The emergence and formation of this, the fourth, direction in modern psychology and psychotherapy deserves some preliminary remarks. Chronologically related to the sixties of the twentieth century, this direction is the most vivid illustration of the interdependencies in the development of psychology, both from the socio-economic, and from the cultural, scientific and political situation in general. Indeed, one cannot but pay attention to certain spatio-temporal coordinates of the emergence of one direction or another in psychology and psychotherapy, due to both scientific and obviously extra-scientific (philosophical, sociocultural, economic, etc.) prerequisites. Late 19th - early 20th century - Europe - psychoanalysis. The beginning of the twentieth century - the USA and Russia - behaviorism. Thirties – fifties - Europe and the USA - the formation of a humanistic paradigm and cognitive psychology.

A special place and role in the further development of modern theory and practice of psychological assistance is occupied by the 1960s, which placed the United States of America at the center of new powerful currents, where after the Second World War huge economic and scientific potential was accumulated, while Europe was rebuilt after two disastrous world wars.

In general, the 60s of the twentieth century deserve at least a brief mention of themselves as a fundamentally new era in the life of mankind, an era that most directly changed the world of people on planet Earth, and people's ideas about the world. Let us recall the most impressive events of the sixties. Among them: man's going beyond the stratosphere into outer space and the landing of the first astronauts in the history of mankind on the moon; the creation of a global network of TV communications, which has transformed the globe, in the words of the Canadian sociologist McLuhan, into a “world village”; creation of computer networks that fundamentally changed the controllability of both technological and social processes; the discovery and experimental research of a whole class of psychedelic substances that alter normal brain activity; advances in immunology, which made it possible for the first time to carry out transplantation of human organs; the formation of a fundamentally new, meta-scientific reflection (the works of T. Kuhn, K. Popper, P. Feyerabend), which transformed not only the understanding of science, but also the vision of the laws of its formation and development.

The sixties of the twentieth century became a kind of watershed that marked the transition to a different way of existence of human civilization. Its main difference is its existence not due to resource-extracting industries, but due to science-intensive high technologies.

It was during these years that a direction that was later named transpersonal psychology emerged.

Psychological and natural science origins. The idea of \u200b\u200ba person. According to Stanislav Grof, one of the most prominent representatives of the transpersonal paradigm (b. 1931), although transpersonal psychology took shape as an independent discipline only in the late 1960s, transpersonal trends in psychology have existed for several decades. The most prominent forerunners of this trend were C.G. Jung, R. Assagioli and A. Maslow (Grof, p. 141). In a generalized description of the authors mentioned, we point out some concepts and provisions that are essential for this direction, and also note a number of ideas by Roberto Assagioli, which served as one of the components of the “fourth force” within the framework of his concept of “psychosynthesis”, put forward back in 1927.

Firstly, it is Jung's concept of "archetype", i.e. myth-generating set of symbols. Secondly, it is the "collective unconscious" (generalized mythologemes), reflecting the historical and sociocultural experience of mankind and the "personal" unconscious (individual symbolism) of dreams. Thirdly, this is the idea of \u200b\u200ba deep, in some way even mystical connection between phenomena, which runs like a red thread through many works of C. Jung, which C. Jung called the "main law of life", and S. Grof - "the acausal principle of synchronicity" (Grof , p. 143), denoting a kind of deep unity of the world ("everything in everything"). Fourth, for the first time after E. Husserl, Jung's idea that "the mental factor is as real as a bacterial infection" was clearly expressed by Jung (C. Jung, p. 257).

And, perhaps, one of the main provisions is the desire for individuation as one of the main tendencies of the "Ego" to merge with the "self", and the latter - to freely join the life of the world, the Universe.

As for A. Maslow, his ideas about self-realization, about the differences between deficiency and development motivation, about cognition of development, about cognition through peak experiences as a means of "acute experience of one's identity" (Maslow A., p. 103), as well as the provision of a healthy psyche, as a psyche capable of “transcending into the world”(Maslow A., p. 181), - these ideas also entered the golden fund of transpersonal psychology.

However, this list would not be complete if we did not stop at least on a brief description of R. Assagioli's contribution. The originality of this contribution lies in the fact that in its conceptual basis, R. Assagioli's concept, according to him, is almost entirely compiled (the idea of \u200b\u200b"subpersonalities" is borrowed from W. James, the idea of \u200b\u200bgrowth, development is common to many directions and concepts, the concept " values \u200b\u200b"and" meaning ", as well as" choice "and" responsibility "- belong to existential philosophy).

The specificity is as follows: 1) the emphasis is on will, the components of which - arbitrariness, motivation, decision, confirmation, persistence and execution - are tracked specifically; 2) the experience of living and experiencing situations and states is emphasized, which are not only recalled in memory, but also stimulated in psychotechnics; 3) special attention is paid not to the problem of loneliness, but, on the contrary, to the ways of cooperation, interaction, harmonious integration of people who make up “one humanity” (Assagioli, p. 4-8); 4) the goal of psychosynthesis is the reconstruction of the personality around a new center (p. 21) using the entire apparatus of modern psychotherapy (symbolism, psychotechnics); 5) one of the main ideas of psychosynthesis: we are in subjection to everything with which our self is identified. We can gain the upper hand and bring control over anything we disidentify with (Assagioli, p. 23). However, as it is customary to say, the pathos of the concept is most likely in its purely practical, psychotechnical orientation, which makes it possible to use a variety of techniques to achieve the main super task - to achieve a new integrity.

Developing the ideas of O. Rank and V. Reich about the meaning of psychosexual relaxation, using the methods of L. Orr and S. Ray, enriched with the religious traditions of the East and scientific research such scientists as G. Bateson, S. Grof, J. Campbell, St. Krippner, M. Murphy, K. Pribram and others, concepts, representations and ideas of transpersonal psychology offer going beyond the personal "Ego", the formation of fundamentally different - universal and universal, outside (or all) of temporary transpersonal identifications.

The conceptual postulates underlying transpersonal psychology are summarized by S. Grof as follows.

First of all, this is the rejection of the concepts of classical science, overcoming the mechanistic picture of the world, dating back to Newton and Descartes. “Newtonian mechanics,” writes S. Grof, “can be interpreted as a special case of Einstein's theory of relativity, and for it some kind of explanation can be offered in the dynamics of its applicability” (Grof, 1993, p. 21). Further - the recognition of the fundamental importance of any idea or system of thinking as potentially heuristic. "There is no such idea or system of thinking, even the most ancient or absurd, that would not be capable of improving our knowledge" (Grof, p. 29). Consciousness is postulated as the only reality that constitutes the primary and irreducible attribute of existence (ibid., Pp. 38-56).

Transpersonal psychology not only rejects the idea of \u200b\u200ba person solely as a biological machine, but also, in accordance with the principle of complementarity (“Copenhagen interpretation”), proceeds from the fact that “he (a person - AB) is simultaneously a material object ... and a vast field of consciousness ”(Ibid, p. 62). The understanding of consciousness as the ultimate basic attribute and way of the existence of the world is correlated by S. Grof with the understanding of the dual (corpuscular and wave) nature of light. Therefore, in particular, the principles and techniques of holography (photography, based on the separation of wave and phase properties of light, is, according to S. Grof, a "magnificent model" of states of consciousness and the corresponding phenomena.

