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Book Review Decoding Jungs Metaphysics The Archet

This review summarizes a book that decodes Carl Jung's metaphysical ideas. The book argues that consciousness is fundamental and that the universe is experiential. The reviewer is profoundly impacted by the book and argues it is an important contribution to the field of transpersonal psychology.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
114 views

Book Review Decoding Jungs Metaphysics The Archet

This review summarizes a book that decodes Carl Jung's metaphysical ideas. The book argues that consciousness is fundamental and that the universe is experiential. The reviewer is profoundly impacted by the book and argues it is an important contribution to the field of transpersonal psychology.

Uploaded by

Gabriel Serban
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Volume 40 Issue 2 Article 11

12-1-2021

Book Review: Decoding Jung's Metaphysics: The Archetypal


Semantics of an Experiential Universe
Nicholas G. Boeving
Alef Trust, Wirral, England, UK

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Recommended Citation
Boeving, N. G. (2021). Book review: Decoding Jung's metaphysics: The archetypal semantics of an
experiential universe. International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 40 (2). https://doi.org/doi.org/
10.24972/ijts.2021.40.2.121

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BOOK REVIEW
Decoding Jung's Metaphysics:
The Archetypal Semantics of an Experiential Universe
(2021; Iff Books)
by Bernardo Kastrup
Reviewed by

Nicholas Grant Boeving


Alef Trust
Bromborough, Wirral, UK

I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound or stab us.
If the book we’re reading doesn’t wake us up with a blow to the head,
what are we reading for? . . . we need the books that affect us like a
disaster . . . . A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us.
—Franz Kafka (1958/1977, p. 16)

Only the Wounded Metaphysician Heals: volume (and there are many), as well as the eight
Reflections on the Work of Bernardo Kastrup that proceeded it, Kastrup neither promises, nor

A
stronomers calculate the rate of star presents, any kind of final theory. The universe, both
formation in our galaxy to be about three for Jung, as well as for Kastrup, is dialogical, not
Sun-like celestial bodies per year. The declarative, and both philosophers expertly avoid
appearance of a new star in any given academic the sweeping, hubristic extravagances of other
discipline, however, is a far rarer event: about writers who pepper their work with periods where
once in a generation. With the recent publication question marks ought to have been placed instead.
of Decoding Jung’s Metaphysics: The Archetypal And yet, despite this book’s dramatic interrogative
Semantics of an Experiential Universe (Kastrup, subversion, there are questions Kastrup does
2021b) a bright new coruscation has been fixed not ask—questions that might require, for a full
in the firmament of transpersonal scholarship, decoding of Jung’s metaphysics, a full decoding of
but unlike the constituents of the official 88 Kastrup himself.
constellations, Kastrup belongs to a number of I chose to open this review with a quote
academic asterisms, patterns of bright light that from Kafka, because I believe, as he did, that a
share in several constellations. One is fixed, the book should affect us like a disaster. And yet, as
other fluid—and neither this book nor the person a passionate and longtime reader of transpersonal
who wrote it can be properly pigeonholed in any scholarship, I can count on one hand the number
one disciplinary configuration. Instead, Kastrup’s of books that have woken me up with a blow
light shares in the pattern integrities of multiple to the head. The first, Ken Wilber’s (1977) The
disciplines: philosophy of mind, science of Spectrum of Consciousness, was nothing short of
consciousness, religious studies, and transpersonal a textual shaktipat—a near-electric transmission
psychology, to name but a few. Nevertheless, that announced itself as a calling, awakening me
despite the remarkable achievements of this with such a voltaic jolt that I knew, long before

