Table Of ContentLives in Spirit
SUNY series in Transpersonal
and Humanistic Psychology
Richard D. Mann, Editor
Lives in Spirit
Precursors and Dilemmas
of a Secular Western Mysticism
Harry T. Hunt
STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS
Published by
State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2003 State University of New York
All rights reserved
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Publishing Company, San Rafael, Calif., used with permission.
Illustration p. 256, The Tree of Life, done for this volume by Laurie Hollis-Walker.
Portions of chapter 9 appeared in Hunt, H., “Triumph of the will: Heidegger’s
Nazism as spiritual pathology,” The Journal of Mind and Behavior 19, 379–414,
1998, © Institute of Mind and Behavior, with permission.
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Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Hunt, Harry T., 1943–
Lives in spirit : precursors and dilemmas of a secular Western mysticism /
Harry T. Hunt.
p. cm. — (SUNY series in transpersonal and humanistic psychology)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7914-5803-2 (alk. paper) — ISBN 0-7914-5804-0 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Mysticism—Psychology—Case studies. 2. Secularism—Psychology—
Case studies. 3. Spirituality—Psychology—Case studies. 4. Transpersonal
psychology—Case studies. I. Title. II. Series.
BL625.H85 2003
291.4’2—dc21
2002045266
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
Part I: Psychological and Cultural Bases of
Inner-Worldly Mysticism in Modern Western Society
Chapter 1. Phenomenology and Psychodynamics of
Transpersonal Experience 11
Descriptive Phenomenologies/13
Personal Development, Psychodynamics, and
Metapathology/22
Chapter 2. A.H. Almaas and the Synthesis of Spiritual
Development and Psychoanalytic Object-Relations
Theory 35
Almaas, Transpersonal Psychology, and Psychodynamic
Perspectives/35
Multiple Forms of Essence: A Cartography of the
Numinous/44
Issues and Controversies/52
Chapter 3. The Sociology of Inner-Worldly Mysticism in Max
Weber and Ernst Troeltsch 57
Max Weber on Radical Salvation Movements/57
v
vi Contents
Inner-Worldly Mysticism as the “Secret Religion of
the Educated Classes”/65
Dilemmas and Societal Implications of Contemporary
Inner-Worldly Mysticism/71
Part II: The Historical Roots of Inner-Worldly Mysticism:
Prototypes of Crisis and Resolution in Plotinus, Epictetus,
and Gnosticism
Chapter 4. Plotinus and Hellenistic Inner-Worldly Mysticism 81
Epictetus and Personal Presence/82
Plotinus and the Formless Dimensions/85
Cognition and Contemplation: The Plotinian Psychology
of Silberer and Jung, and the Origins of Transpersonal
Psychology/89
Object-Relational Patterns in Plotinian Contemplation:
Mirroring and Splitting/94
Plotinus on the Metapathologies of the Gnostics/96
Chapter 5. Gnosticism: Mystical Dualism and the
Metaphysics of Hate 101
The Elements and Social Background of Gnosticism/102
Some Specific Gnosticisms: Metapathologies and Implied
Dynamics/106
Egyptian Hermeticism/106
Barbelites, Cainites, Ophites, and Sethians: Mystical
Satirists of the Old Testament/108
Valentinus and Ptolemy: Heterodox Christian Gnostics
and the Redemption of Sophia/111
Manichaeanism: A Radical Prophetical Dualism/114
“Please Allow Me to Introduce Myself ”: The Problem of
Splitting in Mystical Gnosticism/115
Freud’s Gnostic Metapsychology of the Newborn/117
Part III: Transpersonal Anticipations and Conflicts in
Nineteenth-Century Precursors to a Naturalistic
Inner-Worldly Mysticism
Chapter 6. Nietzsche 125