The structure of the human psyche. In the concepts of transpersonal psychology, as the name itself suggests, there is a fundamentally different, non-personalistic understanding of the psyche. The main components of this understanding include: the global category of "consciousness", which embraces the entire reality of the Universe; systems of condensed experience (COEX), dynamic semantic condensations, carrying a variety of information related to the life of the organism as such, including the "memory" of its birth, death and rebirth, as well as a vast area of \u200b\u200bthe unconscious, called by S. Grof "transpersonal area ", Which means real and virtual experience of experiencing unusual states. COEX systems include prebiographical, perinatal - associated with birth - experiences. Speaking about the levels of perinatal experiences, S. Grof identifies four typical patterns, which he called “basic perinatal matrices” (BPM): BPM-1 - in which the biological basis is the experience of symbiotic unity of the fetus with the mother's body; BPM-2; which reflects the beginning of biological birth, the period of prenatal contractions; BPM-3, which records the moment the fetus passes through the birth canal; BPM-4, corresponding to the stage of the child's immediate birth, his birth.

Accordingly, each basic perinatal matrix presupposes certain experiences that symbolically reproduce the ultimate human experiences that have crystallized in the most generalized myths, spiritual, religious and metaphysical systems of mankind. Among them: myths about the golden age (paradise) and mother nature (1); about the expulsion from paradise, the hero's journey, hell (2); ideas about sabbaths, satanic orgies, wars and revolutions, the sacrifice of Christ, the Phoenix bird (3); finally, the concept of salvation and atonement for sins, cleansing from defilement and the manifestation of theophany in the form of a radiant source of light (4).

Transpersonal experiences. The concept reflects experiences that go far beyond the limits of individual existence: the connection of a person with the Universe (at the macro and micro levels); experiencing different levels of consciousness (from intracellular to superconsciousness); transcending ordinary temporal and spatial dimensions; experience of encounters with superhuman spiritual beings, etc. S. Grof developed a detailed cartography of the unconscious, in which both socio-cultural, religious, and mystical and paranormal phenomena have found their place, which constitute the specifics of such a multidimensional, dynamic, holographic in nature education, which the psyche seems to this scientist and his associates.

Description of the psychotherapeutic process and its goals. In various areas of transpersonal psychology with its clearly pronounced psychotechnical orientation (holotropic breathing, rebirthing, vivation), the emphasis is on self-exploration and self-development.

Spiritual development (which means the enrichment of new sensory and visionary experiences that transform personal meanings, and the perception of life situations in general, and personal transformations aimed at overcoming egocentric alienation from the world), great tolerance in the spirit of the "antipsychiatric current" D. Cooper and R. Laing, rejection of the medical model of relations with a client, all-round activation of the latter, including through direct physical contact ("work with the body"), the use of oriental psychotechnics - all this determines a special strategy of approach to psychotherapeutic practice. The strategy, which could be summarized as follows: desirable patients are those patients (clients) who: a) did not suffer and do not suffer from mental illness; b) have certain personal characteristics that allow them to take care of their inner world; c) are distinguished by a sufficient level of preservation of somatic health.

One of the main features of the therapeutic process is thus not an emphasis on change, but on self-exploration, on “experience,” on action in which exciting discoveries and spontaneous self-healing can occur. Therefore, transpersonal sessions combine group work, and work with the body, and the provision of information, and experimentation with techniques for changing consciousness. In this case, interpretations are fundamentally unacceptable; any position of the leader "above" is swept aside from the very beginning. The partnership and independence of the participants in such work is strengthened by their constant change of roles: test and assistant in the course of experiencing therapeutic sessions. Thus, it is not so much a therapeutic orientation as something else, “innovative education”, deeply personalized teaching of transpersonal experience - this is the general concept of psychological assistance, which is implemented in the transpersonal paradigm.

The general goal of transpersonal psychotherapy is proclaimed the integration of chylotropic and holotropic modes of being - harmony of somatic, spiritual and mental health. Psychological assistance to people in acute crisis conditions may be a private goal. The general strategy of psychological assistance is to “completely empirically immerse oneself in the topic that has come to the surface and, upon its completion, return to the unraveled and complete experience of the present” (Grof, p. 285). In other words, it comes about the fullest possible emotional response to painful experiences, about their elimination and resolution in the internal, and not in the external eventual and situational plan.

Psychotechnics in transpersonal psychotherapy. The main purpose of psychotechnics used in transpersonal psychotherapy is to activate the unconscious and provide an emotional response (in S. Grof's language - "unblocking energy" restrained by emotional and psychosomatic symptoms). In contrast to the polysyllabic rationalizations in defense of the expanded limits of understanding and acceptance of psychic norm, the techniques in transpersonal therapy are extremely simple. So, according to the "rebirth" technique (from the English "rebirth" - "rebirth"), developed by Leonard Orr, the patient lies on his back and for more than an hour takes deep breaths with his mouth to saturate the body with oxygen. As a result, the effect of hyperventilation occurs, which allows inhibition of the cerebral cortex to develop and to activate the subcortex, causing experiences that have been repressed from consciousness.

The technique of "free breathing" (developed by domestic followers of "rebirthing") also prescribes a special method of continuous (without pauses) alternation of inhalation and exhalation in certain rhythms, the purpose of which is to achieve hyperventilation. When a person breathes deeply, the concentration in his blood increases significantly carbon dioxide, which leads to vasoconstriction. Oxygen binds more strongly to hemoglobin, and red blood cells donate it to tissues worse. There is a paradoxical oxygen starvation from excess air.

Roughly the same thing happens in asthmatics, with angina pectoris and hypertension, when the blood is saturated with oxygen as a result of frequent breathing, and the body, its tissues, suffocate from lack of oxygen. It is in this state that the "testers" experience a partial loss of consciousness when experiences that are not controlled by the cerebral cortex are activated.

If we add to this specially selected music, as with the method of holotropic breathing by S. Grof, in a person in a twilight state of consciousness, devoid of cortical control, the experiences that arise acquire a kind of guide, in the role of which are musical fragments, whose content corresponds to the fundamental sequence of passing the basic perinatal matrices. In the words of S. Grof: “Focusing on emotions and sensations, a few deep breaths and stimulating music is usually enough for a deep therapeutic experience” (Grof, p. 269).

As in other practices of psychological assistance, here it is necessary to observe the rule of confidentiality, the “stop” rule, as well as creating an atmosphere of trust and attention to each other.

As an additional technique, projective drawings of "mandalas" are used, in which the circle of "mandalas" is filled with images of sensory and visionary experiences, keeping diaries and free discussion of the experience in a group along with bodily exercise in the style of Reichian and Lowen's approaches.

General assessment of the paradigm. In the general assessment of transpersonal psychology, the direction, the founders of which have been publishing their own journal (Journal of Transpersonal Psychology) since 1969 and have an Association for Transpersonal Psychology, a direction generated on the crest of the highest scientific achievements of the second half of the twentieth century and, therefore, different that depth and all-encompassing that can be inherent only in a completely definite time - a time when advanced humanity managed not only to break out of its own planet, but also discovered fundamentally different dimensions and possibilities for the existence of the Universe and life in it - in a general assessment it is impossible not to single out a number of features and signs that reflect, in our opinion, not so much psychological as epistemological, epistemological problems of modern science.

It seems essential, firstly, that in the transpersonal paradigm, in particular, in the works of S. Grof, K. Wilber, S. Krippner and others, a natural-scientific approach to the psyche is clearly expressed, which not only rejects any reductionism, but also directly declares their scientific positions based on multidimensional and fancifully iridescent, not obvious, but existing principles and postulates of postclassical cognition. The principles of complementarity, probability, nonequilibrium, indeterminism, virtuality are far from complete list initial epistemological positions, which were not only inaccessible, but simply unknown to their predecessors.

