Stan Grof and Ken Wilber’s spectrum model of psychology: A Transpersonal Synthesis

For Maslow and Stanislav Grof, who were the precursors of new theories which integrated old models, the pioneering directives of William James and C. G. Jung opened new avenues in transpersonal and archetypal explorations. They also threw emerging new paradigms into the spotlight.

Transpersonal Theory is the daughter of a declaration of independence which has regained its status quo in front of an empirical science that is deeply rooted in reductionism. Now that the Cartesian vision is obsolete, transpersonal science integrates evolutionary and involutionary theories which find their meta-theoretical scaffolding in Ken Wilber’s model of systems. Many transpersonal theorists back away from Wilber’s integral post metaphysic theories stating clearly why they disagree. Stanislav Grof often compared himself to Wilber’s model and often used it to complement theoretical work related to his experiential system. Although it is a valid model, it can appear to have some basic structural incoherencies.

Stanislav Grof found Wilber’s integral spectrum model of psychopathology to be flawed and where the approach was experiential, he noted a certain deficit regarding the whole transpersonal issue. In other words, Wilber’s model presents to the evolved/involved argument an involution from pre-ego and ego to centaur. He also presents an evolution, from the centaur phase to the trans-ego and transpersonal phase.

As it is very detailed, Wilber’s model is considered by the majority of the community of theorists and transpersonal community. As Wilber’s theory is integral, he has remained at some distance from his colleagues. In Wilber’s system, which is based essentially on Aurobindo’s global spectrum model, there are a series of stages which move towards an evolving spiritual path and a series of eziologies best defined as transpersonal pathologies. In theory, beyond the pre-personal and personal level studied by traditional and dynamic psychology, there is a third level which joins a fourth one and this is the transpersonal dimension. Ken Wilber imagines them as transpersonal fulcrum meaning they go beyond those of the development of the Self, and they are used to reach the Transpersonal Self. They are used spiritually to define experiences which cannot be described rationally.

Transpersonal includes these three fulcrums: from psychic and subtle to causal (fig. 11) with the following pathologies: Yogis – Saints – Sages. The point at which orthodox psychology stops dealing with the realms of the ego, which culminate in the centaur phase (integration of the self, separation and individuation), is the point where the work of transpersonal psychology begins. There is not much of a gap between the ego dimension and the transpersonal dimension and everything moves towards the centaur or a self which is ready to integrate the resulting transpersonal stages.

So far so good because transpersonal psychology has shown that it deals with non inclusive stages, i.e. it is excluded a priori from orthodox psychology and from corresponding therapeutic interventions. This third transpersonal level, which also has three other fulcrum ranging from VII to IX, is an area excluded from orthodox psychology which uses post-biographical models according to the principals represented in the psychology of the self (see Mahler, Kohut and Kernberg.) Wilber is an authority on the incoherence of these models, excluding a priori a series of factors and circumstances of the transpersonal dimension. Having taken the new transpersonal level into the limelight and into knowledge with the inherent pathologies of Yogis – Saints – Sages, Wilber also superficially put a spotlight on the transpersonal model with the stages and fulcrum of transition. According to Grof however, Ken Wilber’s model, which is inherent in Transpersonal Psychopathology, is flawed when he rejects the perinatal matrix as part of the whole spectrum of pathology. These matrix are part of the whole transpersonal dimension.

In these dimensions, the matrix are important experiential cornerstones of the transpersonal model. The biggest criticism of Grof to Wilber’s work is that he placed his trust in post-natal theories and in the classic psychology of the self and he excludes a series of factors and circumstances which form part of the transpersonal dimension and its experiential field; this is something that Wilber seems to have not considered.

The classic methodology of conventional psychology, which is not familiar with Grof’s work, defines matrix. The advent of these matrix is important in the transpersonal phase because it indicates intra-uterine dynamics which go back to the antecedent and post-birth stage. These are experiential dynamics which go back to a perinatal biography (and to a process of biological birth which is found in karmic experiences through meeting previous lives) and this happens again in the experience of non ordinary states of consciousness. Here, at a regressive level, one emerges in a deep state, at a karmic level, to explore the matrix and their experiential dynamics (CoEx = condensed experiences.)

Wilber seems to have excluded these dynamics which are very important turning points in the transpersonal stage of the experience of death and rebirth. These dynamics appear as integrated parts of the transpersonal dimension. According to Grof, this is where Wilber’s model is inconsistent: he lacks the basic presuppositions needed to articulate the whole transpersonal question. Wilber deals with evolution, to be precise a curved evolved/involved Cosmogenesis and a global or “integral” spectrum, based on theoretical presuppositions. Yet he lacks basic presuppositions on an experiential level. Not being an explorer in the field as Grof is, Wilber constructed his system on presuppositions that had already been validated and tested by psychology, which deals with the stages of development of the self i.e. post-biographical experience.

Grof believes that for a more comprehensive spectrum model, we need to consider the BPM matrix (basic perinatal matrix) and their dynamics. Wilber rejects the sequential hypothesis of the matrix and concentrates instead on the uroboric, pre-ego, ego and centaur phases, affirming that a real transpersonal experience occurs at the mature levels of the ego: from the mature ego to the centaur, from the centaur and subtle, causal realms to Atman.

Grof distances himself from Ken Wilber’s theories in favour of experiences which he calls NOSC (non ordinary states of consciousness.) This experiential practice acts as an interface to these BPM matrix and acts as their corresponding experiential field. While the matrices are theoretical models, NOSC are their experiential counterpart. Still, within Wilber’s model, the centaur opens up to the whole transpersonal experiential field, which is an abandonment of the mature ego. However, according to Wilber, it is normal for the transpersonal stages to be excluded in the pre-ego experience. Wilber believes that transpersonal experiences invade the evolved phases of the ego and do not involve experiences which can be found on a pre-ego childlike level.

Wilber sees this supposition of the steadfast ego in the centaur phase as a genuine transpersonal phase. For Wilber, the individual regresses into pre- ego phases and is flooded by trans-ego phases, because of the would-be filter and the dysfunction of the egoic syntax. All of this leaves the individual exposed to a “magical and mythical referential thought” just when egoic syntax starts to fail and while one’s consciousness is flooded with trans-ego material. This leaves the individual unprotected and at risk of psychic inflation.

According to Grof, transpersonal domains also occur in Wilber’s so-called pre-immature phase and it is also possible to have transpersonal encounters in the intra-uterine phase. This is the subtle difference between pre- and trans. This experience can be relived though NOSC. In short, Wilber’s uroboric pre-phase state is very different to Grof’s basic matrix. Wilber’s concept is more the transcendence of a mature ego than a regression into transpersonal realms and a karmic experience of death and rebirth. Transpersonal Psychology presents Grof’s and Wilber’s diverse systems which manage to complement each other. Wilber’s theoretical field opens onto Grof’s experiential field and vice versa. They are the yin and yang of the same structure, the same dynamic field which includes other basic theoretical, experiential, morphogenetic, archetypal, mythological, philosophical, anthropological and inter-agent structures. They are all equally in tune with each other in the large experiential, meta-theoretical field of transpersonal studies.

Diego Pignatelli
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