Review: Decoding
International Jung's
Journal of Transpersonal International Journal of Transpersonal Studies 121
Metaphysics Studies, 40(2), 121–128
.
https://doi.org/10.24972/ijts.2021.40.2.121
I had finished the last chapter, that this wild, not in the mystical literatures of the world, but
epistemologically plural field was to be my vocation it is rare, indeed, in someone from Kastrup’s
in the truest Latinate sense of the word. It was, and background, who entered the humanities by way
is, my “spiritual calling.” But in the decades of of the sciences—the latter of which still traffics in
a life spent in books, there have been none that crude computer metaphors for consciousness and
came close to approximating the intensity of that remains entrenched in the disappointing fictions of
first vibrational impact I experienced at 13 while the dominant neuronarrative. And quite frankly, we
reading Wilber. That is, until now.  need his help.
Transpersonal psychology was "the mouth One need only glance at the shocking
of a labyrinth” into which I entered (through disparities between endowments in graduate
Wilber) to meet the Mystery and to become forever programs for the arts versus the sciences to see
“changed . . . [having been] eaten and digested by how the financial eclipse of the former by the
God” (Weil, 1951/2009, p. 46). Philosopher and latter mirrors a cultural one—the great divide and
mystic Simone Weil went on to write that whoever epistemological civil war that British novelist and
undergoes such a transformation will remain by the scientist C. P. Snow first identified in his 1959
entrance, “so that he can gently push all those who lecture The Two Cultures. The bald, uncomfortable
near into the opening” (p. 46). truth is that we still have quite a way to go before
This present review of Bernardo Kastrup’s reaching any kind of cultural accord between
(2021b) latest book is my gentle push into the mouth Snow's (1959) "two cultures.” Kastrup has emerged
of the labyrinth and into the coiled complexities as a strong proponent of metaphysical idealism, and
of Carl Jung, Kastrup himself, and the tradition of his own uncollected works may together be read
metaphysical idealism to which they both belong. as a significant textual advance in the dialogical
And while Weil (1951/2009) was speaking of process of understanding consciousness.
“the beauty of the world” (p. 46), we find in both Humorously enough, Kastrup's dissertation
Kastrup and in Jung, that the cosmos itself, in all supervisor in the philosophy department for his
of its manifestations, both visible and invisible, is second Ph.D. (the first one being in computer
coextensive with the mind of God. To enter the engineering) gave him the name of “the belligerent
world, then, is to enter the mouth of the labyrinth, philosopher” (Kastrup, 2021a). The sobriquet fits
and in doing so, to enter the mind of the godhead him like a Starfleet uniform. The word belligerent
itself. comes from the Latin belligerare: to wage war. And
A Call to War make no mistake about it, Kastrup is at war with

R eading Kastrup is a radical experience; indeed,


his books have changed me “to the root.”
Because not only does he deal the five-point
materialism—not simply because it is spectacularly
wrong and obscenely unfounded (although these
are both certainly true); he is at war because he
palm exploding heart technique to scientific understands the devastation and disenchantment
fundamentalism, what emerges from its carcass that materialism has wrought upon the world.
is a luminous universe alive and squirming with Kastrup knows precisely what is at stake here—
meaning. For Kastrup, consciousness is all there is. the future of humanity. And he understands the
We are dissociated alters in the mind of a dreaming humanities themselves as being integral not only to
god. And for that matter, everything else is, too. understanding fully the ways in which consciousness
The collective unconscious is not some abstruse, itself is prismatically refracted in and through
epigenetic or immaterial plane; it is right here, culture, but also how the humanities are requisite
all around us, in the cityscapes, mountains, and for writing the emerging meta-myth of who and
mathematics of the world. what we are—nothing less than dissociated alters
Kastrup is a metaphysical idealist, meaning in the mind of the living God. 
he holds mind to be the fundament from which Like so many others, once I had read some
everything arises. This is not a new idea; certainly of Kastrup, I read as much of Kastrup as I could get