In our opinion, the whole pathos of the transpersonal paradigm lies in the approach to transpersonal experiences as to virtual reality, generated by the same consciousness. The only reality, with various manifestations of which we encounter in the process of life and cognition, is the thinkable, mental, thinking reality of consciousness that exists in pulsating and reproducing again and again. different levels information patterns. In the space of this powerful metaphor, consciousness is as inherent in every elementary particle-wave, as in the entire Universe. Life, therefore, is not a product of the Universe, but a form of its existence. Various states of consciousness are, in turn, the reality with which the researcher (psychologist, psychiatrist, psychotherapist) deals directly.

Therefore, transpersonal psychology sets not so much the task of personality development or self-organization as the task of understanding and self-experience of oneself in total integrity with the world, in unity with space-time, micro and macrocosm, in overcoming those narrow, mechanistic and conditional boundaries that the archaic imposes on a person. , a view limited to a certain picture of the world.

Transpersonal psychology is an attempt by modern thinking mankind to advance in its relations with the world to a qualitatively new level, to a level from which not only the principle of evolution is revealed, but also the principle of involution, the principle of generating the lowest from the higher. In this paradigm, the understanding that the world depends on our aspirations and ideas is quite clearly highlighted.

Of course, transpersonal psychology has its own limitations and its own contradictions, which are recognized in it and form the basis further development... Some of them are obvious: excessive attention to mystical and, in particular, pagan cults; very rude, providing an opportunity for speculative and arbitrary use of technology, including by all kinds of "trainers", "psychologists-healers" and other charlatans; an uncritical attitude towards hallucinatory and hallucinatory-like experiences in various stages of regression and trance states as a "mystical experience". Psychotherapeutic practice (in particular, sessions with children) shows: a person can experience and experience only what is included in the cultural matrix of his consciousness. In addition, not every hallucinatory experience is of psychotherapeutic value. Let us recall the "delirium tremens" among alcoholics.

The king is played by the retinue

Returning to the original meaning of psychology - the doctrine of the soul (Greek psyhe - soul, logos - teaching, science), transpersonal psychology considers taking care of the soul as the primary task of psychotherapy. If in classical psychological and psychotherapeutic approaches, for example, as in psychoanalysis, a person's problems are considered only at the biographical level, then in transpersonal psychotherapy a broader approach is used, which includes, in addition to the biographical level, perinatal (history and experience of birth) and transpersonal (superbiographical experience that includes human experiences: ancestral stories, phylogenetic experience, world culture; experiences of identification with plants, animals, with other personalities, with various forms of consciousness - from identification with individual organs to planetary consciousness; archetypal experiences and awareness sacred knowledge).

Transpersonal psychotherapy is based on ideas about the possibility of realizing the inner, deep transpersonal potential of a person for healing and improving the psyche, for personal and spiritual growth through the awareness and experience of a person's unsatisfied and unfulfilled desires, transformation of the negative consequences of the perinatal period of life, psycho-traumatic events. This is the value of the transpersonal approach - not only to help solve the deepest problems of a person, but also to release a colossal internal developmental and self-healing potential (resource), as well as teach how to use it.

A wide range of methods and integrative psychotechnics are used to open and develop the internal transpersonal resource. Together, they are aimed at balancing and harmonious fusion of the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual aspects of a person. Next we give short review the main methods of transpersonal psychotherapy.

From the point of view of the transpersonal approach, a person's mental state is directly affected by his physical state of health. Therefore, in addition to traditional wellness procedures - diet, sports, etc., usually recommended during therapy, the transpersonal approach uses body-oriented techniques - Lowen's bioenergetic therapy, sensory awareness, dance therapy, various exercises from yoga, tai-zi-chuan, oriental single combats. Such techniques make it possible to better understand the relationship between the body and the soul, establish a relationship between them and establish a mechanism for self-healing of physical diseases through awareness and subsequent transformation of the problem. Awareness and subsequent release from body blocks and clamps allows the person undergoing therapy to feel more relaxed, due to this, in the future, more calm, free, and therefore able to realize and solve their problems at a higher level of consciousness.

Methods of working with emotional problems in transpersonal psychotherapy most often use various techniques that cause altered states of consciousness, which provide the emergence of emotional catharsis and transpersonal experiences. Basically, to achieve altered states of consciousness, various breathing techniques are used - rebirthing, holotropic breathing, and vivation.

Also, to release from emotional blocks, techniques of gestalt dialogues, guided imagination are used - the creative visualization of Shakti Gawain, the techniques of working with dreams developed by S. LaBerge, the creative approach to the analysis of dreams described by S. Krippner et al. Usually, psychologists who do not have a transpersonal orientation consider work with dreams as a short and simple path leading to the unconscious, without considering the hidden tremendous potential that provides access to the transpersonal areas of consciousness.

In transpersonal psychotherapy, existential therapy methods are also used - helping clients solve problems of choice, meaning, freedom, responsibility, love, death, etc.

In addition to applying the above psychotherapeutic methods, transpersonal therapists use techniques taken from ancient spiritual practices - exercises for the mind and meditation. Learning in the process of transpersonal therapy new patterns of attitude towards oneself and the environment through awareness, that is, learning to interpret experiences in a different way, a person develops consciousness. In the process of reflection, a cognitive rethinking occurs, which allows you to transform a lot of problems, repressed information and learn a more holistic and free existence.

Teaching meditation can successfully complement the development of a person's consciousness, develop attention and concentration. The practice of meditation successfully complements transpersonal therapy, allowing you to effectively work with the state of anxiety caused by the repression of important experiences for the client into the unconscious.

Given the variety of transpersonal therapy, only the most frequently used methods of work were given and it is certainly necessary to take into account that there are many more of them. One of the features of transpersonal therapy is that when choosing techniques for work, the therapist takes into account both personal characteristics and universal human - transpersonal ones. Therefore, as broad are the transpersonal ideas about a person and his environment, so are the methods used in the practice of transpersonal therapy.

Now, when universal human values \u200b\u200bare becoming more and more in demand, it is not enough to use only rational approaches in psychotherapy. Eastern wisdom reads: "Problems of the mind cannot be solved by the mind." Carl Jung, one of the first to appreciate the importance of transpersonal experience, wrote: "In fact, approaching numinous is real therapy, and as you achieve numinous experiences you are freed from pathological suffering." In a letter to the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, he expressed the thought that: "The desire for alcohol was the equivalent of a spiritual desire for the integrity of life at a low level." Later, this hypothesis was confirmed by the studies of Christina and Stanislav Grof. According to S. Grof, the founder of holotropic breathing, alcoholics who begin to practice deep coherent breathing have a sharp decrease in the need to poison themselves with harmful substances. S. Grof worked with a group of alcoholics. And after several sessions, 52% of the subjects stopped drinking altogether. A month later, several people broke loose. But almost half of the subjects became teetotalers. Studies have also been conducted with people who have had an addiction to heroin. A third of the patients were completely rehabilitated, and in fact conventional methods only achieve success one in ten.

