In which domain does your problem lie?

Grof identifies and describes three domains of experience (perinatal, biographical and transpersonal). He sees experiences based on the perinatal and transpersonal domains as being almost entirely disregarded by traditional psychiatry. Briefly, outline the underlying assumptions of the three domains, and based on an example from Grof, your personal experience, or clinical work with clients, describe the relationship that you see between either perinatal or transpersonal experiences and individual personal growth and development?

Grof (2000, p.20) notes that traditional academic psychiatry is limited in its ability to describe all the various levels and states associated with human existence and he has described a model in which three major levels, or domains, and be described and researched. The first such domain is biographical. This domain is described by Grof (2000, p.21) as being fairly well exposed in psychological studies in that it focuses on the active memories a person experiences from birth to death. From a holotropic perspective the biographical domain takes on additional characteristics such as a regressive like physical and mental change when a person is experiencing memories from childhood. Additionally, this biographical domain is that physical trauma from the past re-experiences some level of physical suffering. Grof (2000, p.22) used the example of a person reliving a drowning experience who currently experiences whooping cough. He further explains that emotionally charged memories do not occur in just one place in the subconscious; rather, they exist across multiple levels as systems of condensed experience.

The perinatal level of unconscious is described by Grof (2000) as being as life and death struggle in which a fetus is consciously aware of the conditions of life in the uterus and the challenge and fear to escape the same uterus. This theory refutes medical practices that claim the unborn child has no memories of being in utero or going through the drama of birth. This belief is not completely accepted in mainstream as evidenced by the popularity of singing and talking to the unborn child as well as rubbing it’s feet or elbows when the unborn child is kicking inside. Grof (2000, p. 37) describes the perinatal levels of unconsciousness with a Basic Perinatal Matrix (BPM). BPM I is the primal union with the mother which can either be good or based upon the health of the womb, BPM II is the cosmic engulfment and no exit or hell phase which is the phase of labor when the cervix has not opened so the fetus is being pressed upon by the womb, BPM III is the phase in which the child is being birthed, and BPM IV is the death-rebirth experience in which the child is born.

The transpersonal domain of the psyche is referred to by Grof (2000, p. 57) as being an extension beyond what is normally considered to be a personal level of psychological interaction. For example, transpersonal experiences can include intentional psychokinesis such as healing or hexing or yoga, haunting or alien abduction experiences, micro-world experiences such as being conscious of organs or cellular activities, space-time experiences such as parallel universes, past life experiences, or special boundary experiences such as communicating with animals or shared consciousness are all examples of transpersonal experience. My personal experiences with individual growth and development have been transpersonal in nature. For example, when I was younger I experienced several spiritistic phenomena. These experiences led me to believe that there is more out there besides just the traditional “heaven and hell” concepts that I had been taught as a child. I still have experiences that I describe as “gut feelings” or brief and unexpected predictive capabilities that I can not explain. Some people refer to this as “women’s intuition” but now I can refer to it as a transpersonal spontaneous psychoid event which sounds much more serious.

Grof, S. (2000). Psychology of the future: Lessons from modern consciousness research. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.

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