I:
TRANCE, ART, AND CREATIVITY
A Psychological Analysis of the Relationship Between the Individual Ego and the Numinous Element in Three Modes: Prototaxic, Parataxic, and Syntaxic
JOHN CURTIS GOWAN California State University Northridge, California
BOOK II:
OPERATIONS OF INCREASING ORDER AND OTHER ESSAYS ON EXOTIC FACTORS OF INTELLECT, UNUSUAL POWERS and ABILITIES, ETC.(as Found in Psychic Science)
Descriptors: Adamic ecstasy, altered states of consciousness, accelerated mental process, apports, auras, clairaudience, clairvoyance, dowsing, empery, elongation, gemeinschaftgefuhl, genius,healing, hologram model, incorruptibility, inedia, invisibility, infused knowledge, jhanas, levitation, mortem excursus, materialization, miraculous sight, non-somnia, poltergeists, precognition, psychometry, psychokinesis, psychic heat and surgery, precocity, reincarnation, siddhis, SHC (spontaneous human combustion), stigmata, telepathy, teleportation, time warp, transfiguration, translation, vision through opaque objects. by JOHN CURTIS GOWAN Professor (Emeritus) California State University, Northridge A. B., Ed. M., Harvard, Ed. D. UCLA
BOOK III:
DEVELOPMENT of the PSYCHEDELIC INDIVIDUAL
A Psychological Analysis of the Psychedelic State and Its Attendant Psychic Powers
JOHN CURTIS GOWAN California State University Northridge, California
PAPER:
THE MEASUREMENT OF PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT AND SELF-ACTUALIZATION
THE NORTHRIDGE DEVELOPMENTAL SCALE J. C. Gowan
Contents1. INTRODUCTION I 1.1 SYNOPSIS 1 1.2 THE NUMINOUS ELEMENT 3 1.3 THE THREE ILLUSIONS 10 1.31 Space: The Physical Universe 12 1.32 Time 14 1.33 Ego 16 1.34 Conclusion 17
1.4 THE THREE MODES: PROTOTAXIC, PARATAXIC, AND SYNTAXIC 19
Chapter IIb pages 105-173 (220k) Paranormal Effects of Trance 2.4 PARANORMAL EFFECTS OF TRANCE 105 2.41 General 105 2.42 ESP Effects 111 2.43 Hallucinations 117 .431 General 117 .432 Auditory Hallucinations . . 122 .433 Visual Hallucinations . . 122 .434 Hypnagogic Hallucinations . . 123 .435 Hallucinations under Sensory Deprivation 125 .436 Hallucination Associated With the Death of the Agent 127 .437 Critique and Conclusion 128 2.44 Healing and the Conquest of Pain 131 .441 General . . . . . . 131 .442 Folk Healing in South America With Drugs . . . . . . 131 .443 Shamanistic Psychic Surgery . . 132 .444 Hypnotic Control of Pain . . 133 .445 Accelerated Mental Process . . 136 2.45 Mastery Over Fire . . 138 2.46 Psychokinesis and Poltergeist Phenomena . . . . . . . . 144 2.47 The Out-of-Body Experience . . . 146 2.48 Mob Contagion . . . . . 148 2.5 THE AUTOMATISMS OF GLOSSOLALIA AND AUTOMATIC WRITING . . . 152 2.51 Glossolalia 152 2.52 Xenoglossia 161 2.53 Single Limb Trance: Automatic Writing 161 2.6 "HIGHER" TRANCE: A DISPUTED ANCHOR POINT... . 162 2.61 General 162 2.62 Religious Trances 163 2.7 PROTOTAXIC CONCLUSION 167
Chapter III pages 174-244 (223k) The Parataxic Mode - Art 3. THE PARATAXIC MODE: (ART) 174 3.1 INTRODUCTION 174 3.2 ARCHETYPE 178 3.3 DREAMS 185 3.31 Introduction 185 3.32 Physiology of Sleep and Dreaming 186 3.33 Theories of Dreaming 187 3.34 Nightmares 193 3.35 Hypnotic Investigation of Dreams 194 3.36 Dreams and Creativity 195 3.37 Dreams and the Paranormal 199 3.38 High Dreams, Lucid Dreams, Programming Dreams 201 3.39 Conclusion 203 3.4 MYTH 204 3.41 General Introduction 204 3.42 Examples of Myth 209 3.43 Myth and Animals 210 3.44 Totemization of Myth 213 .441 General 213 .442 Talismans 215 3.45 Myth and Ritual 217 3.5 RITUAL 218 3.6 ART 224 3.61 Introduction 224 3.62 Image-Magic 227 3.63 Art as a Representation of the Numinous 230 3.64 Metaphysical Art 235 3.65 Art and Creativity 238 3.66 Conclusion-Art 239 3.7 PARATAXIC MODE CONCLUSION 241
SYNTAXIC MODE: CREATIVITYChapter IV: The Syntaxic Mode - Creativity