122 International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Boeving


my hands on. I had to. As someone who has devoted image, both in person and in writing, of being an
his professional life to studying comparative empirical scientist. And yet he was a philosopher,
cartographies of consciousness and culture, and “even a very good one,” as Kastrup (2021b) wrote
teaches them in a transpersonal graduate program, (p. 7).
it was exhilarating to discover someone outside of What Kastrup (2021b) finds in Jung is
the humanities or social sciences who appreciates an elegant metaphysical system in which the
the former as, “the study of consciousness coded as arbitrary, almost procrustean fictions of form—
culture” (Kripal, 2019, p. 45). atoms, bodies, planets, quarks—are part of “an
Kastrup understands that any approach to ecosystem of communicating conscious agencies,
the study of consciousness that fails to include the in which ego-consciousness is merely one of
humanities is anemic at best, and quite possibly the participants” (p. 29). In other words, the
dangerous. He writes with a palpable emotional universe itself is the dream of a sleeping god that
urgency because he knows precisely what we only awakens through us. Kastrup identifies and
stand to lose:  unpacks this hidden telos which is nothing short of
a promethean undertaking. The Collected Works of
From the perspective of the collective
C. G. Jung (Jung, 1948/1969) which Kastrup reread
unconscious, humanity still has time and
“for the third or fourth time” (Kastrup, personal
opportunity—through diligent self-inquiry—to
communication, December 9, 2021) in preparation
bring its own shadow side under the lens of self-
for his 2021 book sprawl over 20 volumes and 60
reflective examination and realize the insanity
years. If the Collected Works are a labyrinth unto
of its ways. There is still time for us to recognize
themselves, then Kastrup is our Ariadne. This is
our drives and compulsions for what they are,
no mere textual analysis, but a genuine gnostic
assume deliberate volitional control of them,
encounter with the text itself.
and ultimately adjust our behavior before
I am reminded here of Coleman Barks’ own
the destruction is complete and irreversible.
gnostic conversations with an imaginal Jalāl al-Dīn
(Kastrup, 2021b, p. 41)
Rūmī in preparation for his sublime translations
His philosophical precision and economy (Rūmī, 1996). In a process that Jung would have
of words is both lucid and refreshingly crisp. He called the active imagination, Kastrup writes with
is uncompromisingly empirical, his arguments an unconventional intimacy, having, at various
elegant and parsimonious, and, from the expanded emotional nadirs in his life, sought council from
geometry of his mind-only metaphysic, he offers the master by visualizing himself in conversation
the most satisfying answer to date to the hard with him. The emotional immediacy of these
problem of consciousness described by David gnostic dialogues imbues this book with a certain
Chalmers to express the still-unsolved mystery of sense of closeness that I’ve never experienced in
how the brain produces phenomenal experience. reading Jung qua Jung. In many ways, Kastrup does
Kastrup has worked for the European Organization not so much decode as reveal Jung, just as he is
for Nuclear Research (CERN), written for Scientific reciprocally unveiled by the Swiss psychiatrist
American, and is widely regarded as the leader of himself.
the emerging renaissance of mind-only philosophy. This slim volume not only meets but
But does this make him qualified to read exceeds Kastrup’s (2021b) authorial intention to
Jung? Yes. In fact, it makes him uniquely qualified tease out Jung’s metaphysics and elucidate them
to read him. The polymathic Jung had many from the immensities of his labyrinthine textual
manifestations: mythologist, psychiatrist, historian, corpus. This he does with the surgical precision of
artist, alchemist—and yet in order to see his ideas an analytic philosopher. He also liberates Jungian
taken seriously, he quite consciously distanced theory from the glass bead game in which it has
himself from anything smacking of metaphysics been entombed for far too long and in doing so
and philosophy. Instead, he carefully crafted the makes Jung far more relevant to the razor’s edge

Review: Decoding Jung's Metaphysics International Journal of Transpersonal Studies 123


