Jean Gebser THE EVERPRESENT ORIGIN Power Point Presentation

Jean Gebser THE EVER-PRESENT ORIGIN Power Point Presentation for the Seminar on Psychology of Social Development organized by the University of Human Unity, Auroville

Two fundamental principles of Gebser’s approach • • 1) Latency - what is concealed - is the demonstrable presence of the future. It includes everything that is not yet manifest, as well as everything which has again returned to latency. Since we are dealing here primarily with phenomena of consciousness and integration, we will also have to investigate questions of history, the soul and the psyche, time, space, and the forms of thought. Since the second part of this work is devoted to manifestations of the new consciousness, the first part must clarify questions relating to the manifestations of previous and present consciousness structures. We shall attempt to demonstrate the incipient concretion of time and the spiritual dimension which are preconditions of the aperspectival world. We shall also attempt to furnish evidence of the increasing efficacy of that spiritual reality (which is neither a mere psychic state nor an intellectual-rational form of representation). This will bring out the validity of our second guiding principle: 2) Transparency (diaphaneity) is the form of manifestation (epiphany) of the spiritual. Our concern is to render transparent everything latent "behind" and "before" the world - to render transparent our own origin, our entire human past, as well as the present, which already contains the future. We are shaped and determined not only by today and yesterday, but by tomorrow as well. The author is not interested in outlining discrete segments, steps or levels of man, but in disclosing the transparency of man as a whole and the interplay of the various consciousness structures which constitute him. This transparency or diaphaneity of our existence is particularly evident during transitional periods, and it is from the experiences of man in transition, experiences which man has had with the concealed and latent aspects of his dawning future as he became aware of them, that will clarify our own experiencing of the present.

Gebser’s Fundamental Discoveries • The beginning of the perspectival perception of the mental (=spatial) structure of consciousness (Ancient Greeks and medieval Europe) out of latent unperspectival and pre-perspectival structures. (Francesco Petrarca, Leonardo de Vinci, etc. ) • The emergence of aperspectival consciousness in the 20 th century out of perspectival structure (Picasso etc. ) operating within and by all the latent structures in a transparent way for the manifestation of the Spirit. • “Transparency (diaphaneity) is the form of manifestation (epiphany) of the spiritual. ”- says Gebser. He cannot fully accept the rational, perspectival conception of progress and evolution, which is not taking into account the latent structures of our being. • He also declines the Orientalist view, which is, according to him, turned only towards the past (mythical structure) in search of the origin to escape from the manifestation (mainly Buddhism and Advaita).

Sri Aurobindo on Evolution • We speak of the evolution of Life in Matter, the evolution of Mind in Matter; but evolution is a word which merely states the phenomenon without explaining it. For there seems to be no reason why Life should evolve out of material elements or Mind out of living form, unless we accept the Vedantic solution that Life is already involved in Matter and Mind in Life because in essence Matter is a form of veiled Life, Life a form of veiled Consciousness. The Life Divine, (Page 3)

Structures of consciousness • Archaic ( Primal man, Protanthropos, Purusha of the Rig Veda, Adam Kadmon of the Cabbalists, Osiris of the Egyptian-Gnostics) • Magic (‘here the primal man becomes the maker’; for the first time he faces the world; vital impulse and instinct thus unfold and develop a consciousness in dealing with Nature; witchcraft and sorcery, totem and taboo are the natural means of freeing himself from Nature) (appr. before 10 000 BC) • Mythical (brings the awareness of the inner life of the soul, its history and its origin, the primal Myth) (appr. before 2500 BC) • Mental (‘It individualizes man from his previously valid world, emphasizing his singularity and making his ego possible. ’(p. 76) It introduces a perspectival perception of the world (1250 -1500 AD) by spatializing time perception; it represents life by conceptualizing it, distancing man from his own nature. ) • Integral (freedom from all the structures by their transparent rearrangement into one integral oneness of being)

Space and Time Relationship Structure a) Dimensioning b) Perspectivity c) Emphasis Archaic: Zero-dimensional None Identity (Integrality) Magic: One-dimensional Point Unity (Oneness) Mythical: Two-dimensional Circle Polarity (Ambivalence) Mental: Three-dimensional Triangle Duality (Opposition) Integral: Four-dimensional Sphere Diaphaneity (Transparency)

Space and Time Properties Structure 2. Sign 3. Essence 4. Properties 5. Potentiality Archaic: Integrality None Prespatial Pretemporal Magic: Non-directional unitary, interwovenness or fusion Unity by Unification, Hearing/Hearkening Preperspectival Spaceless Timeless* Mythical: Circular and polar Complementarity Unification by Complementarity and Correspondence Unperspectival Spaceless Natural temporicity Mental: Directed dual oppositionality Unification by Synthesis and Reconciliation Perspectival Spatial Abstractly temporal Integral: Presentiating, Diaphanous “rendering whole" Integrality by Integration and. Presentiation Aperspectival Space-free Time-free

