Process, Structure, and Form: An Evolutionary Transpersonal Psychology of Consciousness

In the spirit of William James, we present a process view of human consciousness. Our approach,, follows upon Charles Tart’s original systems theory analysis of states of consciousness, it differs in its reliance on the modern sciences of complexity, especially dynamical systems and its emphasis on process and evolution. We argue that consciousness experience constructive in the sense that it is the result of ongoing self-organizing and self-creating(autopoietic) processes in the mind and body. These processes follow a broad developmental already described by psychologists such as Jean Piaget. Similar constructive transformations consciousness appear to have occurred across the course of human history. In this sense, indeed recapitulates ontogeny. Finally, modern developmental research suggests that most advanced levels of human growth transform consciousness in the direction of increasing and spirituality, rather than simply toward greater intelligence.