Hi - I'm still poking away at the book Structures of Consciousness: the genius of Jean Gebser -- an introduction and critique by Georg Feuerstein. I wish I had time to transcribe more of both of their words here because I do think that they are quite able verbally to get to some difficult to get to things with words. There is so much here, but I'll type a snippet:

The "God-within" is as illusory as the "God-out-there." The former concept pertains to the realm of conventional mysticism and psychedelic philosophy; the latter is the mainstay of conventional religion. But both are only conventions, symbols of reality, projections of the ego (in its introverted and extraverted orientation respectively). They are penetrated and transcended by the arational-integral consciousness which is itself neither introverted nor extraverted, because it is mind-transcending and body-transcending

The emphasis on "body consciousness", as promoted by different therapies in recent years, is a potentially positive element in the contemporary struggle for self-understanding. As a reaction to the abstractionism of the rational consciousness it is, however, in need of balance: all mere reactions are one-sided and hence not generative of the integral consciousness. Otherwise it terminates in the kind of narcissism that has justifiably been criticized by Christopher Lasch and others.

And Feuerstein goes on about this subject of "the play of consciousness". He sometime quotes Gebser in this book, sometimes summarizes or rephrases, and sometimes presents his own insights. Good and fun stuff. ambo

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Ambo Suno