Properties of Consciousness Structure 6. Emphasis a) Objective (external) b) Subjective (internal) Archaic: Unconscious Spirit None or Latency Magic: Nature Mythical: 7. Consciousness a) Degree b) Relation Deep sleep Universe-related: Breathing-spell Emotion Sleep Outer-related (Nature): Exhaling Soul/Psyche Imagination Dream Inner-related (Psyche): Inhaling Mental: Space – World Abstraction Wakefulness Outer-related (Spatial world): Exhaling Integral: (Conscious Spirit) (Concretion) (Transparency) (Inward-related: Inhaling? or Breathing -Spell? )

Properties of Forms and Attitudes Structure 8. Forms of Manifestation 9. Basic attitude and agency of energy 10. Organ emphasis a) efficient b) deficient Archaic: None Presentiment, foreboding Origin: Wisdom - Magic: Spell-casting Witchcraft Instinct Vital: Drive Emotion Viscera - Ear Mythical: Primal myth (envisioned myth) Mythology (spoken myth) Imagination Psychic: Sensibility Disposition Heart - Mouth Mental: Menos (directive, discursive thought) Ratio (divisive, immoderate hairsplitting) Reflection Cerebral: Abstraction Will/Volition Brain - Eye Integral: Diaphainon (open, spiritual "verition") Void (atomizing dissolution) (Concretion) Integral: (Rendering diaphanous) ("Verition") (Vertex)

Forms of Realisation and Thought I Structur e 11. Forms of realization and thought a) Basis Archaic: b) Mode c) Process d) Expression Originary Presentiment Magic: Empathy and Identification Hearing Pre-rational, precausal analogical Associative, analogizing, sympathetic interweaving Vital experience Mythical: Imagination and Utterance Contemplation and Voicing Irrational: noncausal, polar Internalized recollection, contemplation externalized utterance, expression Undergone experience Mental: Conceptualization and Reflection Seeing and Measuring Rational: causal, directed Projective speculation: oceanic, paradoxical, then perspectival thinking Representation Conception, Ideation Integral: (Concretion and Integration "Verition“ and Transparency) (Arational: acausal, integral) Integrating, rendering diaphanous Verition

Forms of Realisation and Thought II Structure e) Formulation 11. Forms of realization and thought f) Limits g) Valence Archaic: World-origin Magic: World-knowledge, the "recognized" world Conditioned Univalent Mythical: World-image or Weltanschauung: the contemplated and interpreted world Temporally bound Ambivalent Mental: World-conception: the thought and conceptualized world Limited Trivalent Integral: World-Verition: the world perceived and imparted in truth Open, free Multivalent

Forms of Expression and Articulation Structure 12. Forms of Expression Archaic: Magic: Mythical: Magic: Mythologeme 13. Forms of Assertion or Articulation Graven images Idol Ritual Gods Symbol Mysteries Mental: Philosopheme: God Dogma (Allegory, Creed) Method Integral: (Eteologeme: ) (Divinity) (Synairesis) (Diaphany) Petition (Prayer): being heard Wishes (Ideals: Fulfillment "wish (pipe-) dreams") Volition: attainment (Verition: Present)

Forms of Relationships Structure a) temporal Archaic: _ 14. Relationships b) social _ c) general Universal or ("cosmic“) Magic: Undifferentiated Tribal world [clan/kith and kin] natural Egoless Terrestrial Mythical: Predominantly past-oriented [recollection, muse] Parental world [Ancestor-worship] predominantly matriarchal Egoless "we"-oriented psychic Mental: Predominantly future-oriented [purpose and goal] World of the first-born son, individuality [child-adulation] predominantly patriarchal Egocentric materialistic Integral: (Presentiating) Mankind, neither matriarchy nor patriarchy but integrum Ego-free, amaterial, apsychic

Forms of Bond and Motto Structure 15. Localization of the soul Archaic: (Universe) Magic: Semen and blood Proligio (prolegere) emotive and point-like Mythical: Diaphragm and heart Relegio (relegere) observing, internalizing (recollecting) and externalizing (expressing) Mental: Spinal cord and brain Religion {religare): believing, knowing and deducing Integral: Cerebral cortex, humoral Praeligio (praeligare): presentiating, concretizing, integrating 16. Forms of bond or tie _ 17. Motto (All) Pars pro toto Soul is identical to life (and death) Thinking is Being Origin: Present Perceiving and Imparting Truth