Our Involutive Evolution Or The Invertendo Of Our Growth Process
Author: Fredinand Wulliemier

When we have reached the development stage called "Existential" or "Centauric" (1), which implies the full acceptation of being limited and mortal, when suffering is accepted as an integral part of human life, then what is called here "involutive evolution" has already started to appear. K. Wilber's (2,3) and P. Weil's (4) studies gave us synthetical and hierarchical descriptions of the stages of the human development, which go far beyond the oedipian organisation of the so-called genital stage, lastingly considered as the unsurpassable standard or the nec plus ultra of our psycho-affective growth. In the description of K. Wilber, we can reasonably consider the "existential-dialectic" or "centauric" stage as a "crossing-stage", from which a transition is possible towards what was called "transpersonal states" or the spiritual field. In order to set this stage more precisely, let us say that it follows the stage called "self-actualisation" by Maslow (5). It permits to consider a properly spiritual growth in good conditions, as well summarized by J. Engler with his "We shall be somebody before we become nobody" (2).

In order to do that, one has to cross what has been called the "transpersonal band" (1) or the parapsychological or psychic area. Then the candidate continues his way, which may lead him to the further stages of liberation, of divine realisation, and of mergence with the Ultimate or Layavastha (6).

In order to describe the numerous spiritual and transspiritual intermediate stages that he crossed, Shri Ram Chandra utilizes a general principle called invertendo, in order to show the inversion of the qualities of a particular "region" comparatively to the next one (6,7,8). This principle will be considered here as more general and more fit than the similarity principle attributed to the Hermes Trimegist ("As below, so above"), for showing the reality of the phenomena1 that one meets when exploring the fields situated beyond the existential stage.

We shall now use this invertendo principle for explaining the successive inversions, through which we have gone or shall go on our psychological or our spiritual way. Our main points of reference will be the three successive phases of our evolution, called prepersonal, personal and transpersonal by K. Wilber (3). In order to be sure of preventing us from stopping too early on our way, as would be the case if we had the limited us describing our own experiences, we shall turn to the summarized results of our observations and interviews with Shri P. Rajagopalachari, (the living representative of Shri Ram Chandra), as well as to some of the descriptions he gave us during conferences (9,10,11), of what has been perhaps improperly called "altered states of consciousness" (12).

It is also according to the teaching of Shri P. Rajagopalachari that we have introduced the apparently paradoxical concepts of involutive evolution, impersonalization and pseudo-regression (13), in order to explain these apparent inversions in our evolutive path, our real-life experiences, our behaviours, or these apparently regressive manifestations (according to the criteria of the developmental psychology), that the sadhaka or even the accomplished Saint may show in a more or less visible manner.

Actually the term "involutive" is used here mainly for qualifying what happens to the ego, which involves during its refining process. This is so because the spiritual seeker has reversed the direction of his life, the nature of his interests, in the sense that he is no more captivated by himself or by what lies in the outside, that can be grasped through his senses or his intellect, in his objectal (subject-object) - i.e. relational world. Now he makes his way towards the inside world, not anymore in a self-centered or egoist manner, but in the direction of his real Center, of his Essential Being, his Self or the Atman or what ever name we wish to call it. In other words, the spiritual aspirant seems in a certain way to have retraced his steps, since he walks back now towards his divine Source, according to a centripetal absorption.

Now this particular type of evolution, which we called involutive is the best we can wish to our neighbour and to the whole humanity. So did in any case the great Masters, Saints or prophets throughout times, trying to attract us along their way, warning us also about the difficulties, about the narrowness of the spiritual path, about the necessary qualities one has to develop in order to follow this path till the end.

Let us now give rather briefly a few examples of this involutive evolution's phenomenon, that we consider as able to allow us to understand the seemingly contradictory or paradoxical aspect of the stages of our growth:

As far as the opposite tendencies dependence/autonomy are concerned, it is generally admitted that during our first months of life as human beings (prepersonal stage), we don't make a difference between outside and inside. As a result, we are both alone and holding everything, subjectively speaking. But according to the point of view of the mother or of an exterior observer, we are extremely dependent of our existence at that stage, since if we are let without care, we die.

This tendency reverses itself later on towards more independence or autonomy, starting with a maximum of poorly realistic independentist claiming at the phallic stage, when the child reaches a zone, that can be called now as "personal".^[1]

This independence becomes more objective during the post-oedipian phase, where the child socializes, becomes integrated and finds his own place in the nuclear family, in the enlarged family, at school, during spare-time activities, etc. For an exterior observer, the child, then the teenager and the adult acquires indeed more and more autonomy through successive stages: "identity stage" according to K. Wilber (2), followed by the stage of "self-actualization" of A. Maslow (5). At this stage the human being may be considered as an adult, psychologically speaking. He is able to think in an original way, he is able to assert his own opinions, he stands or even looks for certain doses of solitude. For a skilled observer, the true autonomy has considerably risen from the phallic stage up to the existential stage.