Chapter IVa pages 245-319 (251k) An Overview of Creativity 4. THE SYNTAXIC MODE (CREATIVITY) 245 4.1 INTRODUCTION 245 4.11 Introduction 245 4.12 The Numinous Element as the Collective Preconscious..... . 250 4.13 The Three Illusions Revisited 257 4.14 The Right Cerebral Hemisphere Function 261 4.15 Siddhis 264 .151 General 264 .152 ESP, Telepathy, Precognition, Psychometry and Accelerated Mental Process 266 .153 Human Auras and Kirlian Photography 267 .154 Healing and Anesthesia from Pain 268 .155 Power over Fire: Psychic Heat 269 .156 OBE, Traveling Clairvoyance, Levitation, Magical Flight 271 .157 Psychokinesis 272 .158 Physiological Aspects: Breathing, Autonomic Processes, Kundalini, Psychic Sound . . 272 .159 Miscellaneous Effects . . 273 4.2 TANTRIC SEX (Jhana-6) . . . . . 274 4.3 CREATIVITY (Jhana-5) . . . . . 277 4.31 Introduction . . . . . . . . . 277 4.32 The Importance of Symbolization in Verbal Creativity282 4.33 Creativity as Cognitive, Rational, and Semantic .... 286 4.34 Creativity as Personal and Environmental . . . . . . . 287 4.35 Creativity as Psychological Openness . . . . . . . . . . 290 .351 General . . . . . . 290 .352 Openness Facilitated by Hypnosis . . 293 . 353 Openness Facilitated by Drugs . . 295 .354 The Role of ESP in Creativity . . 296 .355 Dreams and Creativity . . 297 4.36 Creativity and the Preconscious . . 300 4.37 Creativity as Evidence of Mental Health and Self -Actualization . . . . . . . . . 303 .37a Introduction . . 303 .37b General Research on Self-Actualization . . 304 .37c Joy, Content, and Expectation of Good . . . 306 .37d Serendipity . . 306 .37e Increased Control over Environment . . . . . . . . . . 306 .37f Sense of Destiny . . . 307 .37g Acceptance of Self, Others, Nature . . . . . . . . . . . 307 .37h Spontaneity . . . . . . 307 .37i Detachment and Autonomy . . 307 .37j Gemeinschaftgefuhl (Brotherly Love) . . 308 .37k A Philosophical and Unhostile Sense of Humor . . . 308 .371 Psychological and Semantic Flexibility . . 309 .37m The "Witness Phenomenon . . . 309 4.38 Creative Organization: General Systems Theory . . . . 310 4.39 Conclusion
4.4 BIOFEEDBACK (Jhana-4) 314 4.41 General Introduction 314 4.42 Alpha Wave Training and Its Implications for Meditation 316 4.43 Alpha and Creativity 319
Chapter IVb pages 320-391 (234k) Orthocognition, Meditation, and Higher Stages 4.5 ORTHOCOGNITION (Jhana-3) 320 4.51 General Principles 320 4.52 Is Orthocognition Moral? 327 4.53 Orthocognition Compared 328 4.54 Orthocognition as Healing 330 4.6 MEDITATION (Jhana-2) 332 4.61 General Information 332 4.62 Nichiren Shoshu 337 4.63 Transcendental Meditation 338 4.64 Psychocatalysis 340 4.65 Arica 341 4.66 Zen 342 4.67 Vedanta 344 4.68 Integral Yoga 345 4.69 Conclusion 348
4.7 PSYCHEDELIA AND ECSTASY 351 4.71 Response Experiences (Jhana-1) 358 4.72 Adamic or Time Ecstasies ("Access" or Jhana 0) 361 4.73 Knowledge Ecstasy (Jhana 1) 366 4.74 Knowledge-Contact Ecstasy of Degree I (Jhana 2) 369 4.75 Knowledge-Contact Ecstasy of Degree 2 (Jhana 3) 373 4.76 Knowledge-Contact Ecstasy of Degree 3 (Jhana 4) 373 4.77 Conclusion
4.8 THE UNITIVE STAGE 375 4.81 Ineffable Contact (Jhana 5) 4.82 Transcendental Contact (Jhana 6) 4.83 Ineffable Union (Jhana 7) 4.84 Transcendental Union (Jhana 8) 4.9 CONCLUSION
Trance, Art & Creativity Maps of Consciousness / Psychological Taxonomy
Taxonomy is the practice and science of classification. The word comes from the Greekτάξις, taxis, 'order' + νόμος, nomos, 'law' or 'science'. Taxonomies, or taxonomic schemes, are composed of taxonomic units known as taxa (singular taxon), or kinds of things that are arranged frequently in a hierarchical structure, typically related by subtype-supertype relationships, also called parent-child relationships. In such a subtype-supertype relationship the subtype kind of thing has by definition the same constraints as the supertype kind of thing plus one or more additional constraints. For example, car is a subtype of vehicle.
