Spiritual Visions from a Grofian Perspective

Spiritual visions arise from the biographical, social, unconscious and other consciousness of the experiencer. Below is a description of the map of these experiences described in the work of Stanislav Grof which includes the personal and transpersonal levels of experience.

Sensory Barrier

The sensory barrier is where deep self exploration begins.  This barrier needs to be crossed before moving into the deeper levels, matrices, and dimensions.  In accessing the unconscious mind, various sensory organs are activated.  This can cause a variety of experiences including visions of colors or geometric shapes, ringing or buzzing sounds, tingling sensations on the skin, tastes and smells.  The content of these experiences are of little consequence.  Crossing the sensory barrier is necessary to access the deeper parts of the unconscious mind.

Recollective-Biographical Level of Deep Exploration

Once the sensory barrier is crossed, the recollective-biographical area of the unconscious mind is now accessible.  This area is limited to the biographical events of this life time.  Grof states that this level of the unconscious mind is where traditional psychotherapeutic techniques are usually applied.  Memories that are repressed, or any unresolved conflict, can be the subject of the session by acting as a radar or beacon to enter the deeper levels of the psyche.  The information in and of it self does not need to be prioritized, the only requirement of the importance of this information is that it be of “sufficient emotional relevance”.

Grof also discusses the COEX systems or systems of condensed experiences which are “a constellation of experiences” which have physical, emotional or other elements with a shared quality.  (ie.  Different experiences that may cause nausea or anger etc. are related and can be used as the context of a deeper experiential session.)

It is also important to note that the direct experience of individuals regarding traumatic events is a concern of experiential approaches as well.  Grof notes that traditional methods do not concern themselves with the threat to the body, but with the emotional aspects of the trauma.  Grof notes that on the biographical level, these residual effects of threat to the body are important and lasting.


The First Basic Perinatal Matrix (BPMI): “The Amniotic Universe”

This is a time of life that is ideally undisturbed by the outside world where all of your needs are met.  Ideally, a fetus, sitting in an amniotic sack inside the mother’s womb is a time of pure being for each individual.  Grof does note however that other factors can come in to disturb this time that include unwanted chemicals and toxins as well as an unpreferred emotional state of the mother.

Experiences in this realm include both direct recollections of being in the womb “or in combination with symbolic experiences and other phenomena in which they are connected”.  Because of the fetus’s intimate connection with her mother, most of the experiences from BPM I deal with a “lack of boundaries and obstructions”.

Grof states that many of the visualizations have to deal with oceanic life including animals such as jellyfish, algae, kelp, fish, dolphins or whales.  These images are rich with symbolic parallels to a fetus floating in an amniotic sack inside what must be the vast ocean of her mother. He references life undisturbed in the cosmos or the picture of an astronaut (tied to the spaceship) floating in space.  The images here can find deeper meaning into the collective unconscious in dealing with themes of heaven and paradise.  In this context, it would seem then that our image of heaven, Eden or our ideal of life is a direct result of our womb experience.

This view of life then can also be interfered with by many events that may take place as a result of an unpreferred womb experience.  Polluted streams or toxic air may represent a toxic situation that may develop as a result of the latter parts of pregnancy.  Apocalyptic visions may represent eminent threat to a fetus that an imminent miscarriage or attempted abortion might precipitate.

Entrance into BPM I then is an opportunity to heal the basic outlook of what life is or can be by allowing the client the opportunity to remember what ideal life was, or to rectify an unpreffered womb experience.


The Second Basic Perinatal Matrix (BPMII):  “Cosmic Englufment and No Exit”.

The undisturbed and serene existence of the fetus in the womb is now disturbed by the physical processes of the mother when birth is about to begin, first by chemical changes in the environment, and later by contractions of the uterus”.  Grof is descriptive about the situation the fetus is now faced with:

With this stage fully developed, the fetus is periodically constricted by uterine spasms.  At this point, they system is entirely closed; the cervix is not yet dilated and the way out is not yet available…each contraction restricts the supply of blood and thus oxygen, nourishment and warmth to the fetus” (Holotroptic Approaches to Self Discovery p15)

This scenario describes the “amniotic universe” has now closed in on the fetus.  It appears much like the description of the “big-bang theory” where the cosmos (just before their creation) were compressed into a small miniscule point just before it’s eruption.

This constriction has been described in sessions as danger that is unidentifiable or seeing the world in paranoid terms.  Grof states that this results in a person who believes himself to be taken over by aliens or somehow possessed by a demonic force.  Some of the more interesting of the experiences include being swallowed up by a giant dragon, python or whale, or being attacked by a tarantula.  All of these are interesting symbolic images of being “swallowed up” or constricted by the uterus.  Physical and emotional feelings can also be an interesting part of this experience including claustrophobia, entrapment, or a feeling of being trapped in hell.  Experiences in BPM II can be important in healing the feelings of victimization or helplessness that many people feel in their life circumstances.

