The Psychology of Yoga by Georg Feuerstein

Author:Georg Feuerstein
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Shambhala Publications

Tart argues that we are a “mass of potentials” when we are born, but our cultural environment, which is far from neutral, exerts all sorts of constraints to turn us into predictable, conforming individuals. Through enculturation and education, we are progressively turned into “normal,” “sensible,” “civilized” members of society, whatever that may mean in any given culture. When this fails to happen, we are dubbed “troublemakers,” “deviants,” or “crazy people”; worse, we may be evaluated psychiatrically, be emotionally and socially ostracized or physically punished, or be force-fed Ritalin or some other drug. Variations and degrees of these “trance-induction” methods exist in virtually every culture on earth.

We are considered normal when we can slip into the appropriate role for every occasion. Thus we have multiple identities, yet we assume that consciousness is a permanent unity that is also a notion to which we have been conditioned by our culture. That this presumed unitary “I” is something of an illusion becomes obvious when we are under the influence of a mind-altering substance, such as alcohol, or when we experience a mystical state of nonduality.

We ordinarily assume that we are genuinely self-aware. This is not the case, however. Most of our time is spent in a semiconscious state—the consensus trance. We do not tend to be mindfully present. We are not quite here. Our waters of consciousness are muddy and contain little of the oxygen of awareness.

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