Traditional drug addiction treatments - medical detoxification and / or psychological support rational methods psychotherapy are not very effective, this is confirmed by growing statistics. This is due to the multilevel nature of the drug addiction problem. As it was experimentally proved by our research, this is due to the fact that at a deep, unconscious level the personality remains psychological (emotional) dependence on the states given by the drug - an altered state of consciousness.

The need for altered states of the state (withdrawal into another reality) is initially present in every person. In an altered state of the state (ASC), the human brain works in other modes. In ISS, a person gets access to his resources. There are cases when, under the influence of strong emotions, a person performed those actions that are impossible for him in the ordinary state of consciousness. Over the years of evolution, people have used trance states for survival, knowledge, pleasure. At the end of the 20th century, people get pleasure through extreme conditions, doing dangerous sports, go into a state of trance, using alcohol and drugs.

The states of expanded consciousness achieved during the trainings are close to mystical experiences, full of psychospiritual and existential discoveries. Often, with the help of immersion in the process of coherent breathing, a person gets rid of psychosomatic diseases, stops being aggressive, begins to feel harmony with people and nature. Passing the stages of integration, a person's personality becomes whole.

With the methods of transpersonal psychotherapy, release from destructive addictions is much easier and faster, thanks to sacred experiences and a legal exit from the ego.

Based on this, it is safe to say that at present it is the methods of transpersonal psychotherapy that are the most effective method work with such topical issues as drug and alcohol addiction.

And it is obvious that given the diversity and uniqueness of this area in psychology, the requirements for the transpersonal therapist should be more stringent than for representatives of other schools of psychotherapy. Transpersonal therapists who help other people in personal and spiritual growth, of course, must first, as well as in the future, constantly improve, develop professionally, personally, spiritually.

S. Grof, I. Zingerman, G. Karelsky

TRANSPERSONAL PSYCHOLOGY one of the modern trends in psychology is of great interest to modern man. Breathing techniques have been used by mankind since ancient times, but were often viewed only from the standpoint of mysticism and esotericism. Improving the experience of different cultures of using breathing to achieve altered states of consciousness, Stanislav Grof developed a breathing trance technology - holotropic breathing. Stanislav Grof was one of the first to consider breathing techniques and holotropic breathing in particular from the standpoint of modern science. He has conducted thousands of studies of human consciousness. However, the foundations of transpersonal psychology were laid by C.G. Jung and Roberto Assagioli.

TRANSPERSONAL PSYCHOTHERAPY allows you to access the deeper layers of the psyche and work with long-forgotten traumatic events. Transpersonal techniques release the powerful energy accumulated in psychological defenses that protect a person from turning to traumatic experiences, and this energy is used for healing, awareness and solution of the actual this moment tasks. Introduction to altered states of consciousness is used as a catalyst to mobilize the internal energy of healing. During this work, the unconscious of the individual chooses exactly that experience that is most significant at this moment for the individual, and is able to bring it into consciousness. In transpersonal sessions, a person opens and metaphorically, dissociated, without repeated traumatization, he experiences traumas, conflicts and problems, displaced into the unconscious and served as the cause of the pathological state, gets rid of them due to emotional and bodily rejection. In the course of therapy, a person's life position in relation to specific events changes, the patterns of behavior and response in certain situations change.

ABOUT THE MECHANISM OF ACTION OF THE METHOD The method of clinical transpersonal psychotherapy allows you to address the deep layers of the psyche and work with long-forgotten traumatic events. Transpersonal techniques release the powerful energy accumulated in psychological defenses that protect a person from turning to traumatic experiences, and this energy is used for healing, awareness and solving problems that are urgent at the moment.

INDICATIONS FOR CONDUCTING TRANSPERSONAL PSYCHOTHERAPY v Post-stress (consequences of violence, psychological trauma associated with participation in hostilities, catastrophes) and crisis states (age and existential crises), anxiety states, including with panic attacks. The peculiarity of the condition of these patients is that they do not associate these manifestations with the true cause that caused them. Transpersonal therapy helps to process and utilize the traumatic experience, while the energy spent on displacing the traumatic situation from consciousness (on the formation of psychological defenses) is freed, due to which the symptoms of asthenia go away, the level of anxiety decreases, sleep is normalized, general tension disappears and the negative experience is transformed into positive. Further, new behavioral strategies are formed. A person begins to see meaning in his life, he has a promising future.

v Neurotic reactions, neuroses (especially chronically occurring, therapeutically to various types drug treatment, with allergic or paradoxical reactions to medications, in a subjectively insoluble conflict situation). As a rule, such patients are very skeptical about any therapy and any verbal techniques only increase their resistance. Various experiences in the process of transpersonal therapy enable such patients to look at their life situations and at themselves as if from the outside, to gain access to previously blocked resources and to avoid many defenses that such patients easily build when working in other methods. v Various forms of pre-psychotic depression.

v Psychosomatic diseases: bronchial asthma, hypertension, initial stages of diabetes mellitus; some types of skin diseases (eczema, neurodermatitis, psoriasis), certain diseases of the gastrointestinal tract (biliary dyskinesia, gastritis). The use of transpersonal therapy in psychosomatic pathology is based on the principle that the psycho-emotional factor plays a decisive role in the development and course of these diseases, and the reasons that led to this form of response lie in deep childhood. v Secondary infertility, mastopathy, fibroids. v Psychological rehabilitation in the treatment of alcoholism, drug addiction, substance abuse (in complex therapy with drug treatment) - identifying the reasons that led to the use of psychoactive substances, the formation of new behavior, removal of psychological dependence.

CONTRAINDICATIONS TO CONDUCTING TRANSPERSONAL PSYCHOTHERAPY v Cardiovascular diseases; v Recent physical injury; v Glaucoma, retinal detachment; v Severe bronchial or cardiac asthma; ... v Pregnancy (absolute contraindication); v Epilepsy; ... v Mental illness (schizophrenia, manic-depressive psychosis).

STAGES OF TRANSPERSONAL PSYCHOTHERAPY v Stage 1. Preliminary. At this stage, the difficulty lies in the fact that for the most part patients are fixed on the formally presented complaint and poorly understand its connection with their psychological state. It is necessary to explain to the patient the connection between his illness and psychological problems of the personality. The patient must realize that without solving the intrapersonal problems that cause drug addiction, recovery is impossible. Thus, the main task of the 1st stage is to prepare the patient for psychotherapeutic work, to realize the need for such work, to form motivation for treatment, to discuss transpersonal phenomena with the patient and their significance in the life of a particular person in order to devalue his problems, reduce the severity of actual experiences, achieving a different way of understanding the situation by switching the patient's focus to higher, spiritual categories.

v Stage 2. Individual transpersonal psychotherapy. The use of various techniques that ensure the emergence of altered states of consciousness, with the aim of experiencing specific, according to Grof, "transpersonal phenomena". Altered states of consciousness in the practice of transpersonal psychotherapy can be achieved with the help of special breathing techniques, various techniques of meditation, visualization of abstract concepts. This stage is the main one, since it is it that creates the conditions for experiencing transpersonal experience and for realizing the health potential of transpersonal phenomena.

v The main task of the 3rd stage of psychotherapeutic work is the patient's adaptation to new conditions, awareness of problems based on transpersonal experience gained in the first 2 stages and the choice of new behavioral patterns. This stage of transpersonal psychotherapy is implemented in the process of communication with a psychotherapist and psychologist, less often in interactions of a group of patients.

