The Journal of Mind and Behavior

Volume 10, Number 4, Autumn 1989

Higher States of Consciousness: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's Vedic Psychology of Human Development
Michael C. Dillbeck and Charles N. Alexander, Maharishi International University
The Journal of Mind and Behavior , Autumn 1989, Vol. 10, No. 4, Pages 307-334, ISSN 0271-0137
This paper describes a systematic framework, derived from the Vedic tradition of India by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, for the development of higher states of consciousness. A series of three stable stages beyond currently conceived endpoints of development are described, based upon the unfoldment of "pure" or "self-referral" consciousness as a stable underlying basis of experience. Pure consciousness is consciousness aware of itself as an unbounded field independent of all mental activity such as thought and feeling. The first of the higher stages is "cosmic consciousness," in which pure consciousness is permanently maintained throughout all other experiences. A substantive body of research supports the uniqueness of the state of pure consciousness and the pattern of development predicted to occur with growth of cosmic consciousness. Development is predicted to further progress through the higher stages of "refined cosmic consciousness" to "unity consciousness," in which the individual is said to directly and permanently experience the underlying unity of the perceiver and the perceieved, the subject (self) and object, as the field of pure consciousness. The Vedic perspective extends current conceptions of development by locating a unified foundation of cognitive and affective processes, pure consciousness, as the basis of higher stages of development.
Requests for reprints should be sent to Michael C. Dillbeck, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, Maharishi International University, Fairfield, Iowa 52556.

Noise in the System: Redefining Clinical Psychology Phenomena
Harvey J. Leiberman, South Beach Psychiatric Center
The Journal of Mind and Behavior , Autumn 1989, Vol. 10, No. 4, Pages 335-346, ISSN 0271-0137
Recent efforts in neuroscientific research are redefining the nature of clinical psychological phenomena. Therefore, as an area of scientific inquiry, clinical psychology must realign its boundaries with neighboring disciplines. In this regard, noise, a term originating from information theory, has the potential of becoming a magnet concept guiding the formulation of major trends in the relationship between physiological and psychological explanations for clinical phenomena and human behavior. To explore the effects that noise reinterpretations of clinical phenomena may have on clinical psychological thinking, the concepts of self-concept and culture are used. Numerous consequences of the expected transcendence of the physiological over the psychological in explaining human behavior are foreseen. Feasible future directions for scientific clinical psychology in light of these developments are offered.
Requests for reprints should be sent to Harvey J. Leiberman, Ph.D., Director, Treatment Services, South Beach Psychiatric Center, 777 Seaview Avenue, Staten Island, New York 10305.

The Relevance of Ordinary and Non-Ordinary States of Consciousness for the Cognitive Psychology, of Meaning
Harry T. Hunt, Brock University
The Journal of Mind and Behavior , Autumn 1989, Vol. 10, No. 4, Pages 347-360, ISSN 0271-0137
Comtrary to general assumption, subjective reports of immediate ordinary consciousness and non-ordinary alterations of consciousness can provide unique evidence concerning the bases of the human symbolic capacity. Evidence from classical introspectionism, the meditative traditions, and descriptions of synaesthesias suggests that thought, rests on a cross-modal synthesis or fusion of the patterns from vision, audition, and touch-kinesthesis. This would provide a holistic, non-reductionist explanation of our capacity for reflective self awareness and recombinatory creativity. The approach is consistent with Geschwind's and Luria's models of neocortical operation and Jackendoff's and Yates' recent emphasis on symbolic thought as a "neutral" or "amodal" synthesis.
Requests for reprints should be sent to Harry T. Hunt, Ph.D., Psychology Department, Brock University, St Catharines, Ontario, Canada, L2S 3A1.

A Sociohistorical Critique of Naturalistic Theories of Color Perception
Carl Ratner, University of California, San Diego
The Journal of Mind and Behavior , Autumn 1989, Vol. 10, No. 4, Pages 361-372, ISSN 0271-0137
Naturalistic experiments of color perception are critically evaluated. The review concludes that they fail to confirm a natural determination of color perception. Rather than demonstrating universal sensitivity to focal colors, the experiments actually yielded enormous cultural variation in response. This variation is interpreted as supporting a sociohistorical psychological explanation of color perception.
Requests for reprints should be sent to Carl Ratner, Ph.D., Psychology Department, Humboldt State University, Arcata, California 95521.

Numerically Aided Methods in Phenomenology: A Demonstration
Don Kuiken, Don Schopflocher, and T. Cameron Wild, University of Alberta
The Journal of Mind and Behavior , Autumn 1989, Vol. 10, No. 4, Pages 373-392, ISSN 0271-0137
Phenomenological psychology has emphasized that experience as it is immediately "given" to the experiencing individual is an appropriate subject matter for psychological investigation. Consideration of the methodological implications of this stance suggests that certain text analytic and cluster analytic methods could be used to discern the identifying properties of different types of experience. We present results of a study in which (a) textual analysis was used to identify recurrent properties of participants' verbal accounts of their experience, (b) cluster analysis was used to classify participants' accounts according to the similarity of their profiles of properties, and (c) the resulting clusters were examined for their more or less characteristic prpoerties. Using these methods, three distinct types of experience of a Renaissance painting were identified and described. This demonstration of numerically aided phenomenological methods indicates the compatibility of rigorous and sensitive descriptions of experiential accounts.
Requests for reprints should be sent to Don Kuiken, Ph.D., Center for Advanced Study in Theoretical Psychology, Biological Sciences Building, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2E9.