of today’s science then he ever was before. Kastrup literatures, acknowledging the intrinsic truth of
legitimizes metaphysical idealism as not only religious metaphor as a way to communicate
viable in our modern-day marketplace of ideas, but actual truths beyond the merely allegorical, I am
convinces the reader of its inevitability. In his own perplexed at how Kastrup reconciles his evolving,
words: pre-pubescent, Whiteheadian, godhead with the
primordial myths of departure and return, divine
Each work in this long idealist tradition
forgetting, the erotic love-play between Perusa
reinforces, clarifies and elaborates ideas already
and Prakriti, and the cosmic orgasm that begat—
expressed in other works, together constituting
and continues to beget—it all in each moment of
a solid, reliable, robust philosophical platform.
eternal, erotic recrudescence.
The tradition makes clear that metaphysical
All of these traditions allude to a
idealism isn’t merely a fashionable, idiosyncratic
primordial self-inflicted trauma and an erotics of
or ephemeral point of view, but one that the
consciousness that Kastrup (2021b) neither engages
human mind has discerned again and again
nor acknowledges. And yet these traumatic/erotic
throughout history, with uncanny consistency,
dimensions seem to be implied in his work, just as
despite the vulgarity and superficiality of the
the figure-ground vase, developed by the Danish
spirit of the time. (p. 121)
psychologist Edgar Rubin, implies the shape of two
In many ways, Kastrup argues that his own faces regarding one another.
work completes the projects of Schopenhauer and Kastrup (2021b) uses symbolically charged
Jung, both of whom studied and integrated their language to speak of how we, as human beings,
own understanding of classical Indian philosophy, are crucified on the dimensional axes of time and
in particular of nondual spiritual realization in space (a gnostic doctrine if ever there was one) but
which Brahman alone is real and the phenomenal stops short of plumbing the symbology all the way
world is the result of our ignorance (avidya). And down (or up): that God sacrifices himself as man,
yet, as the following line from Swami Vivekananda’s as in the doctrine of the incarnation. As Kastrup
translation of the Vedic Hymn of Creation (1989) puts it: “Ours are indeed sacrificial lives, therein
seems to suggest, these Western readers may have residing their profound meaning” (p. 134). Our
missed something quite important: “First desire purpose in waking ourselves up is to wake up God.
rose, the primal seed of mind” (p. 129). Desire. This is a profound and profoundly ennobling
There it is hidden in plain sight. The mind-only idea, but again, we are left with a kind of ontological
philosophical tradition turns out to be not mind- Planck time beyond which we cannot theorize,
first, but eros-first. reframing the classical theological conundrum of
Not incidentally, I began reading The how a god who is all good and all powerful could
Collected Works (Jung, 1948/1966) in an have created a world in which evil often prevails,
independent study with my first graduate advisor as: if we are thoughtforms in the mind of a dreaming
Kripal, a lifetime ago. Kripal wrote in his God and our purpose is to wake ourselves, as
introduction to Kastrup’s 2019 release More Than well as God, up, then why did God go to sleep
Allegory: “any future, truly adequate philosophy in the first place? To follow his line of argument
of mind or science of consciousness will have to to its natural conclusion, that we experience
go through the study of religion, and in particular ourselves as independent conscious entities in
the comparative study of mystical literature” (p. 4). the same way dissociated alters experience their
Which, of course, Kastrup does. And yet I am left to own independent consciousness in the minds of
wonder, does he go far enough? people with dissociative identity disorder, we must
consider the potential part that trauma played in
Questions of a Primordial Trauma the creation of the cosmos. Dissociative identity

A s a consummate philosopher who takes


seriously the claims of the world’s mystical
disorder (DID) does not spontaneously arise.
According to the American Psychiatric Association

124 International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Boeving


(2013), in their Diagnostic and Statistical Manual experience in the grand theological traditions of
of Mental Disorders (5th ed.; DSM-5), DID is Dante Alighieri, William Blake, and Emmanuel
resoundingly the result of significant trauma. And Swedenborg. A record of his own katabasis, this
while the origins of this complex condition have textual map of his journey to the underworld was
been linked to calamitous events such as accidents “no aimless and purely destructive fall into the
and war, the majority of reported cases involve abyss, but . . . a descent into the cave of initiation
some history of significant trauma—90% of them, and secret knowledge” (Jung, 1966, para. 213, pp.
to be exact (Wang, 2018). 139–140). Speaking of this initiation, Jung added:
To circle back to Rūmī (1996), it is only
It all began then; the later details are only
through our woundedness that we encounter the
supplements and clarifications of the material
light within. If we are, in fact, alters of a dissociated
that burst forth from the unconscious, and at first
godhead, then this seems to imply some type of
overwhelmed me. It was the primary material
primordial injury. “Let there be light” may be just
for a lifetime’s work. (Jung, 1961/1989, p. 199)
another way of saying, “let there be trauma.” It is
difficult to ignore these elliptical implications in In other words, analytical psychology
Kastrup’s thought; tellingly, they require a bit of was birthed from a personal crisis—a series of
decoding. The pioneering work of psychologist traumatic experiences and events. One of the many
Robert Romanyshyn may serve as a possible cipher unfortunate consequences of modern psychology’s
here, as he suggests in his 2007 book The Wounded feverish quest to assert itself as a proper science
Researcher: Research with the Soul in Mind has been a kind of disciplinary amnesia that
that academics choose their individual subjects intentionally overlooks, or conveniently forgets,
because of their unique, individual wounds. For the actual lived experiences (read: stories) of the
Romanyshyn, research is an alchemical process individuals who forged the field. The result is that
through which trauma is transformed into something it has been whitewashed of its wounds; purified of
wondrous and sublime. its pathos. But as we see in the case of Jung, the
And while Kastrup has spoken openly of wound is where it all began.
his own personal daimon, an autonomous psychic The same was true of Gustav Fechner, a
energy Jung (1970) described as a “numinous name every psychology major knows by the end
imperative . . . a far higher authority than the of their studies for having put psychophysics on the
human intellect” (p 453), Kastrup (2021b) refrained map. What is lesser known, however, is that Fechner
from offering any self-reflexive explorations of the suffered a severe and debilitating creative illness
role that his own personal wounding may have from which he emerged religiously transfigured,
played in the formation and development of his driven by a daimon to discover the mathematics of
professional life. the mind-body monad.
Kastrup (2021b) also neglects to explore Fechner's monistic mysticism, born from a
the ways in which Jung’s autobiography may have spiritual crisis, undergirds all of his later work and
given shape to his metaphysics. Above all, Jung was is threaded throughout the history of psychology as
a mapmaker; the architecture of his theory only a hidden history, only visible through his biography
fully made visible by hermeneutical excavations which has been often neglected, forgotten, and
into the archeology of his life. While we may never sometimes purposely suppressed.
comprehend in toto the body of Jung's work, the I opened this review with a quote from
more we discover about the anatomy of his life Kafka about books wounding us and through that
enables us to understand, with greater clarity and wounding, waking us up by, “breaking open the
depth, the interiorities of his thought. frozen sea inside.” The sea is Jung’s favorite symbol
Of all Jung's works, The Red Book (Jung, for the psyche; indeed, he wrote in Memories,
2009) is probably the most personal and, therefore, Dreams, Reflections that, “it has all the dreams of
the most archaeological. To read it is an initiatory the soul within itself and sounds them over” (Jung,