The Third Basic Perinatal Matrix (BPMIII):  The Death-Rebirth Struggle

Even though the contractions are continuing, the cervix is now dilated and the there is now a way out of the entrapment that is characteristic in BPM II.  One is reminded of the near death experiences where the individual who has just “died” is now going toward the light.  Often in horror fiction where an incarnate entity is lost between the two worlds, they are instructed to go toward the light, allowing then to move on from one universe to the other.

Even though there is a way out, it is still a dangerous time for the fetus.  It must move up the birth canal, (which is quite a bit smaller than she is).  There is risk of suffocation and anoxia at this stage.  While moving up the birth canal, the umbilical cord is further constricted.  Also, the umbilical cord can become entangled around parts of the body, detaching it from the uterine wall, further causing separation from the fetus’s source of life.  It is also noted in the text, that the fetus comes into contact, for the first time, with blood, urine and often times feces.  The head of the uterus is forced into it’s new world for the first time because of the contractions of her mother.

The symbolic references that one may have during an experience with BPMIII include dangerous adventures, feelings of pulsating and explosive energy including identifications with volcanoes, tidal waves, earthquakes, wars, revolutions, atomic bombs, scenes of gladiator struggles, or sadomasochistic experiences (having to do with both the painful and orgasmic experience of BPM III).

Experience with BPM III can be an important healing in accepting the inevitable and one’s ability to use her own resources in regards to solving problems.  Also, this experiential level has many experiences that can heal the view of good and bad, light and dark, preferred and unpreferred etc.  A healing in this area may help an individual become more empathetic to the attitudes and situations of those around her.


The Fourth Basic Perinatal Matrix (BPM IV):  The Death-Rebirth Experience

This is the actual birth experience of the child.  The struggle is at an end.  The suffering and pain of the struggle is followed by relaxation and release as the child escapes from her captivity.  The umbilical cord is cut and now the former fetus must adapt and change to be able to survive without her former intimate attachment to her mother.  She must now find sources of food and oxygen and integrate them independently from her mother.

Many of the experiences at BPM IV can relive the actual circumstances around their birth which may include instruments that were used in the birth or an incubation period that may have been required.

Symbolically, experiences include surrendering the struggle that was so dramatically described in BPM III.  The loss in the struggle is inevitable for all living organisms.  No one can stay in the womb.  As a result, feelings of failure and despair can result.  Since everything that was known is know at an end, there may also be feelings of impending disaster, physical destruction, intellectual and philosophical defeat, moral failure or damnation of transcendental proportions.  This is the stuff of ego or personality death and rebirth that is so common in experiences of this nature.  This process of ego death begins with the experiences of our actual physical births blurring the lines between birth and death perhaps showing it to be one continuous cycle that we travel around the cosmic egg.

With this ego death, we stop identifying ourselves with our physicality and begin to see the world in more spiritual terms.  The journey through the BPM’s then is an important step in moving into the transpersonal realms.  It is both in actuality and symbolically a change in our philosophical view of the world.  Once we can overcome our fear of death (and rebirth) we can allow ourselves a new perspective on who it is that we are and the nature of our universe.  This parallels the end of the death-rebirth drama.  We change our view of the universe a place of safe knowing and being in the amniotic universe, to the struggle of dying (rebirthing) to a new universe (the outside physical world).


Experiential Extension Within Consensus Reality and Space-Time

Transpersonal experiences that transcend spatial boundaries “suggest that physical boundaries between the individual and the rest of the physical universe are not fixed and absolute. A person may be able to experience what it is like to be other people, animals, plants, minerals, groups, the earth or the universe.

Transpersonal experiences that transcend the boundaries of linear time can allow the subject to move back into his genetic past and experience fetal, ancestral, racial, evolutionary, planetary or cosmic history.

Experiential Extension Beyond Consensus Reality and Space-Time.

These experiences take us beyond the physical reality of the third dimension and move us into the realm of spirit guides, animal guides, seeing and feeling the energy of the chakras (and includes the subtle body and kundalini experiences), universal archetypes and contact with the collective unconscious and contact with the void and the great mystery.

Transpersonal Experiences of Psychoid Nature.

Transpersonal experiences of a psychoid Nature include synchronistic links between consciousness and matter,  spontaneous psychoid events and intentional psychokinesis.  Many of these transpersonal experiences deal with paranormal activity including UFO phenomena, poltergeists and psychokenesis (as examples). According to Carl Jung, synchronicity is an acausal connecting principal that refers to meaningful coincidences of events separated in time and/or space.

Spontaneous Psychoid events include supernormal physical feats (luminosity of the body or occasional reports of human combustion), spiritualistic phenomena and mediumship, poltergeists and UFO phenomena.  I do not have any experience in this area.  I do know of people however that have seen UFO’s and I suppose that the “crop-circle” phenomena might also be listed here.

Intentional psychokinesis can be defined as the ability to influence the material environment without physical intervention of the body by simply wishing events to happen or by performing acts that have no ordinary cause and effect relationship to the outcome.