What are the realms of consciousness, according to Stanislav Grof? This is a very complex issue, and the inventor of Holotropic Breathwork has developed a very comprehensive model. Accordingly, I would like to introduce the topic and create an overview in this article. This construct is the basis for my thesis of therapeutic significance in later papers and for exploring the techniques that can be used to access these transpersonal realms.
In my experience, the methods of Holotropic Breathwork and CranioSacral Therapy, in particular, have proven to be practical tools for penetrating the deeper layers of consciousness to devalue traumas there and thus neutralize the blockages that have arisen from them. I have written a detailed series of articles on this subject, of which this article is an essential component. So, let’s get into the dimensions of consciousness.
What are Levels of Consciousness?
The Traditional Approach
Traditional therapy uses a model of the human personality limited to biography and the personal unconscious, described by Sigmund Freud. Possibly because of this, J. Upledger, the inventor of CranioSacral Therapy (CST), wanted to move away from it and coined the term “non-consciousness” because he found no explanations in the classical model for his extraordinary experiences of consciousness expansion and channelings. This Sigmund Freudian approach may be appropriate in psychotherapeutic self-exploration using superficial techniques based on verbal exchange.
However, such a model fails to explain the dynamic processes involved in healing emotional and psychosomatic disorders, personality transformation, and consciousness evolution through highly effective techniques such as CST, holotropic therapy, or specific self-awareness methods HAKOMI, in modern psychotherapy.
These techniques activate and mobilize deeply unconscious and super-conscious levels of the human psyche and require a much broader theoretical framework to understand. I dealt with this extensively in my last article and will return to it throughout the series.
Realms of Consciousness from Holotropic Perspective
The techniques that lead to experiences of the psyche’s unconscious dimensions usually activate the sense organs. As a result, deep self-exploration predominantly begins with non-specific sensory experiences, such as visions of colors and patterns, perception of sounds, touch sensations on various parts of the body, and taste or smell sensations. All of these sensory experiences are more or less abstract in nature.
The next most easily accessible area on this path is usually the analytical-biographical level and the personal unconscious (nonconscious). These phenomena are of considerable theoretical and practical importance. Most traditional psychotherapeutic approaches discuss them as psychodynamic connections in the biographical realm.
These experiences are limited to significant events and circumstances from the person’s life from birth to the present. At this level of self-exploration, anything from their life, an unresolved conflict, a repressed memory yet to be integrated, or an incomplete psychological understanding may emerge from the unconscious and become the content of the experience.
Conflict and Trauma
There is only one condition for this to happen: the content must be sufficiently emotionally charged. Herein lies a great advantage of self-awareness therapies over purely verbal approaches. The techniques that can activate the unconscious directly seem to selectively amplify the most significant material from an emotional point of view and facilitate those issues to become conscious.
Like radar beams, those methods scan the entire system, as in the arc technique of CranioSacral Therapy, and discover the material with the most substantial emotional charge and significance, the energy cyst. In this way, the therapist does not have to decide what is relevant and what is irrelevant. Further, in experiential self-exploration, the biographical material is not recalled or reconstructed but may be fully re-experienced. In the process, not only feelings arise but also bodily sensations, as well as visual and other vivid perceptions. Usually, all of this is accompanied by a complete regression to the developmental stage at which these events occurred.
Another Important Feature:
Traditional psychiatry, psychology, and psychotherapy focus exclusively on psychological trauma. Physical traumata are denied a direct influence on psychological development and participation in the emergence of emotional and psychosomatic disorders.
Traditional psychotherapy contrasts with the observations of experiential forms of therapy, such as CST, according to which memories of physical trauma, or even strong experiences of a physical and thus emotional nature, seem to be more important than anything else.
In various self-awareness therapies, re-experiencing life-threatening illnesses, injuries, and operations, or situations in which, for example, one almost drowned, i.e., died, is extremely common. The significance of such experiences undoubtedly far exceeds that of ordinary psychological traumas.
Interconnectedness
One can recognize an interdependency between the two levels; it remains only the question of which came first—hen or egg, emotional trauma or physical somatization? However, elaborating on the philosophy, which argues that all physical manifestations are based on a psychological conflict, the subject of symptom language would need a separate series of articles.
The emotions and bodily sensations left from situations in which the survival or integrity of the organism was threatened seem to play an essential role in developing various psychopathological forms. Academic science has not yet recognized this connection.
“Observations made in the context of self-awareness therapies make it clear that any psychotherapeutic approach limited to verbal exchanges is of limited value and cannot really penetrate to the core of the problems.”
Stanislav Grof
Continuing the Dimensions of Consciousness
Grof’s Models of Perinatal Matrices
Stanislav Grof‘s work in the context of Holotropic Breathwork has recognized that the first traumatic event of life is most often birth itself. However, the experience cannot yet be conceptualized by the child’s mind, yet the trauma can be highly disentangled. The birth trauma thus moves into the unconscious and is initially repressed because it cannot be processed at this stage. However, this extreme experience can create lasting imprints, psychological patterns, and even blockages that can determine a person’s life until the end.
Grof recognized four significant statics of the birth experience in his clients through repetitive patterns, which he calls perinatal matrices. Each stage can leave a unique imprint on the individual when complications become traumatic.
Overview of the Matrices
Suppose we want to go into the dimensions of consciousness in detail. In that case, it will go beyond the scope of this article—Grof has written numerous books on the subject—but in my follow-up articles, I will go into the most critical aspects condensed yet understandable. Here is the overview of the perinatal matrices:
- Basics of Perinatal Matrices
- 1st Matrix, “The Amniotic Universe”
- 2nd Matrix, “Cosmic devouring and hopelessness”
- 3rd Matrix, “Struggle before death and rebirth”
- 4th Matrix, “Death and Rebirth”
Questions relevant to the Topic
- What are expanded states of consciousness?
- Where can I find advice on holistic techniques?
- What is CranioSacral Therapy?
- Where can I get homeopathic treatment?
- Can I get holistic treatment for birth trauma?
- What is Holotropic Breathwork?
- What did Stanislav Grof realize about consciousness?
- Who wrote this article?
Continue to the follow-up article >
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