Review: Decoding Jung's Metaphysics International Journal of Transpersonal Studies 125


1961/1989, p. 369). For Kafka, we awaken through youth can be understood in terms of a secret . .
the wound. For Jung, we are wounded through . . Today I am a solitary, because I know things
our awakening. It is precisely the emergence of and must hint at things which other people do not
consciousness that, for Jung, creates the problem know, and usually do not even want to know” (pp.
of suffering. 41–42). With some creative psychbiographical
Kastrup (2021b) closes with a gnostic extrapolation, we may begin to wonder how integral
reading of the Genesis myth as the emergence of a role this early trauma played in the formation and
self-reflexive consciousness: development of Jung’s experiential universe.
The fall from paradise marked the end of the
A New Psychology of Awakening
unconscious human being, living from instinct
with no problems, and the beginning of
psychological suffering. The Fall represents the
I read Kastrup (reading Jung) as a psychology
of awakening. Which is why I think we need a
new word that encapsulates the telos of waking
inception of our lives of sacrifice to God. (p.
up within the dream. The Greek verb anistemi,
133)
which means “to awaken; to rise” (as in “and on
Our lives are meaningful insofar as they are the third day he shall rise again”; King James Bible,
sacrificial. 1769/2017, Luke 18:33) seems a synergistic fit.
Yet however brilliantly Kastrup decodes the It is a resurrection verb. And in the words of Ken
rich complexities of Jung’s mind-only metaphysic, Wilber, transpersonal psychology should, “disband
I can only help but feel that it remains incomplete or, at the very least, come up with a different name”
—and that a full decoding may require a full (MacDonald & Friedman, p. 1). Put differently,
decoding of Jung himself. Put differently, in order to we need a resurrection and rebranding. I propose
explore the role that trauma may have played in the anistmeic psychology as a new psychology of
formation of the cosmos, (as implied in the work of awakening, for Kastrup’s (2021b) book signals a sea
Jung, by way of Kastrup) we must look to the role change in transpersonal theory that in many ways,
that trauma played in the life of Jung himself, the completes it. And in many others, wakes it up.
exact nature of which Jung made quite clear in one Kastrup’s work helps us to integrate our
of his earliest letters to Freud: premodern, modern, and now postmodern worlds
such that the sciences and humanities are now
[I]t is rather that my veneration for you has on equal footing, deeply engaged in a gnostic
something of the character of a “religious” love-play of their own: dialogue. It champions a
crush. Though it does not really bother me, I still new kind of religiosity without being naïve. It is
feel it is disgusting and ridiculous because of its critical yet refuses to be reductive. There is no
undeniable erotic overtone. This abominable ineluctable Omega Point here. Neither are there
feeling comes from the fact that as a boy I was any guarantees. Instead, we have real stuff at stake:
the victim of a sexual assault by a man I once the future of humanity and, by extension, the
worshipped. (Freud et al., 1974, p. 95) fate of God. After all, we are God’s way of doing
shadow work. Our lives are endowed not only with
Freud’s response is lost to the ages, but a sacred purpose, but an urgency to awaken inside
from reconstructions of all the available evidence it the dream. A dream from which there is no “out,”
appears to have been cavalier, cold, and dismissive only an awakening “within.”
(Gasker, 1999). Not exactly off brand for Freud. Tibetan Buddhist scriptures have entire
How much of this early trauma (and then later textual traditions of dream yoga in which waking
retraumatization through the invalidation from up within the dream of life is the primary practice.
his mentor and “religious crush”) impacted Jung’s They also speak of certain treasure texts, called
metaphysics? We can only guess. Jung (1961/1989) terma, that are hidden within the mindstream
himself reflects in his memoires that, “My entire of the guru, intended to be revealed in perilous