AS A PRACTICE, IT IS POSSIBLE TO USE COLD BREATHING v Holotropic breathing (HD) is a method of transpersonal psychotherapy, which consists in hyperventilating the lungs due to rapid breathing. As a result, CO 2 is flushed out of the blood, the blood vessels of the brain are narrowed, the inhibition of the cerebral cortex begins, and the subcortex is activated, which causes the experiences that are displaced from consciousness [

v The method, which combines elements such as rapid breathing, ethnic, ritual and trance music, as well as certain forms of work with the body, generates a whole range of experiences that have been observed during other types of deep self-exploration. v Proponents of the method argue that the experiences of Holotropic Breathwork have a healing and transformative effect. They also claim that many holotropic sessions have brought to the surface difficult emotions and unpleasant physical sensations of a wide variety of types, and the full manifestation of these emotions and sensations makes it possible to free a person from their disturbing influence.

MAPPING OF HUMAN PSYCHE v involves the creation of a new image of it. In addition to the traditional concept of psychoanalysis about the unconscious part of the psyche and the biographical memories contained therein, a hypothesis is expressed about the existence of even deeper areas of the unconscious. In particular, the perinatal area of \u200b\u200bthe psyche is highlighted, in which the experiences and images of death and birth are concentrated, and the transpersonal sphere, correlated with a wide range of experiences traditionally considered as religious, spiritual, occult and mystical. The logic of the organization (architectonics) of the psychic presupposes a layered content of unconscious areas, separated by sensory barriers that make it difficult to access deeper areas. The activation of sensory channels is explained by the fact that the methods that open access to the unconscious, first of all, enhance the activity of the sensory organs. As a result, the unconscious also activates the sensory organs. The sensory barrier manifests itself in nonspecific sensory experiences, for example, a person sees basic colors and geometric patterns, hears various ringing sounds, he has tactile sensations in various parts of the body, he smells and tastes.

v All these experiences are abstract, have no symbolic meaning and are of little significance. Sensory barriers separate ordinary consciousness from the biographical level of the unconscious and separate the perinatal region and the deeper and more difficult to access transpersonal sphere of the unconscious. The perinatal area of \u200b\u200bthe unconscious is located behind the area of \u200b\u200bthe individual unconscious. In the individual unconscious, individual psychological trauma, incomplete gestalts are condensed, here is the biography of a person. The nature of the processes taking place at this relatively shallow level of the unconscious sphere is similar to the phenomena described by Freud and his other followers, however, as a result of practical work, differences were revealed. In particular, biographical material can not only be reproduced in memory and reconstructed, but also experienced anew.

v Most COEX systems are dynamically associated with the birth process, which means they are produced in a deeper sphere - in the perinatal region of the unconscious. During the sessions of holotropic therapy, when moving to the perinatal region of the unconscious, the intensity of the experience increases so much that the participants in the sessions perceive it as a process of dying. The pain can be so unbearable that a person feels as if he has crossed the boundaries of individual suffering and is experiencing the pain of a whole group, of all humanity and even of all living things. Experiences at this level are usually accompanied by vivid physiological manifestations such as choking, rapid pulse and palpitations, nausea and vomiting, discoloration of the skin, fluctuations in body temperature, spontaneous bruising, trembling and convulsions, etc. This condition is considered as a collision with death. It is emphasized that during ordinary analytical work in the field of the biographical level of the unconscious, such experiences are possible only in those cases if a person has ever been on the verge of life and death (states clinical death, serious operations, situations of mortal danger). For all others, the experience of facing death is possible only under conditions of holotropic therapy. In the future, a change in state occurs, and experiences already characterize the process of birth. This stage of the perinatal experience is defined as the process of dealing with death and rebirth. It is very important, since birth trauma, even to a greater extent than events in the biography, is responsible for the formation of problems, and its elaboration in the context of holotropic therapy creates the prerequisites for a more complete cure than the analytical study of postnatal conflicts. Indeed, it is in the perinatal area that COEX systems are formed, which condense on themselves the corresponding biographical material. The experiences of death and rebirth are complex and varied. This experience manifests itself in four typical patterns, or constellations, of experiences corresponding to the stages of biological birth.

Psychotherapy. Study Guide Authors

Techniques most commonly used in transpersonal psychotherapy

1. Body-oriented techniques: Lowen's bioenergetic therapy, sensory awareness, dance therapy, various exercises from yoga, tai-zi-chuan, martial arts. Such techniques make it possible to establish the relationship between the body and the soul, to establish the mechanism of self-healing of physical diseases through awareness, release from body blocks and the subsequent transformation of the problem.

2. Breathing techniques that cause an altered state of consciousness - rebirthing (rebirthing), holotropic (holotropic) breathing, vivation, provide the emergence of emotional catharsis and transpersonal experiences.

3. Techniques of gestalt dialogues, guided imagination: the creative visualization of Shakti Gawain, the techniques of working with dreams developed by S. LaBerge, the creative approach to the analysis of dreams described by S. Krippner, and others are used to release emotional blocks.

4. Technique of meditation. Learning in the process of transpersonal therapy new patterns of attitude towards oneself and the environment through awareness, that is, learning to interpret experiences in a different way, a person develops consciousness. In the process of reflection, a cognitive rethinking takes place, which allows you to transform a lot of problems, repressed information and learn a more holistic and free existence.

One of the features of transpersonal therapy is that, when choosing techniques for work, the therapist takes into account personal and universal (transpersonal characteristics).

Indications to the appointment of transpersonal psychotherapy can be:

1. Post-stress (the consequences of violence, psychological trauma associated with participation in hostilities, disasters) and crisis states (age and existential crises), anxiety states, including panic attacks. Transpersonal therapy helps to process and utilize the traumatic experience, while the energy spent on displacing the traumatic situation from consciousness (on the formation of psychological defenses) is freed, due to which the symptoms of asthenia go away, the level of anxiety decreases, sleep is normalized, general tension disappears and the negative experience is transformed into positive. Further, new behavioral strategies are formed. A person begins to see meaning in his life, he has a promising future.

2. Neurotic disorders. In this case, therapy is aimed at giving patients the opportunity to look at themselves and their life situation from the outside, to gain access to previously blocked resources and to avoid resistance.

3. Depressive disorders of a non-psychotic level.

4. Psychosomatic diseases (with mandatory verification of the true somatic status, see "contraindications" on p. 352). The use of transpersonal therapy in psychosomatic pathology is based on the principle that the psychoemotional factor plays a decisive role in the development of these diseases, and the reasons that led to this form of response are rooted in deep childhood.

5. Secondary infertility, mastopathy, fibroids, in the development of which a traumatic situation plays a role.

6. Psychological rehabilitation in the treatment of alcoholism, drug addiction, substance abuse (in complex therapy with drug treatment) in order to identify the reasons that led to the use of psychoactive substances, the formation of new behavior, removal of psychological dependence.

In connection with the use of altered consciousness states in transpersonal psychotherapy, there are also a number of contraindications that significantly limit the scope of this direction of psychotherapy. The second zone of limitations is associated with the techniques of immersion in an altered consciousness. For example, intense breathing exercises at the biological level cause hyperoxygenation, which is associated with the formation of cerebral edema, which clinically manifests itself as a state of altered consciousness. In persons with normal physical health, this edema is reversible, but in the presence of organically altered soil, complications may develop.

Also, as contraindications, conditions are considered that are incompatible with the strong emotional and physical stress that occurs when immersed in dramatic experiences.

