Soul to Spirit: The New Spiritual Psychology

NOTE: This book is now in the process of being edited. Once it is completely edited it will no longer be free online. As of 4/27/20 this chapter has been edited. 

CLASSICAL THEOSOPHY MODEL COMPARISONS

Though much is written about Lemuria as a race of people and as a continent in Theosophical literature, as I emphasized in CHAPTER FIVE: Survival, Physical Coordination, Individuation these are not a focus in this book. Rather I am looking at Lemurians as having a certain state of consciousness. There is one Theosophical writer, A.E. Powell, whose writings hint at what Bailey speaks about. Like Bailey Powell breaks up the Seven Planes of consciousness into seven subplanes (making 49 subplanes total). An example of how Bailey uses this subplane system in conjunction with her Emotional Plane is below.

Again the Emotional Plane is traditionally known as the Astral Plane. Powell wrote an entire book called The Astral Plane where he put forth his ideas of what the seven subplanes of the “Astral Plane” might be like. In my opinion Bailey’s Ten Evolutionary Groups can be assigned to various subplanes, though Bailey does not do this herself. Still, having compiled and correlated her works for decades, I believe it is possible to infer that her Ten Evolutionary Groups are connected to not only certain planes in her model, but subplanes. Starting in 2016 I began to make correlations and I also started to imitate Integral’s use of colors by adding colors to the various subplanes of Bailey’s model. To let you know my color choices were based on the colors typically associated with the seven chakras and may not reflect what Bailey herself chose. Here then are the colors I picked for her Emotional Plane.

And, here is how I have correlated Bailey’s various terms (see my book The Spiritual Human) with Group Two and Bailey’s 7th subplane of the Emotional Plane. Keeping this in mind let’s look now at how Powell and Bailey’s ideas may line up.

Feeling Out of Control

Of the 7th subplane of the Emotional Plane then, we learn that Powell states that people here operate out of emotional impulses with  very little emotional control. That parallels Bailey’s writings or Group Two. Powell also writes that after death, what most people call the “Hell Realms,” exist on this 7th subplane of the Emotional Plane. That association of hell with the 7th subplane of the Emotional Plane is interesting because most people throughout the centuries have pictured hell as a place of physical torment and emotional turmoil. Hell is where negative emotions like fear, lust, hate, and jealousy are known to run rampant because in hell we usually have little to no control over our emotions or our environment. We have no sense of autonomy, no ability to make choices, no conscious awareness of how to get the evil around us to stop.

Actually, the word evil in the English language is an interesting choice, because it is simply the word live spelled backwards. Hell, then is anti-life precisely because your consciousness has not progressed to the point where you feel you have the power and choice to create a life where positive emotions reign. Because you lack mental discernment and a sense of personal autonomy and power, you can’t create a positive environment around you either. Whether dead or alive, your life can be like a living hell because ultimately hell is a state of consciousness. When we think of what Bailey has mentioned about Group Two, Powell’s ideas seem to fit. Along with other correlations in Bailey’s books it makes sense to me that Bailey’s Group Two is on the 7th subplane of the Emotional Plane because they are not very aware of how to work with their emotions, let alone their minds. For this reason they have very little mastery regarding how to live in the world, meaning the world around them can seem like hell. Still, I believe those in Group Two are beginning to sense certain consequences for their actions and how they bring about certain emotions that bring them pleasure or pain. For example, eating food, having sex, finding shelter leads to pleasure. Not having these things leads to pain. Their instinctual drives then develop more and more along the lines of seeking out pleasure and avoiding pain, which will become more and more refined in Bailey’s Groups Three and beyond.

GROUP TWO – INTEGRAL MODEL COMPARISONS

Turning to the Integral model, I believe Group Two might be the equivalent to Integral’s Magenta level, which is associated with Magical and Animistic consciousness. Much as a small child believes in Santa Claus simply because someone says Santa Claus exists, I am thinking those in Group Two may also be prone to having child-like and unquestioning beliefs about what is going on in the world around them. These child-like beliefs Integral associates with magical thinking, which seems very similar to what Alice Bailey states about how members of Group Two are “confused by events around them usually because they are not able to put these events into any kind of meaningful context.”

