This transpersonal model is an integration of our mutual commitment to the mystical while remaining anchored in mainstream psychological practice. Our two foundation stones are grounded in the Process Oriented Psychology of Arnold Mindell, and Rudolf Steiner’s work on Anthroposophy.
Much of our work has been inspired by Arnold Mindell’s Process Oriented Psychology or “Processwork” . This is a multicultural awareness practice for working with individuals, groups and organisations. Mindell calls the field of non-dualistic intelligence Processmind, linking it to Hawking’s Mind of God. According to Mindell, every time we ignore dream-like perceptions or sentience, something inside of us goes into ‘a mild form of shock’. This is because we have overlooked the spirit of our life, our greatest potential source of power.
In Building Intuitive Consciousness we investigate this underlying field of intelligence, which we see as belonging to a higher state of consciousness. We call this Intuitive Consciousness. Like Mindell, we explore the concept of twenty-four hour lucid dreaming, where we develop our capacity to encompass multiple layers of awareness and altered states. We liken Intuitive Consciousness to a bridge between our ordinary ego awareness and higher levels of the spiritual realms which we call the numinous.
Rudolf Steiner and his work on Anthroposophy describes the development of consciousness for humanity as a whole and our own individual awakening. Steiner’s work sought to synthetize science and spirituality, Rosicrucianism, theosophy and medicine. His exploration of the paths of initiation in the ancient mystery schools makes accessible much of that wisdom to the modern reader and seeker of soul development.
Steiner has described the journey away from the ego as moving from imagination through inspiration and intuition. According to Steiner once we are able to separate from the total dominance of ego sensible perception, we can creatively allow new ways of accessing higher knowledge to become more habitual in our everyday lives. Our perceptions will become more reliable rather than solely based on the ego, such as on one-sided blind spots.
Developing our Intuitive Consciousness is a journey that builds progressively and reflects many of the sentiments of Steiner’s Anthroposophy and Mindell’s Process Oriented Psychology. Beginning with simple imaginative witnessing leading to insight, we move to more complex modes of super sensible perception, inspirational knowing and intuition. Mindell describes a similar process as stepping into ‘presence’ or Process Mind.
Building Intuitive Consciousness takes us on a journey through the stages, beginning with dual awareness, that are necessary to cross the threshold intentionally into this field of consciousness. We use the term threshold to describe the passageway out of the ego sensible perception of the ordinary terrain, in order to access super sensible perception and the numinous realm. It refers essentially to a shift in consciousness. The nature of dual awareness is that we have access to another and more expanded and detached point of view beyond the ordinary. This is the source of our greatest wisdom and creativity that encompasses both the psychological and the numinous. By following the journey of Building Intuitive Consciousness we discover how to access these levels of consciousness intentionally.
Inspiration is the next big shift in our capacity for Intuitive Consciousness. A defining characteristic of all the steps along the continuum of developing Intuitive Consciousness is that higher knowledge arrives ‘into us’ rather than us having to force it to appear. This is especially true for inspirational and intuitive ways of knowing that do not require the activity of imagination to bring about insights.
Intuition is a state of intense clarity. We are able to join with the innermost nature of our world. Through intuition we can see and understand at a very deep level of consciousness. It is often initially non-verbal because it is a window into the numinous. Perhaps this is why we commonly hear of people talking about intuitive flashes. They are just that, a flash of clear illumination and a sudden intensity of knowledge, hard to pin down into words. Intuition appears in us as a deep sentient experience.