This book [Trance, Art & Creativity] is concerned with a taxonomy of the cognitive representation of numinous experience arranged in a hierarchy. The theme of the book addresses itself to the most important issue which exists for man: how to get in touch with the ground of being (the numinous element) without losing ego-consciousness. The taxonomy therefore goes from a state of complete cognitive chaos (such as schizophrenia) through other types of dissociation and trance (which are regarded as prototaxic modes), to a middle ground of parataxic mode which involves some amelioration of the relationship with the conscious ego through successive stages of archetype, dreams, ritual, myth, and art, finally to the syntaxic mode, in which there is some cognitive control (involving creativity, biofeedback, and meditation) among others. Such an analysis is a continuation of ideas presented in The Development of the Psychedelic Individual. In that volume the explication was given a developmental presentation which is absent from the present book. Instead we have here focused on a more careful examination of the various modes of representation, which may be considered as ascending values of the main parameter.
Qabalists employ this glyph from the Sephir Yetzirah, or The Book of Formation, for meditation. These kabbalistic practices have generalized into the Western mystery tradition as the practice of theurgic or practical magic and self-transformation.
The Tree of Life is a consciousness map and fountain-head of most occult arts. Theurgic magic, which aspires toward greater and greater union with Self and Divinity, is a system of exaltative meditation and creative visualization which employs ritual to alter states of consciousness at will in harmony with the cycles of Nature.
In private correspondence with this author in 1982, Gowan made it known that he considered the practice of magic a form of developmental forcing, and therefore dangerous, so he excluded it from his anecdotal reports of expanded states of consciousness.
The Tree of Life depicts the interactive elements of the psyche as well as the archetypal forces of the universe. The 10 Spheres or vortices of this circuit represent the dynamic, interactive balance of archetypal energetic forces within the universe and each psyche, and their corresponding qualities.The 22 paths of "concealed glory" on the Tree reveal the holistic feedback patterns, the means of transition and interaction between them -- transitional states of consciousness. The Spheres are ways of Being while the paths are ways of Becoming.
Gowan's styles of cognition -- prototaxic, parataxic, syntaxic, and unitive states -- correspond with planes of consciusness: physical, astral, causal, and unitive.This Tree is a "ladder of consciousness" which each aspirant may climb toward higher mystic states. The physical biochemical basis of experience is symbolized by the bottom two vortices, which (ala Gowan) we shall call Succession and Emergence.
There is a vertical symbolic journey from the ordinary sensory consciousness of physical life (succession) toward the emergent psychic capacities encountered in the trance state (emergence). Traditionally, the bottom sphere represents the Elements of Earth, while the trance state is linked through symbolism with the Moon, psychism, and surrealistic "astral" perception which is often bizarre or uncanny.
"Trance" is achieved in therapy and ritual by interrupting ordinary awareness--by creating a discontinuity, disruption, temporary chaos. At this prototaxic level, the ego is overwhelmed, and transformations manifest as sensations at the psychophysical and psychosexual level. Self-image, perceptions, and sense of time may be temporarily lost or distorted. The ego dissolves in unconscious communion with the primal preconscious.
Further development leads not only to a change in planes, but a change in the style of cognition to "Art," the parataxic mode, as expressed through gesture, body language, art, myth, ritual, dream, and archetypes. In this plane, the accent is on affect (emotional response). On the glyph of the Tree of Life, the polarities are depicted as horizontally balanced centers of force, yoked opposites of Cognition and Affect (Hod/Netzach). With greater experience an understanding of the inner world, a relationship develops which allows the ego to glimpse and participate with transpersonal forces.