Other things Integral states about their Magenta level also seem to fit with Group Two including how they are filled with fears and anxieties, are impulsive and rarely consider the consequences of their behaviors, and are highly motivated by safety concerns leading them to put those in power who will help them get their basic needs met and feel a greater sense of calm. In many ways those in Magenta (and also Group Two) represent the development stage of children around two to five years old, who are actually recapitulating these early stages of human consciousness during these ages.

Magical Thinking

Looking more closely at what Integral says this magical and animistic consciousness is like we discover that human beings have dropped their earlier sense of fusion with the world around them (found in Integral Infrared) and now have some sense of themselves as individuals being separate from nature. However, their capacity to act upon their environment in ways that are consistently (vs randomly) beneficial to them does not exist, perhaps because as Bailey suggest they cannot put the events around them in that meaningful context. No longer able to just float along fused with nature (like a baby floating in the womb of a mother), the individual may now possess a constant sense of anxiety regarding the outer world.

For example, how do you get your survival needs met if you don’t have anyone “out there” to help you? In many ways you have to do what a small child does. You cry, you scream, you laugh, you smile. You find some way to get a mother like figure to respond to you. Then when the mother does respond you begin to realize something that seems miraculous, “I may be separate from the mother, but I can still have magical agency in regards to her. In other words, I see that I magically influence her actions.” Putting it another way you could say the person realizes she/he “makes the mother behave as she does.” The child cannot yet see that the mother primarily behaves as she chooses, responding to the child’s cries, anger, laughter as it pleases the mother or not.

This sense of magical agency in regards to the mother is then transferred unto Mother Nature. Again, “I make Mother Nature, or the Universe even, behave as it does.” Magical agency cannot see that Mother Nature (or the Universe) is essentially in charge, and if any of us act in accordance with the laws regarding how Mother Nature works, we benefit from Mother Nature. But, if we do not act in accordance with those laws, then Mother Nature may even wipe us out. Magical consciousness does not understand this. So instead of learning the laws of how to plant and grow food, I chant magical sounds or perform certain rituals to make that food come my way. I attract food towards me by wearing a buffalo skin, or putting a tiger tooth around my neck so a buffalo or tiger appears near me. Or, I can worship the skull of a cave bear so that it will be good to me and send me one of its cubs for food.

As this sense of magical agency expands, I seek to have even more control, or power over the world around me. For example, if another human being has harmed me, I make an effigy of that person and stick a needle in it to harm that person in that specific area. Or, I throw an effigy of that person onto a fire so that person’s dies somehow. I create charms, light candles, come up with spells that will pull certain people I desire to be with closer to me. But, what do I do if despite all my efforts none of this works out? I can now look for those who have more powerful magic than I do. I can search out the great magicians and shamans who can do a rain dance and make the rain come. Or, they can give someone the evil eye to someone who I don’t like and make that person ill. If I am lucky some of the magic from these great magicians and shamans might even rub off on me if I worship their skulls, or wear their bones as an amulet. Or, maybe I can receive a blessing or special gift from them to empower me somehow or give me some of their magical powers. I can also stay away from those who do not seem to have much magic or who possess evil magic. Typically these are people and places that seem different or strange to me.

Because I have difficulty appreciating the individual nature of people, I also will tend to categorize people and things. If a person with a certain eye color came into my area and someone died shortly after that person arrived, then I can conclude that all people with that eye color must be evil. Anyone who is too different from me might become suspect because I view them as having evil spirits. If something bad goes wrong (it fails to rain, someone dies of an illness) than those who are different and possess evil spirits will be blamed. Magicians and shamans may be contacted to exorcise these spirits (even those who are no longer in the physical realm) to make these evil people go somewhere else. Regardless of whether my or someone else’s magic is successful or not, my solution to every problem I face in life is the same — use magic! If the magic worked, keep using it. If it didn’t then go find more powerful magic or a more powerful magician to make the world right again. Then my “mother” (and Mother Nature) will finally be happy enough to respond to me and give me what I want.

Psychic Power Mystification

Does all this magical thinking mean then that all magicians and shamans are just fake and creating a smoke screen? Are all amulets we wear, ashes or bones from saints or holy people that we possess, crystals we use, sacred words we chant, candles we light and say affirmations over, prayers and rituals we perform and so on, proof that we are just massively deluding ourselves? Not necessarily so. Ken Wilber, the main Integral theorist, attempts to sort out magical thinking from genuine psychic phenomena that he feels does exist (See Up From Eden, pp. 54—56). Wilber further elaborates on how to sort the two out when he talks about the pre-trans fallacy. “Pre” stands for “pre” rational, which is basically the same thing as magical thinking. “Trans” is “post” rational, which has learned to include rational thinking in association with the development of psychic powers.

