By Ken Wilber

The Atman
Project
 Ø By almost all accounts, neither the fetus in the womb
nor the infant at birth possesses a developed self-sense.
For the neonate there is no real separation whatsoever
between inside and outside, subject and object, body and
environment..
Ø That is, the infant is indeed aware of certain events,
THE but not as "objective," not as separate from himself. The
objective world and the infant's subjective awareness are
PLEROMATIC largely undifferentiated—the neonate cannot
differentiate the material world from his actions on it.
SELF And thus, in a special sense, his self and his physical
environment are one and the same.
Ø The self is "pleromatic," as the alchemists and gnostics
would put it, which essentially means that the self and
the material cosmos are undifferentiated.
Ø The self is embedded in the materia prima, which is
both the primal chaos of physical matter and the
maternal matrix or Prakriti from whence all creation was
fashioned.
 Ø The baby at birth," concludes Loevinger, "cannot be
said to have an ego. His first task is to learn to
differentiate himself from his surroundings."243
Ø Or, as von Bertalanffy puts it: "The most primitive
stage [of consciousness] apparently is one where a
THE difference between outside world and ego is not

PLEROMATIC
experienced. . . . The baby does not yet distinguish
between himself and things outside; only slowly does he

SELF learn to do so."34

Ø And Koestler summarizes it all very nicely: "Freud and
Piaget, among others, have emphasized the fact that the
new-born infant does not differentiate between ego and
environment. It is aware of events, but not of itself as a
separate entity. . . . The universe is focused on the self,
and the self is the universe—a condition which Piaget
called 'protoplasmic' or 'symbiotic' consciousness."
 Ø Because this stage is one of adualism, oceanic and
autistic, it also tends to be prespatial and pre-temporal..
Ø The neonate's awareness is spaceless, timeless,
objectless (but not eventless). And for all these reasons,
analysts (such as Ferenczi) are fond of referring to this
stage as one of "unconditional omnipotence," which
"persists as long as no conception of objects exists"
(Fenichel).120
THE Ø That is, since there is no real conception of space, time,
and objects, there are no perceived limitations.

PLEROMATIC Ø Hence, the omnipotence of ignorance. As the Jungian

researcher Neumann put it, this is "the pleromatic stage
of paradisal perfection in the unborn, the embryonic
SELF stage of the ego, which a later consciousness will
contrast with the sufferings of the nonautarchic ego in
the world."279
Ø Notice that this is a prepersonal perfection, not a
trans-personal one. It is indeed a type of primal paradise,
but a paradise of innocence and ignorance, the state
before the Fall into self-consciousness.
Ø It should not be confused with the transpersonal
paradise of superconsciousness.
Ø The one is pre-, the other trans-, and the difference
between them is simply the entire life cycle of
consciousness.
 • As the infant's sense of self begins to shift from
the prepersonal uroboros to the individual
organ-ism, we see the emergence and creation of
the organic or bodyego self.
• The bodyself or bodyego is, in a sense, the
transition from the serpent stage of the
THE uroboros to the truly human stage of the mental-
ego, and therefore we often refer to this entire
TYPHONIC realm (with all its stages and substages) as the
realm of the "typhon"—the typhon, in mythology,
SELF is half human, half serpent.
• It is generally agreed, by Eastern and Western
psychology alike, that the lowest levels of
development involve simple biological functions
and processes. That is, the lowest levels involve
somatic processes, instincts, simple sensations
and perceptions, and emotional-sexual impulses.
 Ø To Vedanta Hinduism, this is the realm of the
anna- and prana-mayakosa, the levels of hunger
and emotional-sexuality (those are precise
transla-tions).94
Ø The Buddhist calls them the lower five vijnanas,
or the realm of the five senses.107 The chakra psy-
chology (of Yoga) refers to them as the lower

THE three chakras: the muladhara, or root material

and pleromatic level; svadhisthana, or emotional-
TYPHONIC sexual level; and manipura, or aggressive-power
level.329
SELF Ø This is also the lower three skandhas in the
Hinayana Buddhist system of psychology: the
physical body, perception-feeling, and emotion-
impulse.107
Ø In the Kabbalah, or Hebrew mystic school, this
is the malkuth (the physi-cal plane) and the yesod
(the vital-emotional).338 And all in all, this simply
points up one of Freud's major ideas: "The ego," he
said, "is first and foremost a body-ego."140
 Ø The bodyego, by differentiating itself from the material
environment, actually transcends that primitive state of
fusion and embeddedness. The bodyego transcends the
material environment, and thus can perform physical
operations upon that environment.
Ø Towards the end of the sensorimotor period (around
age 2), the child has differentiated the self and the not-

