Sambodhi 2009 Vol 32

Author(s): J B Shah, K M patel
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 15

Vol. XXXII, 2009
Major progress linking modern science and...
higher states of consciousness are being reliably reported, and corroborated experimentally, through regular practice of the systematic developmental technologies revived from ancient Vedic science (8).
Reports of transcendent experiences appear in the literature of many cultural traditions, but ancient Vedic records contain the most extensive and detailed accounts. Until recent years, it had been quite difficult to investigate such experiences systematically using formal experimental methods. This was due significantly to lack of a comprehensive theoretical framework to interpret the reported higher experiences, lack of experimental paradigms to examine the reports, and especially lack of systematic means to replicate the experiences reliably and under testing conditions. It has been estimated that as little as one-tenth of one percent of the college population, for example, may have such experiences (9). The Transcendental Meditation technique has been an important catalyst to extend research into higher states of consciousness by providing a reliable, repeatable methodology through which large numbers of regular practitioners report frequent experiences of transcendental consciousness (1).
Revered individuals throughout history have described exalted inner experiences as an important source of meaning in their lives and inspiration for their contributions to the sciences, arts, humanities, and religion. Contemporary developmental theories have attempted to characterize the most advanced stage or endstate of ontogenetic development. The theories have focused initially on stages of growth in adolescence and early adulthood within the range of ordinary experience in the general population. Subsequently the theories have been extended into more advanced stages in adulthood (1). Perhaps the most influential modern scientific theory of psychological development is the perceptual-cognitive theory of developmental psychologist Jean Piaget (10). This theory proposed a sequence of stages of cognitive growth toward adulthood, from the dominance of sensorimotor processes (typically ages 0-2) to the theorized end-state of abstract reasoning or formal reasoning associated with rational scientific problem solving. In modern education, the focus of training has been almost entirely on building abstract reasoning ability, the object-oriented representational mode of rational thought characteristic of the objective approach in modern science. Much of the time students are engaged in active mentation that keeps attention in an outward, objectifying direction. By force of habit, deeper, more settled, refined inner expe