How High Do They Fly?
Levels of Consciousness
The exploration of the highest reaches of human nature and of its ultimate possibilities and aspirations…has involved for me the continuous destruction of cherished axioms, the perpetual coping with seeming paradoxes, contradictions and vagueness, and the occasional collapse around my ears of long established, firmly believed in, and seemingly unassailable laws of psychology.
—Abraham Maslow 225
Our mapping has so far not included a crucial dimension: time. Individuals develop and groups evolve over time. In both children and adults, certain stages and capacities tend to develop later than others. For example, abstract reasoning invariably appears later in life than less sophisticated magical and mythic forms of thinking, and it apparently also emerged later in human evolution.410
It seems that similar sequences occur in training states of consciousness, for example, as the successive stages of Jewish ascent, Buddhist insight, or Christian contemplation.413 In these practices, states tend to emerge in a fixed order, and later states are regarded as more difficult, more developed, and “higher” or “deeper” (depending on one’s metaphor and basis of reference—“higher” into consciousness and the sacred; “deeper” into one’s Self).346
Can we map states on a developmental scale? Ken Wilber has suggested three possible criteria: sequence, access, and capacities.413
1. The sequence of emergence: In general, more developed states tend to emerge later.
2. Access to other states: A person who can access more developed contemplative states can also access earlier ones.
3. Later developmental states require and possess additional capacities not available in earlier ones. For example, more mature states may require greater concentration or perceptual sensitivity.
Using these three criteria we can map states developmentally. Metaphorically, we can now compare spiritual states on both vertical (developmental) and horizontal (phenomenological) dimensions.
THE VARIETIES OF SPIRITUAL STATES
The next question is, are there similar developmental patterns across traditions? This could be a difficult question. After all, different practices obviously induce very different types of experiences.
Yet underlying commonalities can be found. For example, the Christian contemplative and journeying shaman who see angels and spirits, respectively, are both seeing visions of spiritual figures. The Buddhist and Hindu meditators who attain cessation and nirvikalpa samadhi, respectively, are both in states in which there is only pure consciousness, and no thoughts, images, or sensations arise. Clearly, there are radical differences between the first and second pair of experiences. Consequently, we can group experiences from different practices and traditions into clusters or families of states according to their underlying deep structures.413
The deep structure of a family of experiences is the common form that underlies and molds them. For example, human faces vary so dramatically that we can distinguish almost every person on the planet from the other seven billion. Yet underlying these almost infinite differences in appearance lies the same deep structure comprised of two eyes and ears, a nose, and a mouth.
Wilber suggests that a similar principle underlies spiritual experiences. Beneath the vast array of such experiences lies a finite number of deep structures. For example, Buddhist cessation and Hindu nirvikalpa samadhi both spring from the same deep structure: a state of formless, objectless awareness.
Wilber’s approach is exciting because it suggests a pattern underlying the extravagant profusion of spiritual experiences. Hidden behind different experiences, names, and interpretations are common characteristics and clusters.
This would be a significant contribution by itself. But Wilber goes further to suggest that states tend to emerge in similar sequences across traditions. Granted, it is possible to have spontaneous, temporary peak, or “peek,” experience of many states.411 However, contemplatives usually access spiritual states in a progressive sequence, and that progression shows similarities across traditions.
Wilber suggests that transpersonal states fall into four major groups. His terms have changed over time, but recently he has named them in order of their emergence: gross, subtle, causal, and nondual.
Gross
Gross states are dominated by sensory experiences. You are reading this in a normal waking state that is one kind of gross state. Spiritual gross states arise when, for example, you do yoga and arouse kundalini energy in the body or gaze at an exquisite sunset and feel at one with the physical universe.
Subtle
Subtle states arise when sensory experiences fade into the background, the usual raucous mental chatter quiets, and you become aware of an inner world so subtle that it was formerly overshadowed. This inner stillness and sensitivity usually require considerable training, yet they are central to spiritual progress and open an inner universe of possibilities. Patanjali’s classic text defines yoga as “the settling of the mind into silence,”333 while the Jewish Torah and Christian Bible say, “Be still and know that I am God.”
Subtle states are of two kinds. Formless experiences are comprised of pure light or sound, without thoughts or organized content of any kind. Experiences with form may comprise all manner of images, including vast worlds of extraordinary richness and complexity, as well as archetypal figures such as spirits or angels. Examples of subtle states include shamanic visions, Hinduism’s savikalpa samadhi, and Christian “illumination.”
Causal
Beyond the subtle lies the causal. Here, both sensory experiences and mental experiences drop away. Somatic sensations and mental thoughts or images no longer reach awareness. “Leave the senses and the workings of the intellect, and all that the sense and intellect can perceive…” urged the great Christian Saint Dionysius.157 When this is accomplished, only consciousness remains, resting in and recognizing itself as unbounded and ecstatic consciousness, Being, Spirit, Mind, Atman, Tao, or Self. This consciousness is experienced as prior to space and time (which it creates) and therefore as infinite and eternal. In the words of Aurobindo, “Spirit is self-existent being with an infinite power of consciousness and unconditioned delight in its being…”15 This is the state of Jewish Ayin, the Christian “Cloud of Unknowing,” Sufi fana, Buddhist cessation, yogic nirvikalpa samadhi, and the formless Tao.