THE self to such a degree that he has a fairly sta-ble image of

"object constancy" and so he can muscularly coordinate

TYPHONIC
physical operations on those objects.
Ø He can coordinate a physical movement of various
objects in the environment, something he could not easily
SELF do as long as he could not differentiate himself from
those objects.
Ø The self, as bodyego, is dominated by instinctual urges,
impulsiveness, the pleasure principle, involuntary urges
and discharges—all the id-like primary processes and
drives described so well by Freud et al.
 Ø The emergence and acquisition of language is very likely
the single most significant process on the Outward Arc of
the individual's life cycle.
Ø It brings in its broad wake a complex of interrelated and
intermeshed phenomena, not the least of which are new
and higher cognitive styles,337 an extended notion of
THE time,120 a new and more unified mode of self,243 a vastly
extended emotional life,7 elementary forms of reflexive

MEMBERSHIP self-control,267 and the beginnings of memberships

Ø Now the deep structure of any given language embodies a

SELF
particular syntax of perception, and to the extent an
individual develops the deep structure of his native
language, he simultaneously learns to construct, and thus
perceive, a particular type of descriptive reality,
embedded, as it were, in the language structure itself.70
Ø From that momentous point on, as far as that Outward
Arc goes, the structure of his language is the structure of
his self and the "limits of his world."428
 Ø The true mental or conceptual functions are beginning to
emerge out of, and differentiate from, the simple bodyego.
Ø As language develops, the child is ushered into the world of
symbols and ideas and concepts, and thus gradually rises above
the fluctuations of the simple, instinctual, immediate and
impulsive bodyego. Among other things, language carries the
extended ability to picture sequences of things and events which
are not immediately present to the body senses. "Language," as
Robert Hall said, "is the means of dealing with the nonpresent
THE world," and to a degree infinitely beyond that of simple images.176
Ø By the same token, then, language is the means of transcending

MEMBERSHIP the simply present world.

Ø Through language, one can anticipate the future, plan for it, and
gear one's present activities in accordance with tomorrow. That
SELF is, one can delay or control one's present bodily desires and
activities.
Ø Through language and its symbolic, tensed structures, one can
postpone the immediate and impulsive discharges of simple
biological drives.
Ø One is no longer totally dominated by instinctual demands but
can to a certain degree transcend them. And this simply means
that the self is starting to differentiate from the body and
emerge as a mental or verbal or syntaxical being.
 ØAs the mental self emerges and differentiates
from the body (with the help of language), it
transcends the body and thus can operate upon
it using its own mental structures as tools (it
can delay the body's immediate discharges and
postpone its instinctual gratifications using
THE verbal insertions).

MEMBERSHIP ØAt the same time, this allows the beginning of

the sublimation of the body's emotional-sexual
SELF energies into more subtle, complex, and
evolved activities.
ØThis triad of differentiation, transcendence, and
operation is, the single most basic form of
development, repeated at every stage of
growth, and leading—for all we know—right to
the Ultimate itself.
 ØFor a variety of reasons, the child's self-sense
gradually centers around syntaxical-
membership cognition and the affects,
motivations, and phantasies intimately
associated with membership cognition.
ØThe child switches its central identity from the
typhonic realms to the verbal and mental
realms. Paratax dies down, and the syntaxical
MENTAL-EGOIC or secondary process burgeons—linear,
SELF conceptual, abstract, consensus-verbal thinking
decisively enters every element of awareness.
ØAs a final result, the self is no longer just a
fleeting, amorphous self-image or constellation
of self-images, nor merely a word or name, but
a higher-order unity of auditory, verbal,
dialoging, and syntaxical self-concepts, very
rudimentary and tenuous at first, but rapidly
consolidated.
 ØIf we look at that developmental triad in slightly more
detail, here is what we find—at each major stage of
development, there is: the emergence of a higher-order
structure; the identification with that higher structure; the
differentiation or disidentification with the lower structure;
which amounts to a transcendence of the lower structure;
such that the higher structure can both operate upon and
integrate the lower structures.

