THE DYNAMICS OF SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT

There is a pressing need for work on the dynamics of spiritual development - that is for work designed to identify the stages through which such development passes, and the practices of most value at each stage. However, such work requires someone who is not only an advanced practitioner him or herself, but who is knowledgeable in the wisdom traditions of both East and West, in modern science, in Western psychology, in psychical research, and in philosophy. Among modern scholars Ken Wilber, Michael Murphy and of course Professor Michael Whiteman are three of the small number with these credentials, and Professor Whiteman's latest book (Volume 2 in his series on Old and New Evidence on the Meaning of Life) may well become something of a classic. However, like all his books (e.g. Modes of Thought, The Mystical Life, Philosophy of Space and Time, and Aphorisms on Spiritual Method), it is no easy read. Many years ago, J. B. Priestley told us that good writers can be divided into those who have genius and those who have talent, and that very few have both. He gave D. H. Lawrence as his example of a writer with genius and no talent, and himself as a writer with talent but no genius. By genius I take him to mean the rare ability of some writers to produce original, life-changing ideas, to probe piercingly into the very depths of the human soul, and to convey so much of their own vision to the reader that he or she is shaken and enchanted by turns, and ends up knowing more not only about the world but about himself. By talent, I think Priestley meant the ability to craft a book, to identify what is relevant and to omit what is irrelevant, and to juggle and inter-weave ideas to such an extent that the text becomes like a rich tapestry, comprehensible and admired at a single viewing, as it were.

Using these criteria, Professor Whiteman qualifies as a genius in his chosen field, but perhaps lacks something in talent in that his books are a meandering - although ultimately richly and deeply rewarding - journey through a world as replete with creativity, disorganised profusion and beauty as a tropical rain forest. Reading The Dynamics of Spiritual Development I found myself frequently reaching for my metaphorical blue pencil, only to let it fall as I became captivated and enchanted by each of the side-tracks down which he was taking me. For Michael Whiteman is such a wonderfully inventive thinker and so breathtakingly erudite that each issue he introduces immediately reminds him of an allied topic which in turn brings something else to his mind, and away he plunges into the jungle on either side, finding hidden pathways we hardly knew existed, and holding us in his spell like a magician initiating us into ever deeper mysteries.

The problem with this is that not only does The Dynamics of Spiritual Development become overlong and unfocused, we are often unsure what path the author has led us along in order to bring us to where we are. A secondary problem is that he has no time left to draw our attention to some of the landmarks on either side of his main pathway that may be more relevant to his principal themes than are his byways. This is a pity, though he may be reserving these landmarks for the next volume in his series (which I am told will prove equally mind-stretching and soul-searching). Nevertheless, even without them, Whiteman's book is a whole library in a single volume. After reading it one can return to it again and again, browsing through it in the way one browses along library shelves, always finding something new, always learning something more, and in the process invariably finding oneself caught up in the curious time-warp where hours pass like minutes. The book is divided into two parts, the first of which (The Inner Contest) clarifies terms, looks at the mystical model for psychopathology, at precognition, at the idea of a world-plan, at multiple personality, possession, dreams, and the mystical way. Part II (Groundwork of the Unitive Life) examines sexual identity in the context of spiritual development, love, free will, justice, responsibility and punishment, regeneration and redemption. It also contains three case studies, the first of which is autobiographical and the second and third of which are to do primarily with depersonalisation and satanic victimisation respectively.

These bare bones give little indication of what is covered in each chapter, or how minutely Whiteman chronicles the spiritual journey. I cannot hope to do more than touch upon this journey, but let me do that as best I can. Whiteman is a natural mystic. His mystical experiences first began in quite early childhood, with visions of other worlds, out-of-body experiences, and altered states of consciousness which eventually, in early adult life, actually resulted in a quite lengthy sojourn in a psychiatric hospital. These mystical experiences gave him a head-start in many ways, while his experiences when diagnosed as mentally ill alerted him to the fact that many supposed psychiatric afflictions may be either positive episodes on the path to spiritual development or the negative consequences of possession or destructive attacks by other minds. Above all he recognised that the individual is not 'located and sealed off in a physical body', but is open to direct influence by the thoughts of other beings, both incarnate and discarnate. But even natural mysticism requires cultivation, and drawing upon his own experience as well as the literature Whiteman identifies the range of practices (spiritual exercises) vital to this cultivation. What he calls 'outward aids' include the right ordering of physical life for health and social activity, relaxation of body and mind, cultivation of the creative arts and of intuitive and discursive reasoning, obedience to the right and the good in all one's actions, and the use of 'word power' (in prayer and mantra meditation, in recording dreams, in listing personal strengths and weaknesses, and in copying mystical and spiritual writings).