But what happens next to it, if evolution continues its way "beyond" the already mentioned centauric stage, in other words in the "transpersonal" or "cosmic" zone?

Experience shows then that one cannot avoid feeling highly connected, as an integrated part of an infinite and imperceptible web, both in and out of time and space. Of course, this opening of his field of consciousness can take different forms, or rather be formulated in different ways. Either he is nothing more than a limitless consciousness in an infinite space, or he feels himself as containing everything, having become this very entire universe, or he recognizes the essential nature or "his Master" in each being he meets, in each particle of the manifestation, from which he is no more separated.

The result of such a transformation usually is that such a being attracts his fellow humans as honey attracts insects and that he lets himself be consumed willingly. Most of the time we see him surrounded by flocks and receptive to them day and night. At the first glance, the observer could think of a dependent, naïve human being, unable to say "no". Would he have known this person before his successful transformation towards a transpersonal state, he could conclude in a regression at an infantile mode of functioning. But we know that none of these interpretations would be correct, since we deal here with a pseudo-regression, an involutive evolution of the separating ego, which permits this spiritualized person to live himself as non-separated, to live the real brotherhood, his "bhakti" making him see the divine or his Master in every neighbour, in each creature of manifestation, towards whom universal love can flow without hindrance.

Another example is the evolution of the moral sense:

We know that the small child has not yet acquired the notion or consciousness of what is moral and not moral, so that we often speak of its innocence, whereas, in a complementary way, Freud qualified the child as a polymorphic pervert.

During the personal phase, the superegotic interiorization makes the child, then the teenager and the adult more stamped with morality, first as a conventional one, later on as a "post-conventional" one (15). Now it is well-known in religious and spiritual traditions that a high morality is considered as a pre-requisite or as included in the "preparation" phase.

At the transpersonal stages, the observer may be shocked sometimes by some behavior of a Saint or a spiritual Master, which again may appear as amoral, thus corresponding to a psychological regression. But at this stage it is actually transmorality, which lays of course upon an impeccable morality. The incarnated spiritual Master can be lead deliberately (and not under the pressure of his own drives or emotions) to express anger, to do something quite unseemly, impolite or even destructive. These unexpected, apparently aberrant behaviors often reveal themselves as necessary or wise only later or much later to us, as spiritual literature has abundantly shown through thousands of examples concerning the Master-disciple relationship.

Let us continue with the example of our cognitive development or the development of human knowledge:

We often speak of ignorance for qualifying the functioning of the small child (at the pre-personal stage), since its knowledge is apparently nearly nil. Later on the child, the teenager and the adult acquire intellectual knowledge, that they consider as their own, up to the point of becoming sometimes true erudites. But at the transpersonal phase, one may observe a new inversion, because the human being seems to rely less and less upon accumulated knowledge stocked in his memory, and more and more upon an intuitive type of knowledge, which is much more immediate, for which the person doesn't any more consider himself as deserving, since he feels this knowledge as universal and "at finger tips". This accessibility may grow to the "direct knowledge" of the Saint, who is able to record the divine messages ("shruti"). Thus the latter reacquires a state of ignorance or of innocence, in which information is revealed to him only in regard to his state of purity and surrender. Apparently he is ignorant, in the sense that he doesn't know anything by himself. Things are accessible to him in a simple way, according to his total opening and to his extreme vigilance at each instant.

Many other examples of this involutive evolution principle could naturally be developed. Let us content ourselves just mentioning a few more in this short article:

- The affective naïvety of the young child evolves into a rational lucidity at the personal stage, which leads further (at the transpersonal phase) to a "pseudo-naïvety" or innocence, due to the attitude of total surrender towards the interior Master.

- In the same line, let us mention the sequence going from the innocent and naïve confidence of the small child, to the caution and circumspection of the grown-up, and further again to an absolute confidence, which is not a blind faith but an "enlighted faith", according to the expression of Shri P. Rajagopalachari .

- The personality itself goes through the same inversions: from the indifferentiation prevailing in the very small, the personality shows a progressive development at the personal phase, leading to the stage of self-actualization (5) or self-differentiation (16) or individuation, i.e. the assertion of oneself. Then a re-indifferentiation takes place at the transpersonal phase, which I suggest calling "impersonalization", in order to differentiate this evolutive phenomenon from the pathological state of depersonalization. In other words, as Shri P. Rajagopalachari puts it:

"In this unbecoming process, we become childlike but not childish, Selflike but not selfish, centered to the Self but not self-centered" (17).

Let us hope that this rapid description will

Help the rational mind to find credence with the possibility of a beyond to his own intermediate stage;
Permit the spiritual aspirant to recognize himself in his transpersonal (cosmic or mystic) experience and to some extent to precise its frame if not its content.

Ferdinand Wulliemier,
February 1996.

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    Conférence au Training Course du Sahaj Marg Research Institute, Sitapur (U.P) India, octobre 1993, document non publié.
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