Category Archives: Transpersonal Psychology

Stages of Working with issues

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By George A. Boyd ©2023

Q: I feel completely absorbed in my suffering and misery. How can I break free to meditate and begin feeling fully alive again?

A: There are seven major stages of working with your issues:

  1. Complete absorption in the issue – There is full identification with the issue; the issue governs your choices, beliefs, emotions, and behaviors.
  2. Separation of attention from the issue – This is the first sense that the issue is not your identity; your attention observes it.
  3. Monitoring – Your attention observes the issue running like a tape; it notices the choices, beliefs, emotions, and behavior of the issue arise and pass away. This is the stage of Vipassana.
  4. Inner work – You regard the issue from the standpoint of your attentional principle. You are able to use Process Meditation, Affirmation, Mandala Method, and Rainbow Technique to work with the issue to gain insight, release, and breakthrough.
  5. Self-control – Your Self begins to overrule the issue and command alternate behavior, countermand the choices embedded in the issue, and refute erroneous beliefs.
  6. Grace – You are able to call down the Light of Spirit to attune with the issue, which grants emotional comfort, healing, and reconnection with the Soul; additionally, your Self receives guidance and direction.
  7. Surrender and detachment – You surrender the issue to the Soul, the spiritual Master, and God, and you abide in obedience to the Divine Will; you carry this out each day.

You start the process with taking these steps:

  • Your first challenge is moving from identification with the issue to observing it. With further practice, you can start to observe the issue arising and passing away—at this stage, you are capable of doing Vipassana.
  • Once you are able to shift to the perspective of your attentional principle and your Self, you will begin to be able to work on the issue and wrest control from it.
  • As you are able to tap into your spiritual core, you will begin to bring in the Light of Attunement and the Soul’s transpersonal will to help you overcome the issue.

We teach the techniques for inner work in our intermediate meditation classes: the in-person Mudrashram® Master Course in Meditation and the by-mail and online Accelerated Meditation Program. Having the ability to work on the issue from a place of clarity can catalyze inner movement; eventually you will fully overcome the issue.

Exercise to Explore These Seven Perspectives

You can do an exercise to experience the different perspectives on your issue. Identify with what issue you want to work. Then ask the following questions for this issue:

  • How do I experience my issue when I am fully identified with it?
  • What does my issue look like when I detach my attention from it?
  • What do I notice about this issue when I monitor it in the present time?
  • How does my attentional principle view this issue? What tools do I have to work on this issue from my attentional principle?
  • How does my Self view this issue? How does my Self interface with the issue? From this higher standpoint, can I begin to control the issue’s behavior and beliefs, and overrule its choices?
  • If I call in the Holy Spirit or my spiritual guides or Masters, what attunements can I send to work begin to heal this issue?
  • How does my Soul regard this issue? What abilities, love, and knowledge does it have that can change and ultimately overcome the issue?
  • If I surrender this issue to the Divine, what do I need to do live with the issue until I am freed from it?

A Motivation Scale

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A Motivation Scale: from Materialism to Spirituality

By George A. Boyd ©2023

Q: What markers are there for those who enter the spiritual path. How is their motivation different from one who is not spiritual?

A: We can describe on eight-point motivational scale. Four of these are primarily involved with human life; four of them are spiritual postures:

  1. All material desires – one is completely focused upon possessions, home, car, and family. If there is any religious affiliation, it is only to ask God to fulfill desires.
  2. Religious ritual – One’s focus is primarily in material desires, but the family regularly attends religious meetings on a regular basis, and religion conditions their values and beliefs. At this level, one identifies as a member of a religion.
  3. Spiritual study – There is interest at this level to read about spirituality to gain greater understanding of one’s faith. Initially, this will just be scriptures and books about one’s religious faith. Later, at this stage, one may read the books and teachings of other spiritual traditions to better understand other faith traditions.
  4. Removal of suffering – If one has undergone traumatic experiences or loss in one’s life, on looks to the Divine, as a source of healing, comfort, and strength to be able to cope. One may learn meditation at this level to be able to process and transcend—at least temporarily—the ongoing suffering one feels.
  5. Initial mystic experience – One undergoes an experience that radically changes one’s perception, beliefs, values, identity, and behavior. This can come from:
  • Use of psychedelics
  • Awakening of the Kundalini
  • Reception of Light Immersion from a spiritual Adept (Shaktipat)
  • Astral projection, where one views the body from outside of it
  • Encounter with a numinous being, such as an angel or a materialization of a spiritual Master in a vision
  • A peak experience, where one gains union with a higher spiritual essence
  • A near death experience, where one experiences a vision of the spiritual realms while one is clinically dead, before one is resuscitated