At the same time 'inward aids' are of equal importance, and here he gives careful directions firstly on how to carry out active recollection, by which he means the ability to focus upon an object of perception by naming its conceptual character in a seemingly 'timeless' moment, an action which releases the mind from the habitual, automatic way in which we usually experience things. Secondly, by continuous recollection, i.e. the practice of focusing upon the conceptual character of a whole scene, without fixing boundaries between objects, which releases the mind from corporeality and from both object/object dualism and mind/matter dualism. And thirdly by obedience to and faith in the 'Divine Source of Wisdom' which is the fount of spiritual reality, being and life (there are certain dangers here if one mistakes unconscious promptings for divine wisdom!). By means of these practices one passes through the four stages of the mystical path which are progressively (i) recognition that there is a reality deeper than materiality, pleasure and pain; (ii) realisation that an answer to the ultimate meaning of life must be found, and is very near; (iii) experience of the Unconditioned Source from which everything arises; (iv) identification with this Source and initiation into the unitive life.

There is a great deal of further practical advice - for example on using dreams, on developing out of body experiences, on the use of psychic abilities, on relationships, on moral behaviour, on relating to the 'Contributory Minds' (sub-personalities) within oneself, on understanding non-material worlds and the entities associated with them - and much more on the experiences met with as part of spiritual development. A great deal of this material is illuminated by reference to personal experience (Chapter 14, a long autobiographical chapter, is one of the best and most engaging in the book, and summarises much of the information in the author's earlier The Mystical Life). Whiteman also dwells at some length upon his conviction that he is female in his spiritual body though male in his physical form, and this was one of the many places where I felt he might have drawn attention to some of the other relevant landmarks on his path. For example Jung's concept of the anima and the animus, the traditional Christian emphasis upon the female identity of the Holy Spirit, the ecstatic quasi-sexual content of some Christian and Sufi mystical poetry, the parallel male/female paths of the Sephiroth, and perhaps above all alchemy and the union of the red king and the white queen that gives birth to the hermaphrodite symbolising the spirit in matter.

In order to make space for this he might have drastically reduced the two forensic case studies which he uses to illustrate the relationship between psycho-spiritual development and psychopathology. Although of great value in their own right - particularly in the way they challenge the preoccupation of the medical profession with symptoms rather than causes - and originally written as scientific papers, these raise many controversial issues which lie outside the scope of Whiteman's book, and the 200 or so pages devoted to them seem somewhat excessive. In his Preface, Whiteman indicates that it was his involvement as an expert consultant in these cases which was the stimulus for the present book, but the book so over-arches these cases and the lessons to be learned from them that their coverage could have been scaled down, dealing only with their interesting similarities to his own 'ultimate contest' on the spiritual path between what he calls 'illfare' and welfare.

In conclusion, I have to confess that no review can do justice to this masterpiece of a book. It distils the wisdom not only of relevant areas of the great traditions but of Whiteman's own long (he is half-way through his ninth decade, with a mental clarity that inspires and humbles the reader) and extraordinary life. He is a man who has always walked in two dimensions, the material world and the psycho-spiritual world, and he illumines our knowledge of both. A sage of our time, the overall impression on reading him is one of overwhelming gratitude that the human mind can not only encompass these dimensions but can render them comprehensible to others. Clearly, Whiteman pays us the compliment of believing that we can have the same access to these dimensions. And if the daunting amount of work and the driving dedication involved proves too much for us, Whiteman would doubtless remind us that once we recognise that our individual minds are indeed 'not located or sealed off in our physical bodies', we have already entered upon the path.

I congratulate the publishers on their courage in bringing out such a weighty tome on what many (wrongly) will see as a purely esoteric subject. Similarly Professor John Poynton, to whom Michael Whiteman pays a handsome tribute in his Acknowledgements, deserves thanks for all he has done to make this and Whiteman's previous books available to us.