A Research Strategy for Studying Telic Human Behavior
George S. Howard, William H. Youngs, and Ann M. Siatczynski, University of Notre Dame
The Journal of Mind and Behavior , Autumn 1989, Vol. 10, No. 4, Pages 393-412, ISSN 0271-0137
Numerous writers have recently called for reform in psychological theorizing and research methodology designed to appreciate the teleological, active agent capacities of humans. This paper presents three studies that probe individual's abilities to volitionally control their eating behavior. These investigations suggest one way that researchers might consider the operation of telic powers in human action. Rather than seeing teleological explanations as rivals to the more traditional causal explanations favored in psychological research, this paper elaborates a position that sees human volition as a causal force embedded in (and influenced by) the traditional causal influences studied in psychological research. Finally, the theoretical and methodological refinements suggested here and elsewhere are seen against the backdrop of a philosophy of science that sees change as a more gradual, evolutionary process, rather than the Kuhnian, revolutionary process.
Requests for reprints should be sent to George S. Howard, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana 46556.

Book Review ª Coping With Joyce: Essays From the Copenhagen Symposium
Morris BenJa and Shari Benstock (Editors). Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1989
Reviewed By Steven E, Connelly, Indiana State University
The Journal of Mind and Behavior , Autumn 1989, Vol. 10, No. 4, Pages 413-416, ISSN 0271-0137
[Note: First paragraph, no abstract available.] Coping With Joyce: Essays From the Copenhagen Symposium may or may not help its readers to cope effectively with James Joyce, but its eighteen essays certainly provide an insight into myriad coping means, techniques, and strategies that Joycean critics employ. Beja and Benstock's excellent Introduction - as helpful and insightful as all but the very best essays in this book - examines the most common critical approaches to Joyce and the attendant problems: from the veneration of Joyce, through the exploitation of Joyce, to the intent to "master" Joyce. The Introduction also points out "a discernible change in Joyce studies," the increasing focus on Finnegans Wake, partially because of "new theoretical approaches," and partly because critics have realized that the Wake can serve to illuminate Joyce's other works. No doubt this has also come about because the decades-long communal effort to make Ulysses accessible has succeeded to the point of diminishing returns: critical quibbles over Ulysses are increasingly minor. As the introduction says of Joyce, "he shows himself as a pedagogue of self-instruction providing the means by which his readers teach themselves how to read the texts." His readers now seem ready to teach themselves to read Finnegans Wake.
Requests for reprints should be sent to Steven E. Connelly, Ph.D., Department of English, Indiana State University, Terre Haute, Indiana 47809.

Book Review ª The Multiplicity of Dreams: Memory, Imagination and Consciousness
Harry T. Hunt. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989
Reviewed by Robert E. Haskell, University of New England
The Journal of Mind and Behavior , Autumn 1989, Vol. 10, No. 4, Pages 417-420, ISSN 0271-0137
[Note: First paragraph, no abstract available.] While at first glance, it may appear atypical and perhaps inappropriate to begin a book review by briefly reviewing a previously published work of another author, this seeming incongruence is, in fact, only apparently inappropriate. In a chapter from an edited book critiquing cognition and dream research in which I focused (Haskell, 1986) on the uneasy relationship between mainstream cognitive psychology and dream research, I mainly critiqued Foulkes' (1985) work because, I suggested, he had "become a kind of spokesperson for the mainstream approach to cognitive research as it applies to the study of dreaming" (p. 17). Indeed, Foulkes' book has remained the most cogently theoretical and elegantly reasoned exemplar of the mainstream cognitive psychology laboratory approach to the study of dreaming.
Requests for reprints should be sent to Robert E. Haskell, Ph.D., Chair, Social and Behavioral Sciences, University of New England, Biddeford, Maine 04005.

Book Review ª Women in Twentieth-Century Literature: A Jungian View
Bettina L. Knapp. University Park, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1987
Reviewed by Victor H. Jones Indiana State University
The Journal of Mind and Behavior , Autumn 1989, Vol. 10, No. 4, Pages 421-424, ISSN 0271-0137
[Note: First paragraph, no abstract available.] Women in Twentieth-Century Literature: A Jungian View is a collection of ten essays that depends on Jung's "analytical technique and vocabulary." At the same time the author, Bettina Knapp, reevaluates and revises Jung's "concepts when the need arises," thus keeping "pace with changing times and different customs," and avoiding "a single-minded inquiry" (p. 2). Arranging her essays in a cycle-of-life pattern, Knapp examines literary works from throughout the world and focuses primarily on women's experience in the twentieth century in order to gain some understanding of "the mysteries of the eternal feminine" (p. 2).
Requests for reprints should be sent to Victor H. Jones, Ph.D., Department of English, Indiana State University, Terre Haute, Indiana 47809.

Book Review ª Music, Archetype, and the Writer: A Jungian View
Bettina L. Knapp. University Park, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1988
Reviewed by Victor H. Jones, Indiana State University
The Journal of Mind and Behavior , Autumn 1989, Vol. 10, No. 4, Pages 425-428, ISSN 0271-0137
[Note: First paragraph, no abstract available.] In the twelve essays in Music, Archetype, and the Writer: A Jungian View, Bettina Knapp sets herself the difficult task of showing that "the musical archetype governs the attitude and approach of each author of his literary work and is the prime mover of its syntax, speech, pace, pitch, and diapasons" (p. 9). She is most successful in those instances in which the author or protagonist of the work studied acknowledges the influence of a piece or pieces of music. She is less successful in those instances (the essays on Dream of Vasavadatta, Jade Mirror-Stand, and, to a lesser extent, Damask Drum) for which there is less clear evidence for the influence of music. Knapp's book is important, for, among the first extensive studies onto the relationship between archetypal music and literature, it makes perceptive contributions to our understanding of how music may affect an author and encourages us to become better readers of literature and better listeners to music.
Requests for reprints should be sent to Victor H. Jones, Ph.D., Department of English, Indiana State University, Terre Haute, Indiana 47809.