This experience leads one to orient towards spirituality, to make sense of what one has encountered. This leads some individuals to engage in a serious spiritual quest. For some individuals who have had this experience, material desires and suffering taking a back seat to the desire to know more about this portal to a transcendent reality that they have opened and passed through. In Mudrashram®, we call this the Neophyte stage of spirituality.

  1. Aspiration – One begins to seek to know one’s true nature, and how one might develop one’s spiritual potentials. This takes the form of studying many spiritual systems and getting initiated into several spiritual traditions. We call this in Mudrashram®, the Aspirant stage of spirituality. Several characteristics mark this stage:
  • Studies, reads books, listens to lectures and audios, watches videos on the Internet to learn about spirituality
  • Asks many questions: gets many confusing and conflicting answers
  • May begin to express the Soul’s abilities in science and art, and as psychic gifts
  • May begin to commune with one’s Soul to gain understanding or may get answers from spiritual guides
  • Re-evaluates one’s beliefs and values; reviews the information one was taught to align with the Soul’s inner truth (dharma)
  • Gets clear on one’s intrinsic and extrinsic Soul Purpose; one seeks a Master to help one actualize this Purpose—one identifies a resonant spiritual Path—instead of selecting random Paths, based on the promises of spiritual teachers, with no clear understanding whether this Path is appropriate or not
  1. Discipleship – one realizes a spiritual essence as one’s true nature, and begins to operate from this level. The disciple develops:
  • Devotion
  • Dedication and discipline
  • Perseverance on the face of adversity
  • The practice of regular meditation and transformation techniques regularly (sadhana)
  • Humility and a willingness to learn
  • The capacity to love unconditionally and feel compassion
  • The capacity to engage in selfless service
  1. Mastery – One completes spiritual development on one’s chosen track and enters the Presence of the Divine. The Divine anoints the Initiate:
  • To send the Light to awaken the spirit, a nucleus of identity, an ensouling entity, or the attentional principle (Awakener)
  • To act as guide to the attentional principle or spirit on the inner Planes (Guide)
  • To convey the teachings of one’s Path (Teacher)
  • To counsel aspirants and disciples to give them practical and moral guidance (Counselor)
  • To assist aspirants and disciples work with personal issues, and hindrances and obstacles to spiritual development (Therapist or Healer)
  • To inspire aspirants and disciples to make the next step in their spiritual studies and to progress on their Path (Coach)
  • To send the Light of Grace, Love, Wisdom, and healing through attunement to support students in times of adversity (Minister)

People have to pass through the portal of an initial mystic experience to awaken to their deeper spiritual nature. If they do not close that door out of fear, they may progress to the Aspirant, Disciple, and Initiate stages of spirituality.

What Happens to Vehicles of Consciousness When the Soul is Liberated?

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By George A. Boyd ©2023

Vehicles of consciousness typically align with the Soul and are tuned up as it evolves. But they are not necessarily liberated when it drops into the Nirvanic Flame. Several scenarios exist for what happens when the Soul becomes liberated in the Planetary Realm:

  1. All vehicles of consciousness are liberated at death – one must undergo the Pratyeka Buddha process to do this.

  2. Selected vehicles of consciousness are liberated – Adept Masters and empowered Adepts drop certain vehicles of consciousness that are not relevant to their ministry.
  3. Alignment of vehicles of consciousness with a form of service – individuals who liberate their Soul may align their vehicles with a nodal point where they can carry out a selected ministry via activating the vehicles of consciousness through Attunement. For example, an individual who has liberated the Soul might align his or her vehicles of consciousness with the 14th nodal point of the New World Servers Subplane on the Manasic Plane to carry out work as a group leader.
  4. Alignment of vehicles of consciousness with a stage of development within Planetary Creation that mirrors their station at Cosmic, Supracosmic, or Transcendental levels of development. For example, a Bhakti Yoga Preceptor who dwells on the First Cosmic Initiation might align his vehicles of consciousness with the form of the Saint to express Divine Love in the Planetary Realm
  5. A Master who elects to take the Sixth Initiation may tune up the vehicles of his or her personality to animate an immortal form in full consciousness – this stage of development is called the Ascension. [We write about the Ascension in depth in our Initiates Library volume, Discoveries on the Path. This book is available to those students who have completed the Mudrashram® Advanced Course in Meditation.]