So, let's list the main contraindications:

1. Cardiovascular diseases - heart failure, myocardial infarction, post-infarction or post-stroke state (less than 1 year), ischemic heart disease (unstable angina pectoris, angina pectoris at rest), arterial hypertension (2-B, 3 stages), severe atherosclerosis of the cerebral vessels ...

2. Recent physical injuries (fractures, dislocations, severe bruises, bleeding), recent surgical operations with sutures, congenital bone fragility. During the sessions, people move intensively, sometimes with a large amplitude. And, therefore, special care is required in relation to those who suffer from habitual dislocation of the shoulder or knee or pathological fragility of the bones, since intense movement can lead to damage or cause complications.

3. Glaucoma, retinal detachment (absolute contraindication).

4. Acute infectious diseases.

5. Severe form of bronchial or cardiac asthma (hormone-dependent, when organic bronchial obstruction is expressed).

6. Early postoperative period.

7. Pregnancy (absolute contraindication). The placenta is the part of the body that undergoes vasoconstriction as a result of hyperventilation. The consequence of this is the deterioration of the blood supply to the fetus. In addition, women in transpersonal therapy sessions can relive their own birth (experiencing the experiences of their mother) or the birth of a previous child, etc., which may be accompanied by uterine contraction. This can cause bleeding and lead to miscarriage.

8. Epilepsy.

9. Endogenous mental illness (absolute contraindication). Transpersonal psychotherapy can act as a trigger for exacerbation of the condition, for the onset of psychosis, even when the patient is in remission. Transpersonal psychotherapy is also incompatible with treatment with neuroleptics, antidepressants, and tranquilizers that suppress emotions.

10. Hysterical psychopathy (absolute contraindication).

11. Children's age.

Of all the listed methods of transpersonal psychotherapy, holotropic breathing is most often used to induce a state of altered consciousness.

Holotropic approach in psychotherapy represents an important and effective alternative to the traditional approaches of depth psychology, based on verbal exchange between therapist and patient. The term "holotropic" means "aimed at restoring integrity" or "movement towards wholeness" (from the Greek words holos - solid and trepein - "moving towards ...").

The dynamic structure of psychogenic symptoms contains extremely powerful emotional and physical energies. Therefore, any attempt to seriously influence them is extremely problematic. It takes a therapeutic context that provides and enhances the direct experience in order to obtain noticeable results in a relatively short time. In addition, bearing in mind the multilevel nature of psychogenic symptoms, the conceptual framework of the doctor should include biographical, perinatal (history and experience of birth) and transpersonal (superbiographic experience, including human experiences: ancestral stories, phylogenetic experience of world culture; experiences of identification with plants , animals, with other personalities, with various forms of consciousness - from identification with individual organs to planetary consciousness; archetypal experiences and awareness of sacred knowledge) levels of the psyche, without which therapeutic work cannot be effective. In cases where problems are rooted in the transpersonal realm, the final result cannot be obtained until the person has agreed to specific experiences of the transpersonal experience.

Holotropic therapy promotes the activation of the unconscious to such an extent that it leads to unusual states of consciousness. One can support the idea, first put forward by Carl Gustav Jung, that the psyche has a powerful potential for self-healing, and the collective unconscious is the source of autonomous healing powers. Hence, the doctor's task is reduced to helping to get to the deepest layers of the psyche, without dealing with rational consideration of problems using any specific methods of changing a person's mental situation according to a pre-developed plan. Healing is the result of the dialectical interaction of consciousness with the individual and collective unconscious.

In such conditions, the existing symptoms intensify and pass from a latent state to a manifest one, becoming accessible to consciousness. The physician's job is to facilitate this spontaneous manifestation by fully trusting this autonomous healing process. The symptoms are blocked energy and extremely concentrated experience. And here the symptom turns out to be not only a problem, but an equally opportunity.

It is very important that the therapist promotes the disclosure (development) of this process, even if he does not understand it at some point. Some experiences may not have any specific content; they can be intense emotions or physical exertion followed by deep relief and relaxation. Quite often, insight and specific content emerges later, or even in subsequent sessions. In some cases, the resolution (result) manifests itself at the biographical level, in others - in perinatal material or in the themes of transpersonal experiences. Sometimes the dramatic healing process and personality transformation, accompanied by the results stretched over time, are associated with experiences that defy rational understanding.

The holotropic therapy procedure itself includes: controlled breathing, stimulating music and various forms of using sound, as well as focused body work.

Profound changes in consciousness can be caused by a change in the respiratory rate - hyperventilation and, conversely, slowing down, as well as a combination of these techniques. From a generally accepted physiological point of view, hyperventilation leads to excessive release of carbon dioxide from the body, the development of hypocapnia with a decrease in the partial pressure of carbon dioxide in the alveolar air and oxygen in the arterial blood, and also to respiratory alkalosis. Some researchers have traced the hyperventilating chain of changes in homeostasis even further, up to biochemical processes in the brain. It turned out that the changes here are very similar to those that occur under the influence of psychedelics. This means that intense breathing can be a non-specific catalyst for deep mental processes. Numerous experiments by S. Grof revealed that in pneumocatarsis, it is not the specific breathing technique that is of primary importance, but the very fact that breathing for 30–90 minutes was performed at a faster pace and deeper than usual. Many examples can be used to confirm that Wilhelm Reich was right about the fact that psychological resistance and defense use the mechanisms of restricting breathing. Respiration is an autonomous function, but it can be influenced by will, an increase in the rhythm of breathing and an increase in its efficiency contributes to the release and manifestation of the material of the unconscious (and superconscious).

Prolonged hyperventilation not only does not cause a progressive increase in tension, but leads to a critical climax, followed by deep relaxation. The nature of this sequence is comparable to orgasm. In addition to this, in repetitive holotropic sessions, the total amount of muscle tensions and dramatic emotions tends to decrease. Everything that happens in this process can be interpreted as the body's desire to respond to a change in the biochemical situation by bringing to the surface in a fairly stereotyped form various obsolete, deeply hidden tensions and releasing them through peripheral discharge. This usually happens in two ways.

The first of these takes the form of catharsis and response, which includes tremors, twitching, dramatic movements, coughing, gasping for breath, gagging, screaming and other sound manifestations or increased activity of the autonomic nervous system.

The second mechanism is that deep tensions manifest themselves in the form of prolonged contractions and prolonged spasms.

Maintaining such muscle tension for a long time, the body wastes a huge amount of accumulated energy and, being freed from it, facilitates its functioning.

The typical result of a holotropic session is deep emotional release (unloading) and physical relaxation. Thus, prolonged hyperventilation is an extremely powerful and effective stress reliever that promotes emotional and psychosomatic recovery. Spontaneous hyperventilation in people with mental illness can therefore be seen as an attempt at self-medication. We find a similar understanding in the literature describing the technique of spiritual development, for example, Kundalini Yoga, where manifestations of this kind are called "kriya".

Emotional manifestations during the sessions are of a wide range; the most typical of these are anger and aggression, anxiety, sadness and depression, feelings of failure, humiliation, guilt and worthlessness. Physical manifestations include, in addition to muscle tension, headaches and pains in various parts of the body, shortness of breath, nausea, vomiting, choking, increased salivation, sweating, sexual sensations and a variety of motor movements.

