The article below from IONS includes an interesting diagram showing the paths and “pitfalls” found along the way of spiritual trans formative paths. The people studied followed many different roads to transformation.
It is my belief that a path that offers a combination of energy, psychology, and spirituality offers a path that is more likely (still no guarantee!) to keep one on the journey rather than veering off onto one of the byways shown on the map.
Institute of Noetic Sciences‘ Consciousness Transformation Model
“Central to the Institute’s research has been investigation into the phenomenon of transformations in consciousness– significant changes in the way that people perceive and shape their reality. Such transformations often lead people to experience more meaning and purpose in their lives, becoming more compassionate and service-oriented and becoming agents for positive change in their communities and beyond. How do these transformations happen? What are the facilitators? What are the barriers to transforming?
We believe that the more we learn about this complex and mysterious process, the more successful we’ll be in helping individuals, communities, and institutions to cultivate the paradigm shifts that are needed today. To that end and for over a decade, IONS researchers engaged in a series of studies that included analysis of individual narratives of personal transformations; focus groups with teachers of transformative processes; in-depth interviews with 60 representatives of ancient and modern wisdom traditions; surveys of over 2000 people who had experienced their own transformations; and longitudinal studies of people engaged in transformative practices.
This led us to develop a working model of consciousness transformation that is depicted in the diagram above. It shows that transformation begins with a subjective experience of inner (noetic) knowing and then follows a continuing process of exploration and practice, leading to the enrichment of both the individual and the collective. Implicit in our model of transformation is the belief that bridging individual experience, the wisdom of the world’s spiritual traditions, and the rigor and discernment of science leads to new knowledge, understanding, and practical applications of the powers and potentials of human consciousness. This particular intersection of the objective with the subjective is also what we call the “noetic sciences.” And just as geographical maps facilitate in-depth exploration of specific territories, this working model frames the transformative process in a way that guides much of the Institute’s work.
Please feel free to use this Consciousness Transformation Model in your work, and please cite the source as: The Institute of Noetic Sciences Consciousness Transformation Model (© 2011) by Cassandra Vieten, Tina Amorok, and Marilyn Schlitz, http://www.noetic.org/research/change_model/
Download this Diagram:
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