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Psychic Phenomena and the Relational Mind
Isabel Clarke
Consultant Clinical Psychologist.
Being Porous• our capacity to communicate and participate in ways that
defy ordinary logic and have always teased science.• Some people are more open to this type of experience
than others – cf. Schizotypy• I will argue that psychic phenomena such as:
• Thought transference• channelling• “past life experiences” etc.are accessible in a certain state of mind/way of
experiencing, which I call the relational.This gives us a way of fitting such experiences into a
scientific framework while doing justice to their veracity.
Introducing Interacting Cognitive Subsystems (Teasdale & Barnard 1993).
• Interacting Cognitive Subsystems provides – An information processing model of cognition– Developed through extensive research into
memory and limitations on processing.– A way into understanding the “Head/Heart
split in people.– This gives us two ways of
knowing/experiencing
BodyState
subsystem
Auditoryss.
Visualss.
Interacting Cognitive Subsystems.
Implicational subsystem
ImplicationalMemory
Propositional subsystem
PropositionalMemory
Verbalss.
Important Features of this model
• Our subjective experience is the result of two overall meaning making systems interacting – neither is in control.
• Each has a different character, corresponding to “head” and “heart”.
• The IMPLICATIONAL Subsystem (which I will call RELATIONAL) manages emotion – and therefore relationship.
• The verbal, logical, PROPOSITIONAL ss. gives us our sense of individual self.
Two Ways of Knowing
• Good everyday functioning = good communication between implicational/relational and propositional
• At high and at low arousal, the relational ss becomes dominant
• This gives us a different quality of experience – one that is both sought and shunned – and, I will argue, one that gives access to psychic phenomena.
Relational Subsystem concerns
• Meaning and meaningfulness• The self; threat and value• Intense, extreme feelings (all or nothing)• Loss of fine discrimination and boundaries
(domain of the propositional subsystem)• This gives us the quality of experience I will call
the “transliminal”• Loss of boundaries perhaps = openness to other
minds
A Challenging Model of the mind
• The mind is simultaneously individual, and reaches beyond the individual, when the relational ss. is dominant.
• There is a constant balancing act between logic and emotion – human fallibility
• The self sufficient, atomistic, mind is an illusion
• In our relational mode we are a part of the whole, and so open to the whole.
Relationship and the self
• We are defined by our relationships • First by relationship with our caregivers, and those close
to us• Moving out to relationship with our group, nation, other
peoples, humanity, ancestors, earth, animals etc. • Relationship with that which is deepest and furthest –
which is beyond our naming capacity, but is sometimes called God, Goddess, Spirit etc.
• Relationship is something we experience – so it can be beyond propositional knowledge – we can feel more than we know.
Web of Relationships
Self asexperienced
in relationshipwith primary
caregiver
Sense ofvalue comes
from rel. withthe spiritual
primarycare-giver
In Rel. with wider
group etc.
In Rel. withearth:
non humansetc.
A “Two ways of knowing” Explanation
• Conceptualisation and the propositional falters at this point. There are things we can experience but not precisely know.
• This is because conceptualisation belongs to the propositional system
• Experience is co-ordinated by the relational ss.
• When the relational ss. is dominant and interchange of psychic contents becomes possible – the propositional subsystem is temporarily out of reach
• Human beings always strive to make sense of things – whether they have the necessary data or not!
• Propositional attempts to make sense of relational/transliminal experiences are retrospective.
• In the case of religious experience, they are usually culturally determined.
• In the case of delusions – they can be bizarre on the surface, but make sense in terms of the person’s history.
• Science attempts to make such phenomena conform to its propositional framework – to predict the unpredictable!
Two dangers re.psychic phenomena
1. Reject the phenomenon – the traditional scientific response.
2. Believe the explanation – easy to argue that the experience verifies the explanation.
- the transliminal adds a gloss of significance to everything!
It is therefore important to bear in mind “both – and”
We need explanations – but in this sphere, should sit lightly to them.
PSYCHOSIS and SPIRITUALITY
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