Physical tension develops in certain parts of the body during a breathing session. Not being simple physiological reactions to hyperventilation, they are complex psychosomatic structures that depend on individual characteristics and, as a rule, have a specific psychological content characteristic of a given person. Sometimes they represent an intensified version of habitual tensions and pains, manifested in the form of chronic problems or in the form of symptoms that occur during moments of emotional or physical stress, fatigue, insomnia, weakness caused by illness, alcohol or drug use. In other cases, they can be seen as a reactivation of old problems that arose during infancy, childhood, puberty, or as a result of severe emotional stress.

Regardless of whether a person recognizes specific events in his biography in these physical manifestations, it is still interesting to consider them in terms of psychological meaning or content. For example, if a spasm develops in the arms and legs ("carpopedic spasm" in traditional terminology), then this indicates a deep conflict between a strong desire to perform certain actions and an equally strong tendency to contain (inhibition) this action. The resulting dynamic balance is the simultaneous activation of flexor and extensor muscles of the same intensity. People who experience these spasms typically report feeling suppressed aggressiveness, restraining the urge to attack others, or experiencing unsatisfied sexual urges throughout their life, or at least most of it. Sometimes painful tensions of this kind are unrealized creative impulses: such as, for example, drawing, dancing, singing, playing on musical instruments, some kind of craft or activity carried out with the help of hands. This approach allows us to penetrate into the essence of the conflict that generates these tensions. As a rule, the process, having reached the culmination point of tension, is replaced by deep relaxation and the feeling of removing the obstacle that prevented the free circulation of energy in the hands. Often times, people who have experienced this have discovered various creative abilities and achieved amazing success in drawing, writing, dancing, or craft.

Another important source of muscle tension is memories of past surgeries or injuries. During periods of pain and suffering, a person has to suppress, sometimes for a long time, emotional and physical reactions to pain. And if the trauma is healed only anatomically and not emotionally integrated, it remains like an unfinished gestalt. Therefore, trauma of a physical nature is fraught with serious psychological problems, and, conversely, its elaboration in therapeutic sessions can contribute to emotional and psychosomatic recovery.

The tension of the leg muscles has the same dynamic structure, only less complex; this reflects the fact that the role of the legs in human life easier role of hands (hands). Many of the related problems relate to the use of legs and feet as instruments of aggression, especially in the early stages of life. Tension and cramping in the hips and buttocks are often associated with sexual defenses, fears and inhibitions, especially in women. The archaic anatomical name of one of the thigh muscles actually sounds like "the guardian of virginity" - musculus custos virginitalis... Many muscle strains can be attributed to physical trauma.

At a deeper level, dynamic conflicts that cause muscle tension in the limbs and many other parts of the body are associated with the "hydraulic" circumstances of biological birth. At this stage of the birthing process, the child, often for many hours, finds himself in a situation that is associated with horror, anxiety, pain and suffocation. This triggers powerful neural stimulation that gets no peripheral output because the child is unable to breathe, scream, move, or escape the situation. As a result, the blocked energy accumulates in the body and is stored equally in the flexor and extensor muscles. If this dynamic conflict comes out for release (late in time), it proceeds in the form of intense and often painful spasms. Sometimes it is possible to trace deeper causes of strains in the arms and legs in the sphere of transpersonal experiences, in particular, with various memories of a past life. It is interesting to note that many tensions in other parts of the body are observed in those places that the tantric system calls the centers of psychic energy of the "subtle body" - chakras. This is not surprising, since the techniques of holotropic therapy are similar to the exercises used in the Tantric tradition, which emphasizes breathing.

Directional bodywork is one of the component parts holotropic therapy and is used only when the need arises. There are relatively few situations in which directed work with the body is necessary at the initial stages of holotropic sessions. This includes cases where the main blockage is in the throat area and reaches a degree that prevents further process breathing. In such circumstances, it is sometimes necessary to carry out the work by methods of response, if the intensity of the reaction - spasm, physical pain or anxiety reaches such a degree that the person cannot or does not want to continue the session, such discomfort should be removed. The main indicator of the need for directed work with the body is the situation in the last stages of the session, when breathing and music did not lead to complete relief of symptoms.

The basic principle of the final stage of holotropic sessions is to focus on the physical discomfort associated with emotional distress. Regardless of the nature and location of the problems, it is proposed to intensify the symptom. For example, tighten the neck muscles and assume a position that exacerbates pain in the head and neck; if a blockage is found in the pelvic region, then the pelvis should be raised and the muscles of the abdomen and buttocks should be tightened. It is recommended to maintain this tension as long as possible, regardless of other parts of the body. These manifestations can even be exacerbated by special intervention of the therapist aimed at intensifying the symptom. This includes massaging or pressing on an area that is tense or painful, discouraging the urge to stretch, stretch, etc.

Group sessions of holotropic therapy are more effective than individual sessions. They seem to help create a strong energy field that acts as a catalyst for the therapeutic process. A very interesting aspect of collective work is the synchronization of various events during the breathing session.

Deep breathing, which provides access to the unconscious, primarily activates the senses. For many people, the session begins with a variety of non-specific sensory experiences such as feeling numb, vibrating, tingling in different parts of the body, visualizing colors, or geometric shapes, ringing or noise in the ears, a wide variety of tactile sensations in different parts of the body, tastes and smells. These more or less abstract experiences, as a rule, have no deep symbolic meaning. Rather, they represent a sensory barrier that must be overcome.

The next area of \u200b\u200bthe psyche, access to which opens up as the process develops, is usually called the level of biographical memories and the individual unconscious.

Experiences belonging to this level are associated with significant events and circumstances of a person's life from his birth to the present moment. Unresolved conflicts, repressed or non-integrated memories - all this can float out of the unconscious and become the content of the experience.

The biographical material that appears in the session largely corresponds to the ideas of Z. Freud or his followers. There are, however, several important differences. During the breathing session, the biographical material is not remembered or reconstructed, but is really re-experienced, including not only emotions, but also physical, visual and other sensations.

Another important difference is that significant biographical elements in memories do not appear in isolation, but form certain dynamic condensations in memory, the so-called systems of condensed experience (COEX).

COEX system is a dynamic combination of memories (with accompanying fantasies) from different periods of a person's life, which are united by a strong emotional charge of a similar quality, intense physical sensations of a certain kind, or common important elements. COEX systems are general organizing principles that operate at all levels of the psyche.

Most biographical COEX systems are dynamically associated with certain aspects of the birth process, that is, with the personal level of the psyche. Perinatal themes and their elements are specifically related to the corresponding empirical material from the transpersonal area. Usually a certain dynamic COEX system covers the material of various biographical periods, biological birth and all kinds of areas of the transpersonal world, like memories of other incarnations, identification with animals, or mythological motives.

The link between biological birth and perinatal experiences is deep and specific. This makes it possible to use the stages of biological childbirth to build a theoretical model that makes it possible to understand the dynamics of the perinatal level of the unconscious and even predict at this level.

Perinatal experiences are organized into typical thematic groups, basic characteristics which are empirically related to the anatomical, physiological and biochemical aspects of certain clinical stages of birth. A model based on these stages provides new insights into the dynamic architecture of various forms of psychopathology and creates new opportunities for therapy. The birth process model is a powerful explanatory principle within the phenomena of a specific level of the unconscious. The perinatal level of the unconscious is an important intermediate area between the individual and the collective unconscious, or between traditional psychology and mysticism.

The death and rebirth experiences that represent the perinatal level of the unconscious are rich and complex. Events associated with various stages or aspects of biological birth tend to be interspersed with or associated with numerous mythological, mystical, archetypal, historical, sociopolitical, anthropological, or phylogenetic transpersonal experiences. They manifest themselves in four empirical structures, or condensations, associated with the clinical stages of childbirth.