Consider a child’s belief in Santa Claus. “Pre” rational thinking believes Santa Claus is real and that if I magically think “good thoughts” I will get my wishes met and the presents I wanted will show up underneath the Christmas tree.  Essentially, I made Santa Clause bring those presents to me. “Trans” means I have grown up to understand that Santa Claus is a made up character and that the presents that appear due to my “good thoughts” under the tree, get there mainly if I have reasonable and rational parents who reward my good behavior with presents, using Santa Claus as a stand in in this magical play we are all having fun with. “Trans” also allows me to think more rationally and see that if I acted good and presents did not appear under the tree, it doesn’t necessarily mean I was a bad person, or that I didn’t wish hard enough to make presents appear. It could mean that the presents didn’t appear because my parents didn’t have the money to buy presents. Or, maybe I have neglectful and abusive parents who don’t consistently recognize or reward my good behavior. Maybe my parents just don’t want to play Santa Claus anymore and gave up on the holiday. “Trans” means that though I may still have some “magical agency,” I am able to use it more “rationally” to up the odds that I will consistently get the results I am hoping for. And if I don’t? I am able to adjust my thinking accordingly so that I increase my chances for getting what I want (and avoiding what I don’t want) in the world through more consistent and reasonable methods.

Alice Bailey addresses this very same pre/trans issue in her books, only she refers to what Integral would call “pre” as lower psychic powers. Lower psychic powers exist on the Emotional Plane before we have developed enough mind to really discern the real from the unreal in regards to them. They are pre-mental plane, or pre-rational thinking. Higher psychic powers exists on the higher levels of the Mental Plane and especially on the Intuitional Plane. They are trans-emotional and in some cases even post-mental, meaning though her higher psychic powers include the rational capacities of the mind, they go beyond it.

The dangers that Bailey warns us about in regards to pursuing “lower psychic powers” is precisely because we could end up regressing, instead of progressing, in our evolution if we fail to develop our minds enough. As for higher psychic powers, people are often surprised when they read Bailey’s list of what they are. They see words like discernment, compassion, and active service and don’t view these as psychic powers at all. That doesn’t mean that Bailey discounts the idea of what she calls lower psychic powers. She is just stating that we won’t be able to discern as to if they are really working or not, until the mind is more developed. And, in Bailey’s system we don’t really learn to develop higher psychic powers until we get into at least Group 7 (and mainly Group 8), in regards to her Ten Evolutionary Groups. Bailey goes on to say that since humans have difficulty understanding what psychic powers really are and how to really use them without regressing into the magical thinking, we as a human species are meant to leave behind, though as we are seeing here a few humans, like those in Group Two, are not able to.

GROUP TWO – MODERN SCIENCE & CULTURAL CORRELATIONS

Anthropological Correlations

Another thing that Integral suggests is a timeline for when this kind of Magical/Animistic consciousness became dominant in human thinking placing it around 50,000 years ago. This was the time period when the Neanderthals were starting to be phased out and when Cro-Magnon man, or Homo Sapiens, was becoming more dominant. This time period is also known as the anthropological phase called Upper Paleolithic. (Note: Many anthropologists believe Homo sapiens existed as far back as 200,000 years ago, but most agree the time of dominance of Homo sapiens was around 50,000 BCE). At that time period when Homo sapiens was becoming more dominant anthropologists also saw an increase in language, figurative art, and religious behavior beginning to emerge. Tool making also became more sophisticated. Much of this fits with the Magical/Animistic ideas behind Integral’s Magenta level and with Alice Bailey’s Group Two.