Two other vehicle alignments are observed when the Soul is not liberated:

  1. Vehicles of consciousness line up with the Soul up to its establishment in its Crown of Purpose – this is normal vehicular development for those who have a Crown of Purpose.
  2. Selected vehicles of consciousness are tuned up out of alignment with the Soul – this appears in groups that identify with a vehicular seed atom or a nucleus of identity and transform it outside the axis of being, and move it beyond the Soul, so it is no longer controlled by the Soul’s transpersonal will.

We discourage aspirants from doing transformational work that misaligns vehicles of consciousness and moves vehicular seed atoms or nuclei of identity off of the axis of being—in the Subtle, Planetary, Transplanetary, Cosmic, Supracosmic, or Transcendental Bands of the Continuum.

We refer you to our articles available on our Open Stacks page to learn more about what spiritual imbalance is and how to avoid it: “The Cutting Edge of Spirituality,” “On Avoiding Imbalance from Spiritual Practice,” and “What is the Axis of Being?”

Those of you who do not know whether you have a Crown of Purpose or not may benefit from a Soul Purpose Reading, which can identify whether this is present and where this Crown of Purpose dwells in the Continuum of Consciousness.

The Challenge of Working with Concretized Thought

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By George A. Boyd ©2023

Q: I have heard you use the term, concretized thought. What do you mean by this?

A: There are three major levels of thought:

  • Concretized
  • Abstract
  • Spiritual

The seven levels of Concretized Thought are:

Naming – This establishes a one to one correspondence to physical objects and people. This creates the sense of reality for the environment and the objects and people who are in it.

Attribution – This assigns qualities or labels to physical objects or people. This places subjective judgments about these objects and people, and emotionalizes them.

Experience – This is your memory for life events and the people in your life, which generates your life narrative and your sense of connection to other people.

Learning – This is your memory for facts and information. This mnemonic reservoir is only as accurate as the quality of the information you learn—if you learn information that is incorrect, you will share that incorrect information with others and believe it.

Attitude – This is the stratum of emotionalized beliefs. You might idealize other people and things; you may demonize them. Negative attitudes form the basis of prejudice, arrogance, and racism.

Beliefs – A dictionary definition of beliefs is “the acceptance of the truth or actuality of something without certain proof; [it is a] mental conviction.” Commercial advertising, journalism, politics, and religion are examples of agencies that seek to shape beliefs; this in turn, may lead you to develop positive or negative attitudes about certain topics, objects, or other people.

Opinion – This is communication of your beliefs as speech, writing, or through other media.

Concretized thought can be vitiated through distorted beliefs and incorrect information. Especially when information is communicated to you in an emotionalized or sensationalized fashion, it may powerfully shape your beliefs and attitudes; those who disseminate falsehoods and wrong information can readily manipulate people, who are unable to verify the information they receive.

The seven levels of Abstract Thought are:

Mindset – This is a perceptual frame that is a container of your beliefs about the world, other people, and yourself. It may be difficult to break out of a mindset that posits certain beliefs about your potential and what is possible in your future; limiting mindsets may hold you back from taking risks and realizing your dreams.

Values – This is the content that arises from your conscience, which dictates the standards and moral rules that shape your behavior, mold your character, and influence the way you relate to other people. Values affect your beliefs about what is right or wrong; what is good and evil; and what you should and shouldn’t do.

Plan – This is a mental roadmap of the behavioral steps you must take to accomplish a goal. Planning, together with the execution of that plan, form the basis of your ability to work and carry out the functions of adult life in family, academic, and vocational settings.

Goal – This is a statement of what you choose to achieve. When goals are clothed in desire, they are called dreams. Goals are ideas of what you want; a plan provides the steps for you to achieve that goal; action enables you to attain that goal.

Problem solving – This is the action of your intellect, which uses intelligence to solve problems. Education and training develop your problem-solving skills.

