The ageless wisdom

b) Holistic paradigms and spiritual thinkers

Under this heading we find the many endeavours of communicating new scientific and philosophical knowledge, visions and paradigms. Again it is very difficult to gather up the many threads into simple headings, however it is a matter of ideas and scopes of ideas, which are definitely holistic, and which in widely different respects show us ways to new, philosophical-psychological apprehensions or scientific forms of spiritualism. It lies particularly on the contribution of individuals. Some of these visionaries are rather reserved or directly dissociated from the wide New Age movement, because they fear that their thoughts will drown by cult formations and emotional, commercial degenerations. However, these conceptions still refer to the enlightenments of the mystic, esoteric and spiritual traditions.  Obvious examples of such exponents are scientists such as Fritjof Capra, David Bohm, Ken Wilber, Karl Pribram, Erwin Laszlo, Lyall Watson, Lynn Margulis, Joseph B. Rhine, Ilya Prigogine, Ian Stevenson, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross and Gregory Bateson. We can also mention visionary and spiritual thinkers such as Itzhak Benthov, Alfred Whitehead, Willis Harman, Arthur Koestler, Guy Murchie and Henri Bergson, just to mention a few. The number of authors is large and includes figures as Joseph Campbell, Hermann Hesse and Aldous Huxley. Finally we have spiritual teachers and modern mystics such as Jiddu Krishnamurti, Thomas Merton and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. They all have the ability to transcend barriers, they are new thinking and unorthodox, irrespective of the areas in which they have asserted themselves. They are not actual system creators but open-minded innovators and front-figures contributing with insights and visions. Generally they have influenced the world through literature and research.

c) Therapy and development of consciousness

The third group contains the amazingly extensive impulses, which appear in areas of psychology, therapy, meditation , creativity and the art of living. It is an overwhelming area, which includes all the methods and systems regarding change of consciousness, which characterize the enormous market of courses and workshops. The area of psychology covers everything from psycho-synthesis and Jungian individuation process to transpersonal psychology, holotropic breathwork, Reichi therapy and process-oriented psychology. The field of therapy is immense and covers Gestalt therapy, encounter groups and logo therapy as well as regression and rebirthing, holotropic breathwork, hydro-therapy, music therapy, bio-feedback, family therapy, aroma therapy, psycho drama, NLP (Neuro-Linquistic Programming) and sexual therapy.

The field comprises a number of “psycho-technologies” or “tools” for personal development, change of consciousness and a better life, varying from the Silva Mind method, various visualisations, assersation training and Nonviolent Communication (NVC) as well as sensitivity training, interpretation of dreams, clairvoyance and councelling therapy, relaxation music, astrology, tarot and autosuggestion. In the sense of yoga and meditation there are methods for concentration, focusing, goal setting, relaxation and creativity. It is primarily tools of consciousness, which are to lead to clarification, inner peace and higher consciousness, or Self-Actualization as Maslow called it.