In the traditional correspondences Cognition is linked with Mercury (Differentiation) and balanced by Affect which is associated with Venus (Metamorphosis). They are akin to Will and Imagination, or perhaps the Jungian functions of Thinking and Feeling. One gains not only theoretical knowledge of Self, but also experiential awareness of the imaginal realms--a "virtual reality"--perceived through the vision of the soul. The dissonance of dysplasia is replaced by a resonating congruence or confluence of both developmental forces. This creates a positive directionality or momentum, an impetus, a facilitation of ecstatic higher states in their emergent or bud form.
We can summarize the correspondences of Gowan's components of escalation with the Spheres of the lower portion of the Tree of Life as follows:
SUCCESSION = MALKUTH, Sphere 10. Implies the perception of the aspirant that there is a fixed hierarchical order among the developmental processes. There is a continual rise in awareness at each level, and the order of succession is invariant. At this level of awareness (Malkuth), it seems as if the track of development is fixed although there is flexibility in rate and extent of progress. The main degree of freedom lies in the speed at which one chooses to escalate along the "path" of development.
DISCONTINUITY = YESOD, Sphere 9. Postulates a series of discrete changes in levels of consciousness, much like the locks of a canal. Movement is from pre-rational to rational to trans-rational. Developmental escalation comes from strategically balancing or equilibrating the forces at each discrete jump, much as a clutch does when we shift gears. Additional energy is freed up for the aspirant through increased efficiency.
EMERGENCE = HOD, Sphere 8. Shows the debut of new powers characteristic of access to the Astral Plane. They are the prototype of latter abilities which can be relied upon to function at will. First powers appear in tenuous form, and later they are permanent. Pathworking becomes more defined. One no longer follows a dim trail, but a clearly marked Way. Each stage is revealing the characteristics of the next phase in bud-form.
DIFFERENTIATION = NETZACH, Sphere 7. Refers to the enhanced focusing and clarifying of concept formation accessable at the Hod-Netzach level of experience; emotional intelligence. Lest we become fixated in habits which prevent further development, a metamorphosis occurs in which there is a sudden switch in emphasis from one stage to another. It is much like an adolescent longing for childhood irresponsibility which transforms into facing the future with a mature, methodical preparation. When we have been successful in one phase of life, the temptation is that we will desire to remain on that level. In other words, we get stuck, and need to transform our hang ups to flow with the grain of natural processes.
INTEGRATION = TIPHARETH, Sphere 6. We can finally put it all together in an integrated whole. This transrational synthesis creates new degrees of insight, freedom, and creativity. All previous sstages are united in a holistic viewpoint, greater than the sum of its parts. According to Gowan, the road to high well-being and creativity has five milestones: "1). confrontation of differences, 2). integration, 3). a yielding up or giving up of the old for a new reorganization, 4). a process of differentiation and 5). a positive directionality."
PSYCHEDELIA = DAATH, The Invisible Sphere. Direct experiential contact with the numinous or divine element, multi-sensory "visionary" state, perceptual synesthesia; complementary images of fullness and void; temporary but profound communion with Nature, God, and Mankind; oceanic and peak experiences.
ILLUMINATION = KETHER, Sphere 1. The Unitive state of consciousness.Rising through the planes on the Tree of Life, "climbing" the tree, is a meditational exercise in consciusness-raising. Emergence is an operative principle throughout the vertical "climb" up the Tree of Life.
Emergent abilities are first glimpsed, and later stabilized. This aspiration is an instinctual urge to experience higher statess of consciousness, and the magical analog of natural escalation and development forcing. We should note that aspirants to this path were always cautioned to have their earthly lives in order before attempting to scale the heights.
Just as Jung recommended the path of individuation only for those approaching midlife, masters of the Qabala preferred well-grounded mature students, rarely accepting those under age 30 for advanced training. Further, Rabbi Kaplan (1990) notes, "a person would not attempt to climb a dangerous mountain without the proper training and equipment. Any novice who would attempt a climb without an experienced guide would be courting disaster. Climbing spiritual heights can be equally dangerous. One needs the proper training and mental equipment, as well as an experienced spiritual guide."
When climbing the "mystic mountain," balancing the Cognitive and Affective energy centers opens a Middle Way, a transitional mode of consciousness referred to as Art or Temperance. This path leads directly to the central sphere of "Creativity," which radiates integration and magnetically draws us toward individualized consciusness, self-actualization or fulfillment of our unique potential.The emergence of this state as a creative impulse is glimpsed in the parataxic mode, but its fruition comes through the stabilzation of syntaxic awareness--the qabalistic form of Self-realization, which brings a new sense of equilibrium and transmuttation.