MENTAL-EGOIC
ØThus, a fairly coherent mental-ego eventually emerges
(usually between ages 4 and 7), differentiates itself from the
body, transcends the simple biological world, and therefore
SELF can to a certain degree operate upon the biological world
(and the earlier physical world) using the tools of simple
representational thinking.
ØThis whole trend is consolidated with the emergence
(usually around age 7) of what Piaget calls "con-crete
operational thinking"—thinking that can operate on the
concrete world and the body using concepts.
ØThis cognitive mode dominates the middle ego/persona
stage.
 ØBy the time of adolescence—the late ego/persona stage—
another extraordinary differentiation begins to occur. In
essence, the self simply starts to differentiate from the
concrete thought process. It is not surprising, then, that Piaget
calls this—his highest stage—"formal operational," because one
can operate upon one's own concrete thought (i.e., "work with
formal or linguistic objects as well as physical or concrete ones),
a detailed operation which, among other things, results in the
sixteen binary propositions of formal logic.
ØActually, consciousness, or the self, is starting to transcend
MENTAL-EGOIC the verbal ego-mind.
ØIt is starting to go transverbal, transegoic.
SELF ØFinally, let us note that the verbal ego-mind is known in
Mahayana Buddhism as the manovijnana,362 in Hinduism as the
mano-mayakosa,94 in Hinayana Buddhism as the fourth and fifth
skandhas.107
ØIt is also the fifth chakra, the visuddha chakra or lower verbal
mind, and the lower aspects of the sixth or ajna chakra, or
conceptual mind.330 In the Kabbalah, it is Tiphareth (egoic self),
Hod (intellect), and Netzach (desire).338
Ø And, I should not forget, it is Maslow's self-esteem needs.262
ØThis brings us to the end of the Outward Arc, but not to the
end of our story.
 Ø At the late ego stage (ages 12-21), not only does an
individual normally master his various personae, he
tends to differentiate from them, disidentify with
them, transcend them.
Ø He thus tends to integrate all his possible personae
into the mature ego—and then he starts to
differentiate or disidentify with the ego altogether, so
as to discover, via transformation, an even higher-
CENTAURIC order unity than the altogether egoic self.
Ø And that brings us, right off, to the centaur.
SELF Ø Although this level has access to language,
membership-cognition, egoic logic and will, it can and
does reach beyond them, to a pristine sensory
awareness and ongoing psychophysiological flow, as
well as to the high-phantasy process of intuition and
intentionality.
Ø This level is above language, logic, and culture—yet it is
not preverbal and precultural but transverbal and
transcultural.
 ØIt transcends language, gross concepts, and the gross
ego, it does not transcend existence, personal orientation,
or waking psychophysiological awareness.
ØIt is the last stage dominated by normal forms of space
and time—but those forms are still there.
ØAs Aurobindo explains, "By an utilization of the inner
senses—that is to say, of the sense powers, in them-
selves, in their purely . . . subtle activity . . . —we are able
CENTAURIC to take cognition of sense experiences, of appearances
and images of things other than those which belong to
SELF the organization of our material environment."306
ØThe transverbal, transconceptual centaur is the home of
Bergson's "intuition" and Husserl's "pure seeing."
ØA higher-order unity, a higher-order integration:
transverbal, transmembership, but not transpersonal—
this mature centaur is the point, I believe, that higher
energies begin to rush into the organism, even
transfiguring it physiologically.
 ØThis whole level—which is a disidentification
with the ego and a higher-order identification
with the total body-mind—marks the highest
potential that can be reached in the
existential or gross realm.
ØThis state is also similar to the initial stages of
the path of Da Free John, where, relaxing
CENTAURIC thought and desire through attentive inquiry,
one intuits an "unqualified sense of
SELF relationship.
ØThis unqualified sense of relationship, enjoyed
while, paradoxically, still aware of the
perception of the world and one's bodily
presence within it, is intuition of the all-
pervading Divine Presence."59
 ØThe whole point would be that in the subtle
realm very high-order differentiation and
transcendence is occurring.
ØMediated through high-archetypal symbolic
forms— the deity forms, illuminative or audible—
consciousness is following a path of
transformation upward which leads quite
THE SUBTLES beyond the gross body-mind.
ØThis transformation upward, like all the others
REALMS we have studied, involves the emergence (via
remembrance) of a higher-order deep structure,
followed by the shifting of identity to that
higher-order structure and the differentiation or
disidentification with the lower structures.
ØThis amounts to a transcendence of the lower-