Reflection – This includes thinking about the meaning of concepts and how they relate to other ideas. Reflection creates theoretical models of the world; science tests those models to see if they are accurate. Reflection about your life and the choices you have made is called introspection; reflection about your values is called values clarification; reflection about your options is called decision.

Personal intuition – This is the mental function that allows you to “check in” with the different levels of your mind and to get information on what you are experiencing. As you know and understand your self, you can extend this into an empathic reflection into the experience of others. This ability to have empathy for others is the basis for what has been called emotional intelligence.

Abstract thought draws upon the faculties of your Metaconscious mind. Problem solving and reflection may help you work with concretized thought to uproot the false information and beliefs that undermine its reliability and accuracy. Critical thinking and the ability to examine your beliefs and values help you to gain greater control over the ideas and information that enables others to deceive you or manipulate you.

Spiritual thought also has seven major facets:

Revelation – This is the passive reception of information from an archetype or spiritual being. If revelations are not subjected to reflection and analysis, they can lead to irrational beliefs. Some of the conspiracy theories circulating today stem from insights or revelations that have not been thought through, and are simply presented as truth.

Dialogue – This is an active question and answer discussion with different aspects of the personality or with elements of the Superconscious mind. At the personal level of dialogue, you might interview your ego, or a personification of one of your issues in your unconscious mind (subpersonality), your conscience, or your Self. In the spiritual level of dialogue, you might ask questions and listen to the answers from your attentional principle, your spirit, a nucleus of identity, or your ensouling entity—or you might dialog with spiritual beings who are outside of your own axis of being, such as angels, Ascended Masters, spiritual guides, the Holy Spirit, or the Divine. Dialogue is the foundation of journaling.

Guidance suggestion – This is a directive given to your attention in meditation, hypnosis, or psychotherapy to focus your attention on an internal aspect of your mind. You may be asked to observe this internal object of meditation; you may be asked to dialogue with it; or you may be asked to interact with it. Guidance suggestion underlies guided meditation, hypnotherapy, and many of the imagery therapies that interact with intrapsychic elements.

Creation – This anchors thought forms in the Astral Plenum though affirmation, visualization, claiming by faith, and decree. Thought forms are purported to substand the phenomena of miraculous manifestation; the New Age community relies upon the creation of positive thought forms to activate the Law of Attraction.

Love – This is the thought stream of love and devotion that comes from your spirit. You become aware of this type of thought when you meditate upon your spirit.

Attunement – This is the beam of directed thought from your attentional principle that carries the Divine Light during attunements. In addition to making attunements, this beam of intention can activate a transformational mantra, actively focus your attention on an object of meditation, or enable the attentional principle to travel through the bands of the Continuum of Consciousness.

Illumination – This arises from the activation of the Illumined Mind of your ensouling entity. This allows you to access the knowledge of the Superconscious mind, to receive the wisdom and guidance of your ensouling entity, and to discern the true nature of your ensouling entity.

You access spiritual thought in the Superconscious mind. Spiritual thought allows you to work on yourself and uproot the false beliefs that plague concretized thought; it promotes insight, understanding, creativity, and the expression of your ensouling entity’s wisdom, love, and ability.

The Psychological Matrix

There is interaction between eight of the levels of concretized and abstract thought that can distort belief and behavior:

  1. Attribution can go astray when people have negative experiences, incorrect learning, mistaken attitudes, and false beliefs that influence your ideas about other people. Attributions that come from the unconscious mind are called projections; desire and fear distort projections.
  2. Life narrative can be subverted through traumatic, abusive, or difficult life experiences; erroneous learning, warped attitudes, and untrue beliefs can distort your perception and experience of your life and self-image.
  3. Learning can be vitiated when you receive incorrect information.
  4. Attitude can be conditioned though attribution, experience, learning, and belief.
  5. Belief can be influenced through your experience, learning, and values; the opinions and judgments of others also play a role in shaping your beliefs.
  6. Opinions communicate your values, beliefs, attitudes, experiences, and attributions; when these levels of the psychological matrix have been corrupted, your opinions reflect this bias.
  7. Mindsets are held in place through other’s opinions; and through your values, beliefs, attitudes, and experiences. Negative mindsets can impede growth and change; positive mindsets can facilitate forward movement in your life and achieving more of your potential.
  8. Values can influence your mindsets, opinions, beliefs, and attitudes; how you regard your life experiences; your attributions, and your behavior. When you accept the values of others as your own (introjection), this can powerfully affect how you view yourself, others, and the world.

