Mysticism and New Paradigm Psychology

In Mysticism and New Paradigm Psychology John E. Collins describes mysticism as a quaternary process of psychological transformation and shows how this understanding is compatible with the understanding of psychic process being promoted by new paradigm psychology. From an examination of the stories that mystics tell about their own experiences, Collins concludes that mysticism may be understood as stages-awakening, purification, illumination, and transformation. Collins provides a basis for interideological dialogue by demonstrating that this description of mysticism is similar to and compatible with the new scientific explanation of human psychological processes known as new-paradigm psychology (here represented by the work of Arnold Mandell, Karl Pribaram, and Charles Tart), those branches of scientific psychology that attempt to take seriously some of the insights and conclusions of quantum and relativity theories, and thus avoid the materialistic reductionism of most modern scientific theories.