Jean Gebser

THE EVER-PRESENT

ORIGIN

Power Point Presentation for the Seminar on Psychology of Social Developmentorganized by the University of Human Unity, Auroville

Two fundamental principles of Gebser’s approach • 1) Latency - what is concealed - is the demonstrable presence of the future. It includes

everything that is not yet manifest, as well as everything which has again returned to latency. Since we are dealing here primarily with phenomena of consciousness and integration, we will also have to investigate questions of history, the soul and the psyche, time, space, and the forms of thought.

• Since the second part of this work is devoted to manifestations of the new consciousness, the first part must clarify questions relating to the manifestations of previous and present consciousness structures. We shall attempt to demonstrate the incipient concretion of time and the spiritual dimension which are preconditions of the aperspectival world. We shall also attempt to furnish evidence of the increasing efficacy of that spiritual reality (which is neither a mere psychic state nor an intellectual-rational form of representation). This will bring out the validity of our second guiding principle:

• 2) Transparency (diaphaneity) is the form of manifestation (epiphany) of the spiritual.• Our concern is to render transparent everything latent "behind" and "before" the world - to

render transparent our own origin, our entire human past, as well as the present, which already contains the future. We are shaped and determined not only by today and yesterday, but by tomorrow as well. The author is not interested in outlining discrete segments, steps or levels of man, but in disclosing the transparency of man as a whole and the interplay of the various consciousness structures which constitute him. This transparency or diaphaneity of our existence is particularly evident during transitional periods, and it is from the experiences of man in transition, experiences which man has had with the concealed and latent aspects of his dawning future as he became aware of them, that will clarify our own experiencing of the present.

Gebser’s Fundamental Discoveries

• The beginning of the perspectival perception of the mental (=spatial) structure of consciousness (Ancient Greeks and medieval Europe) out of latent unperspectival and pre-perspectival structures. (Francesco Petrarca, Leonardo de Vinci, etc.)

• The emergence of aperspectival consciousness in the 20th century out of perspectival structure (Picasso etc.) operating within and by all the latent structures in a transparent way for the manifestation of the Spirit.

• “Transparency (diaphaneity) is the form of manifestation (epiphany) of the spiritual.”- says Gebser. He cannot fully accept the rational, perspectival conception of progress and evolution, which is not taking into account the latent structures of our being.

• He also declines the Orientalist view, which is, according to him, turned only towards the past (mythical structure) in search of the origin to escape from the manifestation (mainly Buddhism and Advaita).

Sri Aurobindo on Evolution

• We speak of the evolution of Life in Matter, the evolution of Mind in Matter; but evolution is a word which merely states the phenomenon without explaining it. For there seems to be no reason why Life should evolve out of material elements or Mind out of living form, unless we accept the Vedantic solution that Life is already involved in Matter and Mind in Life because in essence Matter is a form of veiled Life, Life a form of veiled Consciousness.

The Life Divine, (Page 3)

Structures of consciousness• Archaic ( Primal man, Protanthropos, Purusha of the Rig Veda,

Adam Kadmon of the Cabbalists, Osiris of the Egyptian-Gnostics)• Magic (‘here the primal man becomes the maker’; for the first time

he faces the world; vital impulse and instinct thus unfold and develop a consciousness in dealing with Nature; witchcraft and sorcery, totem and taboo are the natural means of freeing himself from Nature) (appr. before 10 000 BC)

• Mythical (brings the awareness of the inner life of the soul, its history and its origin, the primal Myth) (appr. before 2500 BC)

• Mental (‘It individualizes man from his previously valid world, emphasizing his singularity and making his ego possible.’(p.76) It introduces a perspectival perception of the world (1250-1500 AD) by spatializing time perception; it represents life by conceptualizing it, distancing man from his own nature.)

• Integral (freedom from all the structures by their transparent rearrangement into one integral oneness of being)

Space and Time Relationship Structure a) Dimensioning b) Perspectivity c) Emphasis

Archaic: Zero-dimensional None Identity

(Integrality)

Magic: One-dimensional Point Unity

(Oneness)

Mythical: Two-dimensional Circle Polarity

(Ambivalence)

Mental: Three-dimensional Triangle Duality

(Opposition)

Integral: Four-dimensional Sphere Diaphaneity

(Transparency)

Space and Time Properties

Structure 2. Sign 3. Essence 4. Properties 5. Potentiality

Archaic: Integral Integrality None Prespatial Pretemporal

Magic: Non-directional unitary, interwoven-ness or fusion

Unity by Unification,

Hearing/Hearkening

Pre- perspectival

Spaceless

Timeless*

Mythical: Circular and polar Complementarity

Unification by Complementarity

and Correspondence

Unperspectival Spaceless

Natural temporicity

Mental: Directed dual oppositionality

Unification by Synthesis and Reconciliation

Perspectival Spatial

Abstractly temporal

Integral: Presentiating,

Diaphanous

“rendering whole"