Your psychological matrix is constructed from the interaction of these eight facets; when these have been perverted, your beliefs and mindsets may imprison you. Those who begin to work with spiritual thought—aspirants and disciples—can begin to purify this psychological matrix.

Purifying Your Psychological Matrix

There are a variety of methods that you use to begin to purify your psychological matrix:

  1. Attribution – Ascribing correct descriptors to a person’s character and behavior; re-owning your projections
  2. Life narrative – Working out traumatic and abusive life experiences through psychotherapy and forgiveness; experiencing emotional healing through reception of the Holy Spirit or Comforter
  3. Learning – Correcting inaccurate information; utilizing critical thinking, reality testing, and reflection to uproot incorrect learning
  4. Attitude – Cultivating loving kindness, compassion, and understanding towards yourself and others
  5. Beliefs – Deconstructing false beliefs through cognitive behavioral therapy; immersion in the stream of the Illumined Mind
  6. Opinions – Gaining direct experience and accurate knowledge that counters inaccurate learning and beliefs; connecting with your attentional principle, your spirit, and your ensouling entity and receiving truthful guidance
  7. Mindsets – Shifting attention into alternate frames of perception (reframing); operating from the deeper perspective of the Self and the Soul; moving your attention into higher levels of awareness (consciousness raising)
  8. Values – performing values clarification and introspection; exposure to moral teaching that enables you to evaluate your behavior and the values you have chosen; choosing to improve your character; and discovering your Dharma—the inmost core of truth within your heart.

You learn several of the modalities of spiritual thought in our intermediate meditation courses, the in-person Mudrashram® Master Course in Meditation and the by-mail and online Accelerated Meditation Program. Through these applied methods you can begin to reform the layers of concretized and abstract thought that imprison you in the labyrinth of your psychological matrix.

Approaches for Working with Deep Seated Issues

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By George A. Boyd © 2023

There are several different perspectives on working with deep-seated issues across the Seven Rays:

First Ray – Activation of the will through will training (volitional therapy); use of attunements to destroy entities that contribute to mental and emotional distress (Attunement and transformation)

Second Ray – Understanding of the issues through listening and empathic reflection (humanistic therapy); loving kindness and compassion meditation (meditations drawing upon the source of unconditional love within)

Third Ray – Identifying steps to change and taking constructive action (coaching); identifying layers of the issue and leading attention to gain insight and release through reflective, receptive, and guided meditation (Jnana Yoga)

Fourth Ray – Use of creative exploration methods using drawing, giving a voice to unconscious issues, and acting out unconscious issues through psychodrama (Gestalt and imagery therapies); use of mindfulness and Vipassana to breakthrough and transcend the issue (Zen Morita and mindfulness-based therapy)

Fifth Ray – Dismantling false beliefs to uproot dysphoric emotions and dysfunctional behavior (cognitive behavioral therapy); using process meditation to identify where the issue originated and making the choice to re-create it (process meditation approaches)

Sixth Ray – Using psychotropic medicine, herbs, or vitamins to ameliorate symptoms (psychiatry and holistic healing); invocation of the Divine Succor and Grace, receiving Divine Healing and Comfort (prayer and pastoral counseling)

Seventh Ray – Working with the system and the environment to change the dynamics that hold the issues in place (family systems therapy); awakening the Kundalini Shakti to awaken and empower the Soul (Yoga therapy)

There are two approaches: external approaches work through the personality—these involve psychotherapy, counseling, coaching, and medical and nutritional regimens. Internal approaches that engage the attentional principle, spirit, and Soul—these include meditation and invocation.

We train our students in these inner approaches to work on their issues. These methods include transformation (Mantra Yoga), Attunement (Agni Yoga), Reflective and Receptive Meditation (Jnana Yoga), Mindfulness and Vipassana, Process Meditation, and awakening the Kundalini (Kundalini Yoga) in our intermediate meditation classes, the in-person Mudrashram® Master Course in meditation and the by-mail and online Accelerated Meditation Program.

We encourage you to utilize different inner and outer approaches until you find one that enables you to make progress with resolving your issues. We note that different external or internal approaches do not work for certain individuals; you need to identify one that allows you to extricate yourself from the thralls of the issues that bring you unhappiness and hinder your progress towards your worthy goals and dreams.