Table Of Contentpening
to Inner
Light
The Transformation
of Human Nature
and Consciousness
Ralph Metzner, Ph.D.
i
O
pening
I L
to nner ight
Also by Ralph Metzner
Maps of Consciousness
Know Your Type: Maps of Identity
The Ecstatic Adventure, editor
The Psychedelic Experience, with Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert
O
pening
I L
to nner ight
THE TRANSFORMATION OF HUMAN
NATURE AND CONSCIOUSNESS
R M
alph etzner
JEREMY P. TARCHER, INC.
Los Angeles
Distributed by St. Martin’s Press
New York
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Metzner, Ralph.
Opening to inner light.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Spiritual life. I. Title.
BL624.M47 1986 155.2'5 85-9757
ISBN 0-87477-353-9
ISBN 0-87477-354-7 (pbk.)
Copyright © 1986 by Ralph Metzner
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any
information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted by the 1976
Copyright Act or in writing by the publisher. Requests for such permissions should be
addressed to:
Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc.
9110 Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90069
Design by Mike Yazzolino
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 98765432 1
First Edition
I dedicate this book to my son Ari Krishna Metzner, who
was born in 1966 and died of an accident in 1974. During
its most intensely transformative phase, he graced my life
with his joyous and exuberant spirit.
Contents
Preface ix
INTRODUCTION: FROM CATERPILLAR TO BUTTERFLY 1
Symbols and Metaphors of Transformation
Theories of Human Transformation
Variations on the Theme of Self-Transformation
1
AWAKENING FROM THE DREAM OF “REALITY” 17
Our Ordinary Awareness Is Dreamlike
Dreaming, Sleeping, and Waking in Everyday Life
The Transformation as an Awakening
2
UNCOVERING THE VEILS OF ILLUSION 29
The World Perceived as Maya
The Transformation of Vision
Unmasking the Self
3
FROM CAPTIVITY TO LIBERATION 43
Body and Form as Prison
Knots, Ties, Nets, and Bonds in Relationships
Strategies of Escape and Liberation
4
PURIFICATION BY INNER FIRE 59
Fire Deities and Spirit Fire
Purgatory and the Alchemical Fire of Purification
Kundalini and the Yoga of Fire
The Mystical Fire of Union
5
FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT 75
The Enlightenment of the Body
The Illumination of the Mind
The Self as Light
vii
Vlll
Contents
6
FROM FRAGMENTATION TO WHOLENESS 89
Fragmentation in Everyday Consciousness
Dissociation and Splintering in Madness and Illness
Dismemberment and Fragmentation in Shamanism and Yoga
Fragmentation in the Myths of Osiris and Dionysos
Alchemical Separatio in Meditation and Psychotherapy
Approaches to Wholeness
7
JOURNEY TO THE PLACE OF VISION AND POWER 105
The Myth of the Wanderer
Departure and Threshold Crossing
Descent into the Depths
“Flying” and the Upper Realms
Journeys into Nonordinary Reality
8
RETURNING TO THE SOURCE 125
Man as Stranger, Life as Exile
The Outgoing Path and the Return Path
The Homeward Journey
9
ON DYING AND BEING REBORN 141
The Value of Death and Intentional “Dying"
Nearness to Death as Transformative Experience
Emotional “Deadening”
Alchemical Mortificatio
The New Birth and the Eternal Child
10
UNFOLDING THE TREE OF OUR LIFE 161
The Tree as a Symbol of Self-Unfoldment
Climbing the Tree, Straightening the Pillar
The World Tree and the Inverted Tree
The Tree of Life and the Tree of Truth
NOTES 181
BIBLIOGRAPHY 209
INDEX 221
Preface
This book will describe the processes of human evolutionary transformation
as they are actually experienced by individuals. I hope that these descriptions
might prove useful to those who are just beginning a transformational phase in
their lives and also to those who find themselves in the midst of one and are,
perhaps, searching for signposts and conceptual tools. It is said that human
transformation was the only miracle the Buddha recognized as such.
A central thesis of this work is that metaphors, symbols, and analogies are
essential in describing the process. Further, they function to stimulate and cata
lyze these inner transformations. I suggest—and hope—that the reading of this
book could, in itself, facilitate the kinds of changes it describes. It would please
me greatly if the reader were to find the images and metaphors as personally
helpful as I have found them.
My experience in writing this book was itself transformative, as each of the
metaphors I was writing about triggered corresponding inner experiences. For
example, when first writing about the progression from fragmentation to whole
ness, I felt extremely scattered; describing the imprisonment-to-liberation meta
phor, I frequently experienced being “stuck” or “caught.”
Several years ago I first began to realize that whereas there are literally
hundreds of specific methods of bringing about psychospiritual transformation
(methods of yoga and psychotherapy in particular), there appear to be only about
a dozen or so key metaphors describing the process itself that occur over and over
in the world’s literature. I first presented this idea at the annual conference of the
International Transpersonal Association in Boston in 1979. I wanted to demon
strate that, with some variations in language and in emphasis, the essential human
process of evolutionary growth is described in similar terms in all major cultures
and sacred traditions all over the world.
If it were possible to demonstrate this, it seems to me that this would be
a small contribution to the unification of the consciousness of humanity. By
elucidating these underlying structures, which have been variously referred to as
archetypes, or deep structures, or primordial images, we are uncovering some
thing of humanity’s common language. The language of symbols is the universal
common language, the language that we all understood before there was the
"confusion of tongues.” It is the language we still use and understand: in dreams,
in poetry and art, in the visions and voices that tell us of nonordinary realities,
of the sacred, of the mystery.
IX