According to Fortune (1935/1984), "consciousness ceases to work in symbolic subconscious representations but apprehends by means of emotional reactions." Mysticism itself is one of the greatest arts, melding aspiration and artistic expression.This well-spring of creativity is the source of Intuition which balances instinct and proprioceptive Sensation.
In THE TREE OF LIFE, Regardie (1969) states in no uncertain tterms that "Genius in itself is caused by or proceeds concommitantly with a spiritual experience of the highest intuitional order." He considered self-discovery and spiritual attainment an evolutionary mandate.
Aspiration leads up the Middle Way into the state of Psychedelia or mystic rapture, which includes the possibility of mystic rupture of the protective covering of the ego if forced too far, too soon (Daath, the psychedelic sphere of Knowledge).
Again, Rabbi Kaplan notes that, "The further one climbs, however, the more rarefied the atmosphere, and the greater the spiritual danger. By a simple permutation, the word Kether (Crown) becomes Karet, the Hebrew word for excision, where a person is completely cut off spiritually."
The dangers alluded to include mental, emotional, moral, and spiritual chaos.In Jewish or occult meditation, when a qabalist enters the mysteries, he or she must parallel the sequence of creation. We first enter the Universe of Chaos with its confusion of transient images; even the Spheres are perceived as disconnected images.
But by meditating on and experiencing the traditional paths, relationships become apparent and a sense of integration develops as we realize we are that gestalt of the Tree of Life. This "creation pattern" echoes what we find in experiential therapy sessions where notions of the old self break down in chaos prior to connection with holistic repatterning that heals and reveals an expanded sense of self.
The stabilization of the Creative stage ("Beauty," Sphere 6) leads to the ascension of transpersonal values in personality and behavior. So-called normal consciousness can proceed no further, and ego (through this insight) diffuses into an expanded sense of superconsciousness.
Though Gowan is vague on this point, the Qabala hints that access to higher mystical states involves the balancing of the qualities of Judgement or Severity (strength, fear, discrimination) with those of Mercy, Love, or Compassion, corresponding respectively with Mars and Jupiter.On a higher octave, it involves the downflowing of grace, a marriage of Understanding (Saturn) and Wisdom (Uranus).
This psychedelic state, Daath, is a contact with the macrocosm, the numinous element which resultts from the twin blessings of Wisdom and Understanding wherein the psychophysical self is "contained", yet expanded and diffused in pure consciousness containing no sensory imagery. It holds the secret of generation and regeneration and the manifestation of all things from No Thing. In Qabala, the developmental process culminates in complete absorption in the Unitive state of Kether, the uppermost vortex -- Illumination. (Iona Miller)
Gowan, J.C., THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CREATIVE INDIVIDUAL, R. Knapp, San Diego, 1972.
THE THREE MODES: PROTOTAXIC, PARATAXIC and SYNTAXIC
a) SHAMANISM: prototaxic experience (characterized by trance-state and loss of ego; ego control absent); dissociation, superstition, possession. Shadow, instinct.
b) ARCHETYPE, MYTH & DREAM: Art : ( Ego expressive) parataxic experience, characterized by the production of images whose meaning is not clear or categorical because it remains largely unconscious; muse, anima/animus
c) CREATIVITY: Self-Actualization. (Ego stabilized in practice and service). Syntaxic experience, conscious clarity, (where meaning is more or less fully cognized symbolically, with ego present). Gifts, genius, compassion, recognition available as a resource at will. The authentic life. Illumination is a steady state where the art of cooperating with navigating numinous experience has been mastered. Self.
Three popular names for these three modes are TRANCE, ART, and CREATIVITY, respectively. Possibly delusional and idiosyncratic beliefs evolve into expressed but little understood beliefs, then into fully cognizable states of cognitive and affective parity. The emotions don't run away with the mind and the mind doesn't dissociate and distort or exploit the emotions. The first is a feeling-oriented possession by the numinous, the second an imaginary attempt to communicate with it expressively, and the third a fully-cognizant stabilized steady state of balance and cooperation between the ego and numinous.
When climbing the "mystic mountain," balancing the mental and emotional energy opens a Middle Way, a transitional mode of consciousness referred to as Art or Temperance. This path leads directly to the core of "Creativity," which radiates integration and magnetically draws us toward individualized consciousness, self-actualization or fulfillment of our unique potential. Such genius has traditionally been called "divine".