order structures (the gross mind and body),
which thus enables consciousness to operate on
and integrate all of the lower-order structures.
 Ø. This high-archetypal symbol eventually mediates the
ascension of consciousness to an identity with that Form:
"Gradually we realize that the Divine Form or Presence is
our own archetype, an image of our own essential nature."185
ØYet there is no loss of our individual being as we blend into
the object of our contemplation, for it has been our own
archetype from the beginning, the source of this
fragmentary reflection we call our individual personality."
THE SUBTLES ØThe whole point is that the gross ego has not simply
swallowed the high Archetypal Form, but that the prior
REALMS nature of the ego is revealed to be that Form, so that
consciousness reverts to—or remembers—its own prior and
higher identity.
ØWe are consciously meeting and becoming ourselves in our
archetypal and eternal nature."185 Such, then, is one form of
true transformation or development into the subtle realm,
the discovery or remembrance of a higher-order unity that is
now approaching Unity—that enters the transpersonal
sphere of super-consciousness and discloses only Archetypal
Essence.
 Ø The subtle level refers to all transpersonal experiences
that operate at consciousness, visions, hypnotic states,
illuminations, encounters with spirit guides, subtle-body
awareness, past-life memories, archetypal experiences,
and unitive experiences.
Ø At the low subtle or psychic level, experiences are still
THE SUBTLES closely tied to the gross physical realm.
Ø Such experiences include nature mysticism, cosmic
REALMS consciousness, clairvoyance, siddhis, ghosts, and Grof's
"psychoid" experiences.
Ø The high subtle (or truly subtle), on the other hand,
represents experiences that are entirely at the level of
thought, with little reference to the gross realm.
Ø These include deity mysticism, visions, illuminations,
and experiences of archetypes.
 Ø In contrast to the subtle, the causal level operates not
with thought, but with the root of attention.
Ø Causal experiences, therefore, are those that are based on
our capacity for Witnessing. Such experiences include soul
mysticism (Zaehner, 1961; Happold, 1970), silent awareness,
sunyata or emptiness, formless radiant bliss, the "No Mind"
of Zen, and identity with Eckhart's Godhead (rather, than
God).
THE CASUALS Ø In the low causal, there is still some sense of self or
identity (the Godhead, Brahman, or "final God"), whereas at
REALMS the high causal, the sense of self is entirely transcended in
the experience of pure formlessness or Void.
Ø According to Wilber, beyond the causal, there is the
possibility of "Ultimate" non-dual consciousness, Rigpa, or
"One Taste".
Ø When one breaks through the causal absorption in pure
unmanifest and unborn Spirit, the entire manifest world
(or worlds) arises once again, but this time as a perfect
expression of Spirit and as Spirit.
 Ø The Formless and the entire world of manifest Form -
pure emptiness and the whole Kosmos - are seen to be
not-two (or nondual).
Ø The Witness is seen to be everything that is witnessed as
Ramana puts it, "The object to be witnessed and the
Witness finally merge together … and Absolute
consciousness alone reigns supreme."
Ø But this nondual consciousness is not other to the world:
"Brahman is the World … the whole cosmos [Kosmos] is
THE CASUALS contained in the Heart … All this world is Brahman." … No
objects, no subjects, only this … ever-present as pure
REALMS Ø Presence, the simple feeling of being empty awareness as
the opening or clearing in which all worlds arise,
ceaselessly: I-I is the box the universe comes in. … the
world arises as before, but now there is no one to witness
it …
Ø In that pure empty awareness, I-I am the rise and fall of all
worlds, ceaselessly, endlessly. I-I swallow the Kosmos and
span the centuries … It is as it is, self-liberated at the
moment of its very arising.
Ø And it is only this.
 Ø The transpersonal self, or transpersonal identity, may be
understood as:
Ø 1. The organismic "inner core" or Real Self.
Ø 2. Self-identification with highest values.
Ø 3. The whole psyche - conscious and unconscious.
Ø 4. The higher unconscious.
Ø 5. An archetype (inspiring, powerful, integrating, spiritual).
Ø 6. The extension or "raising" of consciousness.
The Ø 7. The integration of conscious and unconscious.
Ø 8. A guiding force or organising principle.
Transpersonal Ø 9. An inner unifying centre.
Ø 10. A permanent centre of Being.

Self Ø 11. The reincarnating psychic being.

Ø 12. A subtle self-stream.
Ø 13. The individualised divine soul (Atman).
Ø 14. The Universal Self (Atman-Brahman).]
Ø 15. The Transcendent Witness (possibly eternal).
Ø 16. No Self or One Taste (anatta).
Ø 17. The spiritual transformation of the personality.
Ø 18. The connected / permeable self.
Ø 19. The integrated, embodied spiritual life
Transpersonal Psychology Review, Vol. 6, No. 2, 4-21. (2002)
[Preprint Version)