Nondual
Beyond the causal awaits the nondual. Here sensory and mental experiences again reappear, but they are now spontaneously recognized as projections of consciousness, Spirit, or Mind. Consciousness or Spirit is now seen as expressing itself in and as all the worlds and beings of the universe. This is the realization of Hinduism’s turiya or sahaj samadhi or of Zen’s “Big Mind,” which encompasses all things. Consciousness, Spirit, or Mind has rediscovered its true nature, returned to its Self as its Self, and recognizes its Self in all things. The spiritual genius Ibn Arabi, known to Sufis as “the Greatest Master,” exclaimed:
By Himself he sees Himself, and by Himself He knows Himself….His veil, that is phenomenal existence, is a part of His oneness….there is no other and there is no existence other than He.382
And this recognition of the utter nonduality of God and creation, consciousness and matter, sacred and profane is said by several traditions to be the ultimate realization. 411
Of course, these extremely brief descriptions cannot do justice to what are among the most profound experiences available to a human being. In addition, spiritual masters repeatedly warn about the difficulty of comprehending these states without direct experience.ag Indeed, the Buddha forbade his monks to speak about advanced meditative experiences to laypeople because he felt they would almost inevitably be misunderstood.
LOCATING SHAMANIC STATES
The obvious next question is, where do shamanic states fit into this scheme? Primarily into two categories: gross and subtle. Much shamanic work is done while fully aware of the environment—in fact, while making full use of the senses for diagnosis and healing—and if altered states are used, these would be gross states.
The shamanic journey is a different story. The journey is usually performed at night to heighten sensitivity to faint images, complex scenes and worlds arise, and encounters with spiritual figures are common. These are consistent with the experiences of subtle states, and Wilber suggests that shamans were the first to systematically access these.408 Of course, questions remain. For example, what exactly constitutes subtle experiences, and how can we distinguish them from ordinary fantasy?
At the present time these questions cannot be answered definitively. A tentative suggestion is that both are imaginal creations that differ in systematic ways along a spectrum of intensity, scope, and spiritual significance. Ordinary fantasy is relatively intense and easily recognized. However, subtle experiences are faint and can usually only be recognized in sensitive (subtle) states and supportive environments. The scale of subtle experiences may be vast, and whole worlds or even universes may seem to arise in which the earth appears as a mere speck. Spiritually imbued images and themes, which can seem truly “visionary,” abound in subtle states, whereas ordinary fantasies tend to be far more mundane.
No one of these characteristics by itself would necessarily distinguish ordinary fantasy from subtle-level experiences. However, taken together they point to differences between routine fantasies and subtle visions, which, at least to the person having them, can seem vast indeed.
Shamans were the earliest masters of these subtle realms. Their specialty was “soul travel” in which they experienced themselves journeying through these realms as free souls, mastering and placating their inhabitants, and bringing back knowledge and power to their earthbound compatriots.
MYSTICAL UNION
In many religious traditions the sense of being a separate individual may give way to an experience of union with another being or even with the entire universe or with God. Thus in the upper reaches of subtle states, as well as in causal and nondual states, there may occur forms of the unio mystica or mystical union so celebrated and sought after by the world’s mystics.
Shamans sometimes unite with other spirits, but did they ever experience this full-blown mystical union? I have found no reference to it in the literature, nor apparently have others. Hultkrantz categorically states that “we never find the mystical union with the divinity so typical for the ecstatic experiences in the ‘higher’ forms of religious mysticism.”169 Consequently he concludes that shamanism can be considered a form of mysticism only “if mysticism is not restricted to mean just the unio mystica.”169
Three lines of evidence suggest that this conclusion might be incorrect. First, shamanism is an oral tradition; second, powerful psychedelics may be used; and third, some Westerners report such experiences.
Since shamanism is an oral tradition, unio mystica may occasionally occur, but be lost to subsequent generations and anthropologists. Without writing, there may be no way to adequately preserve a record of a tradition’s highest and rarest flowerings.
Although not an essential part of shamanism, psychedelic use is common in some areas. Peyote and ayahuasca, for example, are potent catalysts of apparently mystical breakthroughs. Finally, Westerners trained in core shamanic practices can report unitive experiences.ah
Though unitive experiences are not the primary aim of shamanic journeys, they may occur. Do shamans ever reach beyond the subtle to causal and nondual states? Two lines of evidence suggest this possibility. The first is that there is always the possibility of a practitioner leaping into realms of consciousness outside those of her tradition. The second is that psychedelics occasionally elicit the causal or nondual.133 Though shamans aimed primarily for soul travel in subtle states, some may have also broken through into the causal and nondual and dissolved into the ecstasy of mystical union. But no matter how many explored these realms, shamans were humankind’s first transpersonal heroes: the first to develop a technology of transcendence, the first to successfully break their identification with the body and the world, and the first to systematically induce and explore subtle states.