The Magic and Mystery of Spiritual Healing
Part One — Reclaiming Enchanted Mysticism
Let’s talk about magic. Do you recall your childhood well enough to remember when you believed in the magic of Santa Claus? I not only remember my “magical” phase, but how I was fascinated with the magicians on television. So much so, at age ten, I began my journey of becoming a professional magician. I helped pay for college by doing magic shows for various groups. Later, as a church pastor, I revived my past. Each Thanksgiving, after our meal in the Fellowship Hall, everyone would come up into the auditorium for an hour and a half of my “illusions.” I made my assistants appear and disappear, levitate high above me on the empty platform where the pulpit usually stood and pulled a dozen live doves out of the air. As each appeared, I placed them in a large cage. Then I made all the doves and the cage itself disappear right before their eyes. It was all lovely fun and became so popular that we had to have another meal and show on a second evening each year to accommodate the crowds to see the pastor do strange things! Well, enough of my reminiscing. Let’s talk about real magic.
Real magic
Jean Gebser (1905 – 1973) is a cultural historian, scholar of the integral structure of understanding, and, among other things, an advocate of the “magic” structure of consciousness. He has been influential in the thinking of Ken Wilber and, more recently, with author and teacher Cynthia Bourgeault. He has opened new understandings and intensified mystical experiences for me in significant ways which I am eager to share.
In this multi-part series, I will use Gebser’s insights to illuminate the mystery and magic of healing prayer for us. You may not be familiar with him or his extremely dense writings. Jeremy Johnson’s book, Seeing Through the World: Jean Gebser and Integral Consciousness is a fine, brief introduction to Gebser.
The Five Structures of Consciousness
Gebser says that human consciousness structures are the visibly emerging perception of reality throughout the various ages and civilizations. His book, The Ever-Present Origin, focuses on that “ever-present origin,” which we might call, from the opening image, “Light from the Beginning of Time.” This image beautifully portrays Gebser’s understanding that these structures (the spirals of light) are already present in the living water that is the ever-present origin. These glowing structures emerge in personal and cultural history at various times but have always been, and are still, present. The living water of Origin is outside of time altogether. He identifies five structures that have emerged from this ever-present origin that he calls archaic, magic, mythic, mental, and integral.
When any of these structures first emerge in a culture, they are “efficient,” enriching lives for a while, then become “deficient,” a limitation that pushes the next structure to emerge. Noting that these structures appeared sequentially in the past, Gebser points out, “This does not imply, however, that the later consciousness structures obliterate the earlier—we retain in ourselves irrevocable magic and mythical elements, origin, and the present, nor is it to suggest that a given later consciousness structure is of greater ‘value’ than the earlier.” We must, in other words, achieve the new integral structure without forfeiting the efficient forms of the previous structures.”
The archaic structure, a primordial “dimly lit mist,” was the first to emerge from the ever-present origin.
The magic structure emerges next and perceives events, objects, and persons as magically related. Symbols, pictures, and statues do not just represent those events, objects, and persons but can be those same objects and persons.
The mythical structure manifests next and sees events, objects, and persons woven together in stories. Mythologies give coherence to consciousness as the awareness of the soul emerges.
When mental structure comes online next, it uses the logic with which science would be built. The currently dominating mental structure is now in its deficient decline, denying the validity of all other forms. We see signs of its limitations in unsolved global crises and conflicts all around us.
In the newly emerging integral structure, all the previous frameworks are valued and seen “along with,” as we see time and space in a new way. The spiritual manifests here in all its glory and depth.
Geber believes that the structures of magic, mythic, and mental, contain positive, life-giving dimensions. He encourages us to reclaim all of them more fully in an integral understanding.
In this series, I’ll be paying special attention to the magical structure, with its strong connection to healing.
Gebser sees “magic,” or what I also call the “mystical,”[1] as one of the essential structures of consciousness which exists in us for all our lives. Scholar and researcher Jennifer Gidley says, “Gebser’s interest was to bring our conscious awareness to the magical nature of our instincts and impulses so that they can be a ‘serving and sustaining potency.’”
Five wonders of unconscious mysticism
Gebser lists five prominent characteristics of the early stage mystical (at least 50,000 years ago), which he calls “unconscious” magic or mysticism:
1. egolessness
2. unconsciously seeing the world as one
3. spacelessness and timelessness
4. merging with nature
5. which unconsciously gives a person a kind of power that allows them to be a “Maker.”
These qualities are some of the very ones sought in spiritual awakening and the enlightenment found in the conscious mystical paths of the world’s great religion. We value these qualities in the meditative prayer practice of Whole-Body Mystical Awakening. So, magical mysticism is terrific! But wait! There is another side to this.