Aspects of Essence in Nietzsche’s Thought and
Experience/126
Contents vii
Nietzsche’s Life: Dynamics and Tragedy/132
Relations between Pathology, Creativity, and Essential
States in Nietzsche/138
The Nietzschean Psychologists and Abraham Maslow/142
Chapter 7. Emerson, Thoreau, and Hiram Marble: New
England Transcendentalism and a Brief Look at
Spiritualism 147
Emerson’s Eternal Moment of Being/147
Dynamics and Openings to Essence in Emerson’s Life/151
Thoreau: The Woods of Concord as Mirror of the Soul/154
Thoreau’s Life and Dynamics/156
Hiram Marble and Spiritualism: Kierkegaard’s Knight of
Faith at Dungeon Rock/162
Part IV: Some Political Ambiguities in the Development
of Presence: Inner-Worldly Mysticism, Metapathology, and
National Socialism
Chapter 8. Jung, Visionary Racial Occultism, and Hitler 173
Self, Archetypes, and Collective Unconscious/173
Carl Jung’s Dance with the Devil/177
Narcissistic Vulnerability in Jung’s Development/181
From “Collective Unconscious” to “Objective Psyche”:
Jung’s Shift from Pseudo-Biology to a Cognition of
Metaphor/186
Aryan Racial Occultism: Why Jung Is not a Nazi/189
Hitler as Charismatic Prophet/193
Max Weber on Spirituality and Politics/195
Chapter 9. “Triumph of the Will”: Heidegger’s Nazism as
Spiritual Pathology 199
Heidegger as Spiritual Thinker/200
The Rectorship/201
Heidegger’s Spiritual Crisis and Its Partial
Resolution/203
1924–1927: Spiritual Awakening/205
1928–1932: Purgation/205
1933–1934: False Illumination/206
1935–1944: True Illumination: Direct Manifestations
of Essence/208
Vulnerabilities of Character/211
viii Contents
Dilemmas of Inner-Worldly Mysticism/218
Jung and Heidegger/218
Socrates and Heidegger/219
Heidegger and Weber/221
Part V: Roots of a Contemporary This-Worldly Spirituality
Chapter 10. George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff: A Near Eastern
Inner-Worldly Mysticism in the Modern West 225
Gurdjieff ’s Life and Teachings/225
Gurdjieff ’s Anticipations of Object-Relations Theory/232
Object-Relational Dilemmas in Gurdjieff ’s Life and
System/238
The Schizoid Position/239
The Paranoid Position/242
The Depressive Position: Making Reparation and the
Capacity for Concern/245
Gurdjieff and Almaas/247
A Final Note on Gurdjieff in Nazi-Occupied Paris/248
Chapter 11. Aleister Crowley, Sexual Magick, and Drugs:
Some Ambiguities of Sex, Will, and Power in
Inner-Worldly Mysticism 251
Crowley’s System of Mystical Will/251
The Practices: Astral Travel and the Invention of the
Speedball/259
Crowley and Spiritual Realization/264
False Will/264
False Love/266
False Power and the Role of Hatred/268
The Horrific Childhood of Aleister Crowley/270
Contrawise: The Avoidance of Essential Power and
Will in Jerry Garcia/272
Crowley and the Dilemmas of Contemporary
Spirituality/276
Chapter 12. Feminist Spirituality: The Return of Sophia 279
Psychology, Gender, and Transpersonal Experience/279
Socio-Cultural Bases of a Feminist Shamanism/283
The Feminist Roots of Nineteenth-Century Spiritualism
and Theosophy/286
Contemporary Feminist Spiritualities/292
The Autobiography of Jean Houston/294
Limitations of a Feminist Inner-Worldly Mysticism/298
Contents ix
Part VI: Transpersonal Psychology, New Age Spirituality,
and the Human Sciences
Chapter 13. Concluding Reflections 303
Reconciling Transpersonal Approaches and the Human
Sciences/303
Contemporary Societal Implications/308
Inner-Worldly Mysticism and Deep Ecology: The
Weberian Dilemma Revisited/308
Consciousness Evolution vs Cultural Globalization/311
A Closing Word from Kierkegaard/316
Notes 319
References 327
Index 353