For the theory and practice of holotropic therapy, it turned out to be useful to postulate the existence of four hypothetical dynamic matrices that govern the processes at the perinatal level of the unconscious. These are called basic perinatal matrices (BPMs).

The unfolding of the perinatal level is often accompanied by transpersonal experiences such as archetypal visions of the Great Mother or the Terrible Goddess - Mother, Paradise, Purgatory, Hell, identification with animals, with the experience of past incarnations.

If the systems of condensed experience (COEX) organize important emotional material at the biographical level, then the Basic Perinatal Matrices (BPM) perform the same function in relation to the experiences of the perinatal level accumulated in the psyche.

Biological basis of BPM-1 - this is the experience of the initial symbiotic union of the fetus with the maternal organism during its intrauterine existence. If there is no interference, such a life is close to ideal. The most powerful expression of the quality of this matrix is \u200b\u200bthe experience of cosmic unity, mystical unity. So, elements of a serene intrauterine state can be accompanied or interspersed with experiences characterized by the absence of boundaries or obstacles (for example, experiences of oceanic consciousness), or deep empirical identification with various aquatic life forms (algae, jellyfish, fish, dolphins, etc.), being in zero gravity in interstellar space or in spaceshipin orbit. Pictures of nature at its best of safety and abundance (Nature - Mother) are also characteristic and logically natural companions of the blissful prenatal state.

Psychological deviations in intrauterine life are associated with images and experiences of underwater dangers, polluted streams, lakes or seas, an infected or hostile nature. These images are due to the fact that most of the intrauterine abnormalities are associated with placental toxicity or malnutrition. More gross violations - the danger of miscarriage or attempted abortion - are experienced as some form of universal threat or associated with bloody apocalyptic visions of the end of the world. The negative aspects of BPM-1 are associated with a certain kind of negative COEX system and with the corresponding negative transpersonal elements.

Second Basic Perinatal Matrix (BPM-2) associated with the onset of biological birth, with its first clinical stage. The initial harmony and balance of the existence of the fetus is disturbed here first by chemical signals, and then by mechanical contractions of the uterus. When this stage fully unfolds, the fetus periodically contracts with uterine spasms. At this time, the system is still completely closed: the cervix is \u200b\u200bnot open, the exit is not available. Specific memories of the threat posed to the fetus by the onset of labor receive their symbolic correspondence in images of cosmic absorption. The name of BPM-2 is space absorption and no escape. The symbolic expression of the fully developed first clinical stage of labor is the experience of no exit or hell. It is a feeling of being drawn into, sucked in, trapped in a claustrophobic, nightmarish world, the experience of incredible mental and physical torment. The logic of such experiences reflects the fact that contractions of the uterus deprive the fetus of blood flow to the placenta, that is, not only a meaningful connection with the world and human contact, but also sources of food and heat. Being under the influence of this matrix, a person ceases to perceive positive opportunities in the world and in his life. These states of consciousness are usually accompanied by excruciating feelings of loneliness, helplessness, hopelessness, humiliation, inadequacy, existential despair and guilt.

BPM-2 attracts the corresponding COEX systems, representing a person as a passive and helpless victim of a superior destructive force that has no chance of salvation. It also deals with transpersonal themes of a similar nature.

Third Basic Perinatal Matrix (BPM-3) Is a struggle between death and rebirth. Many important aspects of this matrix are explained by its connection with the second clinical stage of labor, when uterine contractions continue, but, unlike the previous stage, the cervix is \u200b\u200bopen, which allows the fetus to gradually move through the birth canal. It is a monstrous struggle for survival, in which the infant is subjected to crushing mechanical pressure, lack of oxygen and suffocation. In addition to realistic reproduction of various aspects of the struggle in the birth canal, it includes a wide range of archetypal and other transpersonal phenomena. The most important of these are the elements of the titanic struggle. Sadomasochistic experiences, intense sexual arousal, demonic episodes, scatological experiences and an encounter with fire. All these aspects and aspects of BPM-3, by virtue of deep empirical logic, can be associated with various anatomical, physiological and emotional characteristics of the corresponding stages of labor.

Specific characteristics of experiences link BPM-3 with COEX systems formed from memories of vivid, risky sensory and sexual experiences.

Fourth Basic Perinatal Matrix (BPM-4) - the experience of death and rebirth. This perinatal matrix is \u200b\u200bmeaningfully associated with the third clinical stage of labor, with the immediate birth of a child. At this last stage, the painful process of the struggle for birth comes to an end. Progress through the birth canal culminates, and the peak of pain, tension, and sexual arousal is followed by sudden relief and relaxation. The baby is born and, after a long period of darkness, first encounters the bright light of day (or operating room). After the umbilical cord is cut off, bodily communication with the mother is terminated, and the child enters into a new existence as an anatomically independent individual.

As with other matrices, some of the experiences associated with this stage represent faithful imitations of actual biological events at birth and special obstetric techniques.

The symbolic expression of the last stage of childbirth is the experience of death - rebirth. It presents the end and resolution of the struggle between death and rebirth. It is paradoxical that, being literally on the verge of liberation, a person feels the approach of a monstrous catastrophe. If the experiences continue, the transition from BPM-3 to BPM-4 entails a feeling of complete destruction, annihilation at all conceivable levels - physical death, emotional collapse, intellectual defeat, the final moral and eternal damnation of transcendental proportions. Such an experience of “death of the ego” consists in the instant, ruthless destruction of all previous anchor points in a person's life.

The experiential experience of death and rebirth, as a rule, opens up access to an area of \u200b\u200bthe human psyche that lies outside the biography, which is best called transpersonal. It can be said that the perinatal level of the unconscious is the interface between the biographical and transpersonal domains, or between the individual and collective unconscious. In most cases, transpersonal experiences are preceded by a dramatic encounter with birth and death. However, this is not strictly necessary: \u200b\u200bdirect contact with transpersonal elements and themes is empirically possible without going through the perinatal level. The common denominator is the transition of consciousness beyond the usual boundaries of the Ego and overcoming the limitations of time and space.

Although transpersonal experiences arise in the process of deep individual self-exploration in holotropic therapy, they cannot be interpreted as purely intrapsychic phenomena in the generally accepted sense of the word. On the one hand, they form a continuous empirical continuum with biographical and perinatal experiences. On the other hand, they, apparently, directly, without the help of the senses, connect to sources of information that are beyond the traditional access of a person.

Transpersonal experiences occupy a special place in the cartography of the human psyche. The level of psychoanalytic memories and the individual's unconscious is purely biographical in nature. Perinatal dynamics are like crossing the boundaries between the personal and the transpersonal. This is reflected in its deep connection with birth and death - the beginning and end of individual human existence. Transpersonal phenomena reveal connections between the individual and the Cosmos, which are still beyond our understanding. We can only say that in the process of unfolding the perinatal level, a strange loop, reminiscent of a Mobius strip, arises, in which deep self-exploration turns into an empirical comprehension of the Universe as a whole, including cosmic consciousness and superconscious intelligence.

3.17. ELEMENTS OF MANIPULATION PSYCHOTHERAPY IN TRADITIONAL METHODS OF PSYCHOTHERAPY. MANIPULATION IN HYPNOTHERAPY It is known that most effective ways hypnotizing lies an element of delusion. We have already talked about binding in hypnotherapy above. In order for this