Don’t romanticize unconscious mysticism
Because this early-stage mysticism was unconscious, it had limitations and still has serious dangers today. This happens when this perspective has not yet integrated the values we see in The Enlightenment and moderate postmodern inclusiveness. At worst, it turns into sorcery, domination, and evil. Unintegrated magic today often comes in the form of unhealthy fantasy and magical thinking. Gebser points out this dangerous mysticism occurs in zealous political parties and overwhelming emotionalism. He says, “Only magic knows fanaticism.”
What makes magical mysticism safe?
First, we bring unconscious magic consciousness up to the integral structure along with mythic and mental, thus bringing balance and wholeness. Second, mysticism becomes safe when we bring the best values of the other structures of consciousness to it. The earlier stage was not evolved enough to have these values. Only later structures would remedy these deficiencies.
Jesus modeled a conscious mysticism that was deeply spiritual, full of love, and life-giving. He welcomed the excluded and neglected. He was telepathic, knowing the minds and hearts of others. He was one with nature, perhaps even calming storms and walking on water. He had friends from the realm of the dead with whom he sought help and encouragement. He conversed intimately with God. He knew the future. He healed bodies with the powerful “making” energy flowing from his innermost being. He healed wounded souls with the powerful energy radiating from his love-filled being.
The mysticism of the early church had its problems
The Apostle Paul was a mystic and “magician” in the lineage of Jesus, having dynamic personal experiences with the Risen Jesus, healing the sick, and other “magical” manifestations. The early church, in the traditional mythic stage of development, was open to the misuse of the mystical. Paul had to correct these excesses and ego-filled gyrations of some of the early followers of Jesus under his care. They boasted of having special gifts, created divisions in the church, and uproar in their worship gatherings.
We sometimes see the same thing in today’s charismatic movement, which usually involves Christians in the traditional mythic worldview. This movement has brought new life to many followers of Jesus. However, we have also seen Pentecostals and Charismatics who have ignored the values and profound consciousness of Jesus. This has resulted in some of the same excesses and overwhelming collective emotionalism of some of the early church, along with ego trips, shallowness, and manipulation. Leaders have dominated others, sometimes leading secretly immoral and openly luxurious lifestyles. Mysticism without values and integral consciousness is deficient and will not serve the world well in and of itself.
How conscious magical mysticism is different from unconscious mysticism in Gebers’ five characteristics
1. Egolessness
The egolessness of the early stage comes from never having fully developed an individual ego. In unconscious oneness, early humanity had not yet become individuated, which happens in the mythic stage. Instead, like a baby in the womb, they did not differentiate themselves from nature or their tribe. The task of the first half of life is to develop a healthy self or ego that will serve us to navigate through life. The task of the second half of life is to disidentify with our ego and identify with our divine self.
2. Seeing the world as one
At this early stage, oneness with everything was a child-like fantasy because its inhabitants had not yet individuated from the tribe and nature. Unconscious oneness lacks the depth and transparency of the integral stage, which sees oneness through the expanded clarity of magic, myth, and mental structures.
3. Spacelessness and timelessness
Unawakened, unconscious mysticism is oblivious to space and time. But conscious magic embraces the past, present, and future in an awakened state of transparency and lucidity. This integrates the mystical, mythical, and rational states into the next unfolding we call integral. Since this space-timelessness is not amenable to mental depiction or representation, we must move from our head to our whole-body being to unfold it.
4. Merging with nature
In the integral stage of enchanted mysticism, we once again merge with nature, this time as individuals who consciously relinquish their separateness while maintaining their uniqueness. We become one with nature while not being the same as nature. Gebser writes that the intertwining of all living things is a reality in the egoless magic sphere of every human being.
5. Which allows one to be a Maker
Gebser says that in the unconscious mystical, “still fused in unity, magic man (sic) begins the struggle for control.” “Making,” here, is a quest for power, power over others. In the integral stage, the power of domination (mystical, social, and political) is transcended in favor of soft hierarchies that empower others. Spiritual making in traditional Christianity comes from submerging our ego to the will of God. Only when we become consciously “egoless” can our true divine nature arise, and we become “makers” and cocreators with God in a spiritual agenda of healing.
The Ever-Present Origin
Origin for Gebser is not to be thought of in terms of beginnings or endings in time, but as equivalent to what is often described in terms of ‘Eternal Now’ or ‘Eternal Present,’ the source of all things.
In manifesting the Ever Present Origin, we consciously unfold the enchanted, mystical dimension. This allows us to experience moving beyond our individuated ego. There we can see the world as one from the depth and clarity of the integral structure. We can experience the transparency of space-timelessness and the joy of merging with nature itself. In the flow of the egoless power of Oneness, we become cocreators with God in healing. This is the luminous seeing that comes from non-ordinary, awakened consciousness.
More of The Mystery and Magic of Spiritual Healing series next week in Part Two, The Enchanted Healings of Jesus.
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[1] Evelyn Underhill defines mysticism as the art of union with Reality. Madeleine L'Engle says that a mystic is a person who sees the facts as inadequate. I define mysticism as the direct and transforming presence of God and other spiritual realities.