What is a pre-trans fallacy?

          This concept was first introduced by Ken Wilber in his book The Atman Project. He points out that it is important to not confuse states of being which are pre-personal (belonging to a young child) with states that are trans-personal (belonging to much higher states of being). To give an example: for the young child or the adult with unfinished business at the pre-personal level, the use of fantasy is that of wish fulfillment or magical thinking. On the other hand, the person with a more mature sense of self can use fantasy to inform his intentions and his will to help guide him in his unfolding. So fantasy can be used in a pre-personal way or a trans-personal way.

          Another way to think about the pre-trans fallacy is when a person believes that his gift or talent is on a high spiritual plane but his ego is inflated by this and it affects others as being only self-aggrandizing. A person can believe that he holds a set of answers to life's problems and that others must follow his will. It may be clear to an observer that this set of "answers" does not bring greater harmony into the world, but only brings power to the individual with the beliefs. Psychologically we can say that this person is living in a pre-trans fallacy.

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What is psycho-spiritual psychotherapy?

Psycho-spiritual psychotherapy is an integrated form of therapy that takes into account that the person looking for help may have difficulties anywhere across the spectrum of consciousness, e.g., early childhood, interpersonal, existential, or spiritual. The psycho-spiritual psychotherapist has to be well grounded in both traditional forms of psychotherapy that understand the person's developmental challenges of creating a strong personal self and also be able to integrate the person's spiritual longings that move him beyond the self. Most therapists with this orientation use both talk and experiential methods (bodywork, visualization, meditation, etc.) of being in contact with the client.

What kind of bodywork does CIL recommend for the healing of trauma?

          By definition, trauma means that a person has felt assaulted by another person or by a life event which has been overwhelming. While bodywork can be very helpful in allowing the person to re-claim his or her body and its boundaries, it can also easily be re-traumatizing if the practitioner is not extremely respectful. We usually recommend only non-contact forms of bodywork as touch itself might have become contaminated by the traumatic experiences. Sensory awareness, authentic movement and other gentle forms where the individual has complete control of what happens are usually best.

Why is it important to know about the Spectrum of Consciousness when you choose a psychotherapist?

          The Spectrum of Consciousness is a way of looking at the overall life cycle. In this model we are each on a journey toward unity consciousness; to grow psychologically is an innate drive just as there is an innate unfolding to grow physically. Each stage of life can look back on the stages before it; that is, an advanced stage encompasses all that has gone before it. For example, for the infant the sensations in his body are all that is. He is hunger and his whole body-mind experiences a state of being that he only knows as discomfort. By the time he is three years old he has acquired a high older structure called language and can say I am hungry - there is a me and there is hunger, we overlap but are not the same thing. This process can continue throughout the life cycle and includes mystical experiences and the dying process. If a therapist does not understand about the Spectrum, he or she can only help people with the areas they are familiar with and are limited to. So a genuine mystical or transpersonal experience of oneness might be reduced to a 'crazy' or 'regressive longing' by the therapist who does not believe in higher states of consciousness. Or a therapist who is very comfortable with transpersonal states might not know how to deal with a biochemical problem like a manic high or might, in a misguided effort to be authentic, not understand the necessity for boundaries in a therapeutic relationship.