A quote on transcendence & psychopathology

[mindcentral]

"A pivotal question seems to be whether a person's transcendental experience leads to compassion and empathy with others, and whether there is a reduction in egocentric, selfish preoccupations. As these latter traits are also major characteristics of certain personality disorders, the alleviation of such problems becomes central to the development of the self. Indeed, egocentrism and lack of empathy are classic indicators of the lack of development of an authentic self. I am now convinced that transcendental experiences can occur to persons with serious personality disorders. Such persons often become dangerous teachers due to their lack of empathy and compassion for their students. Thus, the mind can be transcended through a psychospiritual "escape hatch," but the deeper emotional issues and problems will still be there when one returns to ordinary life.

This cannot be overemphasized. I have met several persons who claimed to be spiritual teachers who seem to have genuinely experienced transcendence, but remain chronically unempathic, much to the detriment of their students. They talk at at length about compassion and love but by their actions seem to be more interested in the love of sex and the love of self, and sometimes, the love of money or alcohol. Much has been written of this in recent years (see Feuerstein, 1990; Walsh & Vaughan, 1993). In such cases, psychotherapy would be a proper prescription (Kornfield, 1993) as these persons tend to be destructive to those around them.

It is likely that these experiences may have bypassed the essential step of reorganizing the core self so that one can address and work through his or her narcissistic or borderline issues. Only then can one stabilize the capacity for empathy and compassion. In other words, the empathy and compassion that one experiences through meditation and transcendence may only be temporary, felt concomitantly with the glow from the transcendent experience--and wears off soon after. It may also be that in such cases, after the glow diminishes, a person becomes infatuated with the fact of having been "chosen, " or privileged to have reached beyond the mundane. The person may now feel that he or she has become somehow superior or special- beyond mere ordinary persons. Such a person then subtly, unknowingly, and indirectly, projects himself or herself as a new standard for humanity. This is, of course, dangerous, especially to those who trust themselves to the "wisdom" of such persons. It is unfortunate that, with all the literature on meditation and transcendence, this connection with psychopathology is almost never mentioned. If it were, both teachers and students could more readily recognize such manifestations and realize that they are natural consequences of transcendence that need to be resolved.

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So-called knowledge arising from transcendence is similarly unreliable, often impulsive rather than intuitive, and drawn from memory reconstruction of the transcendent moment rather than the spontaneous experiencing and knowing in the here and now."

Edited September 28, 2023 by mindcentral