Integrality by Integration andPresentiation

Aperspectival Space-free

Time-free

Properties of Consciousness

Structure 6. Emphasis a) Objective (external) b) Subjective (internal)

7. Consciousness a) Degree b) Relation

Archaic: Unconscious Spirit

None or Latency Deep sleep Universe-related: Breathing-spell

Magic: Nature Emotion Sleep Outer-related (Nature): Exhaling

Mythical: Soul/Psyche Imagination Dream Inner-related (Psyche): Inhaling

Mental: Space – World Abstraction Wakefulness Outer-related

(Spatial world):

Exhaling

Integral: (Conscious Spirit)

(Concretion) (Transparency) (Inward-related:

Inhaling? or Breathing-Spell?)

Properties of Forms and Attitudes

Structure 8. Forms of Manifestation

a) efficient b) deficient

9. Basic attitude and

agency of energy10. Organ emphasis

Archaic: None Presentiment, foreboding

Origin: Wisdom -

Magic: Spell-casting Witchcraft Instinct Vital:

Drive Emotion

Viscera - Ear

Mythical: Primal myth (envisioned myth)

Mythology (spoken myth)

Imagination Psychic: Sensibility Disposition

Heart - Mouth

Mental: Menos (directive, discursive thought)

Ratio (divisive, immoderate hair-splitting)

Reflection Cerebral: Abstraction Will/Volition

Brain - Eye

Integral: Diaphainon (open, spiritual "verition")

Void (atomizing dissolution)

(Concretion) Integral: (Rendering diaphanous)

("Verition")

(Vertex)

Forms of Realisation and Thought I

Structure

11. Forms of realization and thought a) Basis b) Mode c) Process d) Expression

Archaic: Originary Presentiment Presentiment

Magic: Empathy and

Identification Hearing

Pre-rational, pre-causal analogical

Associative, analogizing, sympathetic interweaving

Vital experience

Mythical: Imagination and Utterance Contemplation and Voicing

Irrational: non-causal, polar

Internalized recollection, contemplation externalized utterance, expression

Undergone experience

Mental: Conceptualization and Reflection Seeing and Measuring

Rational: causal, directed

Projective speculation: oceanic, paradoxical,

then perspectival thinking

Representation Conception, Ideation

Integral: (Concretion and Integration "Verition“

and Transparency)

(Arational: acausal, integral)

Integrating, rendering diaphanous

Verition

Forms of Realisation and Thought II

Structure 11. Forms of realization and thought

e) Formulation f) Limits g) Valence

Archaic: World-origin

Magic: World-knowledge, the "recognized" world

Conditioned Univalent

Mythical: World-image or Weltanschauung:

the contemplated and interpreted world

Temporally bound Ambivalent

Mental: World-conception: the thought and conceptualized world

Limited Trivalent

Integral: World-Verition: the world perceived and imparted in truth

Open, free Multivalent

Forms of Expression and Articulation

Structure 12. Forms of Expression 13. Forms of Assertion or Articulation

Archaic: - -

Magic: Magic: Graven images

Idol

Ritual

Petition (Prayer): being heard

Mythical: Mythologeme Gods

Symbol

Mysteries

Wishes (Ideals: Fulfillment

"wish (pipe-) dreams") Mental: Philosopheme: God

Dogma (Allegory, Creed)

Method

Volition: attainment

Integral: (Eteologeme:) (Divinity)

(Synairesis)

(Diaphany)

(Verition: Present)

Forms of Relationships

Structure 14. Relationships

a) temporal b) social c) general

Archaic: _ _ Universal or ("cosmic“)

Magic: Undifferentiated Tribal world [clan/kith and kin] natural

Egoless

Terrestrial

Mythical: Predominantly

past-oriented [recollection, muse]

Parental world

[Ancestor-worship] predominantly matriarchal

Egoless

"we"-oriented psychic

Mental: Predominantly

future-oriented [purpose and goal]

World of the first-born son, individuality [child-adulation] predominantly patriarchal

Egocentric materialistic

Integral: (Presentiating) Mankind,

neither matriarchy nor patriarchy but integrum

Ego-free, amaterial, apsychic

Forms of Bond and Motto

Structure 15.Localization of the soul

16. Forms of bond or tie 17. Motto

Archaic: (Universe) _ (All)

Magic: Semen and blood Proligio (prolegere) emotive and point-like

Pars pro toto

Mythical: Diaphragm and heart Relegio (relegere) observing,internalizing (recollecting) and externalizing (expressing)

Soul is identical to life (and death)

Mental: Spinal cord and brain Religion {religare): believing, knowing and deducing

Thinking is Being

Integral: Cerebral cortex,

humoral

Praeligio (praeligare): presentiating, concretizing, integrating

Origin: Present

Perceiving and Imparting Truth