Brain Research

Seen as a state of cleavage that people can regress back down to in times of stress, a temporary shift into Group Two consciousness might happen when people become overly abused or are under chronic levels of extreme stress. Then people may feel easily blown about by their various emotional states. Or, they may experience themselves as being dominated and terrorized by people because their emotional turmoil prevents them from seeing the unhealthy motives of others. Sadly, these poor choices may even increase their propensity to live in the every day “hell realms” that Powell refers to. Remnants of this kind of magical thinking are still all around us, even among those who can be found in some of the rest of Bailey’s Ten Evolutionary Groups. In many ways, though few people in the world could truly be said to belong to Group Two, many people in the world still have a Group Two hangover! The magical thinking from this level of consciousness can still take hold and effect how we think and what we do, especially when stressed and Group Two type cleavages emerge. The notion of many people clinging to some Group Two thinking is not as far out as it seems, if you consider that Bailey believes the majority of humanity has its consciousness located within Groups Five, Four and Three! Especially those in Group Three then might break down to Group Two when too much chronic stress emerges.

That chronic stress and the emotional chaos that can come with it may in turn start to impact their brains and biology. I am thinking of the research on the brain done by Dr. Daniel Amen with his SPECT scans. To the left is a SPECT scan of the brain of a patient of his who has suffered chronic and severe Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD). When people are under chronic stress, or go through constant trauma, they lose their basic feeling of safety. Now they are in a constant state of emotional reaction that keeps them hyper-alert to danger and constantly triggers off the brain’s stress response alarm system maintaining them in a constant state of fight-or-flight alert. When this alarm system is always on, the thinking part of the brain (which exists mainly in the front part of the brain in the pre-frontal cortex) is known to shut down. And, the primitive part of the brain (in the back of the brain where the limbic system is), chronically takes over. Take a look again at the picture to the top left of one of Dr. Amen’s clients who had PTSD. Notice how much of the brain is red especially in the back of the brain.  Dr. Amen says that a brain in this state on “overdrive, increasing anxiety and irritability and interfering with sleep.” (https://www.amenclinics.com/blog/branded-brain-ptsd/).

Now take a look at the same brain to the right after the individual’s brain has been calmed down with treatment in Dr. Amen’s clinic to see how much the PTSD has decreased. For me then Amen’s research gives further clues as to why those in Group Two (or those who regress temporarily back to this state), have so little emotional control and are so hyper focused on the physical environment and feeling safe. The replay of “hellish images” of abuse, war, and horrific scenes in PTSD also feel correlated to this 7th subplane level as a temporary regression here. As for whether hell realms really exist, whether they do or not, it seems apparent that the themes of hell focus primarily on never feeling safe, feeling physically in danger, being overly exposed to horror, and having out of control emotions that one cannot manage or calm down. Living in these hellish states also seems to fit with Michael Robbins statement mentioned in CHAPTER SEVEN: Instinctual Mind & Hyper-Sexuality on Group Two where Robbins says they have “memories and images, but no tendency to focus on them or cultivate them” (Egoic Lotus Webinar Commentaries 3 Series starting at around 22:00 ). Robbins comments fit with what is known about PTSD where repetitive memories and images of traumatic and abusive events frequently reoccur. Only as these images are focused on and cultivated in such a way they can be reprogrammed and redirected does the person eventually find relief.

GROUP TWO – TRANSPERSONAL PSYCHOLOGY COMPARISONS

Finally, I would like to make correlations to Bailey’s model and the work of Abraham Maslow who developed the field of Humanistic Psychology, later incorporated into the field of Transpersonal Psychology. Maslow put forth the notion that there are different developmental groups who shift from one group to the next, as they learn to satisfy certain needs. He formalized this into what he called his “hierarchy of needs” model (see picture to the right). Maslow’s ideas fit in with what Theosophy and Bailey’s models suggest, though that should come as no surprise since there is evidence that Maslow was indirectly influenced by them both. (See my video The Evolution of Spiritual Psychology).

When looking for correlations with Bailey’s model we read again how Bailey says her Group Two primarily “eat, sleep, and procreate following the natural instincts of the animal body” (Esoteric Psychology, Vol. II, p. 203).  We also learned how Group Two is associated with Lemurian consciousness (in a similar way as Group One). Bailey stated that “In Lemurian times, the emphasis of the life force was upon the physical body, upon its development, its use and control, and also upon its perpetuation or reproduction” (Esoteric Healing, p. 58). She also states that those in Group Two have an “urgent sexual appetite” (Esoteric Healing, p. 58).  For me these statements match what  Maslow suggests in the lower levels of his model of needs regarding what he calls Physiological needs, and to some extent his Safety and security as well.

Copyright © 2018 – 2020 by Lisa Love. All rights reserved. No part of this blog may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, computer, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.