126 International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Boeving


times as wellsprings of renewed wisdom and Jung, C. G. (1966). Two essays in analytical
strength. These are tantric texts, written in dakini- psychology. In H. Read et al. (Series Eds.),
script, which means they require decoding by the The collected works of C.G. Jung (Vol. 7; R.
inheritors of an unbroken lineage of continuous F. C. Hull, Trans.). Princeton University Press.
revelation—treasure-text revealers called tertöns. (Original work published 1948)
Treasure texts are understood, according to Tibetan Jung, C. G. (1966). The spirit in man, art, and
Buddhist traditions, as textual time capsules and literature. In H. Read et al. (Series Eds.), The
are never publicly declared right way. They require collected works of C. G. Jung (Vol. 15; R. F. C.
the right conditions; they require a readiness to Hull, Trans.). Princeton University Press.
receive (Freemantle, 2001, p. 19). I read Kastrup Jung, C. G. (1969). The collected works of C.G.
(2021b) as a kind of Western tertön, translating the Jung (H. Read et al., Series Eds.; R. F. C. Hull,
dakini-script of Carl Jung at the 11th hour of our Trans.). Princeton University Press. (Original
Holocene Epoch and in doing so, giving the world work published 1948)
a new psychology of awakening. Jung, C. G. (1989). Memories, Dreams, Reflections
In the final analysis, terma texts require (A. Jaffé, Ed.; R. Winston & C. Winston, Trans).
tertöns to decode them: they are open loops, semantic Vintage Books. (Original work published
ecologies in which the boundaries between the 1961)
guru, the text, the revealer, and those to whom the Jung, C. G., & Shamdasani, S. (Ed.). (2009). The red
revealer reveals, are blurred. Given that our primary book: Liber novus (M. Kyburz & J.Peck, Trans.).
religious and mystical experiences and expressions W W Norton.
have undergone a significant key change into the Kafka, F. (1977). To Oskar Pollak, January 27,
register of scientific language and theory means that 1904. Letters to friends, family, and editors (R.
any tertön of today must be a disciplinary polyglot, Winston & C. Winston, Eds.). Schocken Books.
epistemologically fluent in the languages of science, (Original work published 1958)
mathematics, and the arts—which Bernardo Kastrup Kastrup, B. (2016). More than allegory: On religious
certainly is. But thankfully we do not have to be; he truths, myths, and beliefs. Iff Books.
has done the treasure hunting for us. All we have to Kastrup, B. (2021a, February). Guest Lecturer:
do is read. And wake up. Bernardo Kastrup [invited talk]. Alef Trust, UK.
Kastrup, B. (2021b). Decoding Jung’s metaphysics:
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Weil, S. (2009). Waiting on God. Routledge. (Orig-
inal work published 1951)
Wang, P. (2018, August). What are dissociative disor-
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Wilber, K. (1977). The spectrum of consciousness.
Quest Books.

Nick Boeving, PhD, is a faculty member of the Alef


Trust/Liverpool John Moores University graduate
program in Consciousness, Spirituality and Tran-
spersonal Psychology. A collaborating scientist at
the Stanford University Forgiveness Project, his re-
search focuses on transpersonal, psychedelic, and
existential approaches to substance use disorder
and seeks to push past the limiting binaries of tra-
ditional recovery models. Dr. Boeving is also the
Executive Director of Clinical Operations at Sa-
cred Healing North America, a holistic rehabilita-
tion facility that utilizes plant and other existential
medicines to help identify, transform, and heal the
traumas and emotional losses from which all ad-
dictions originate. His work has been published in
Pastoral Psychology, Encyclopedia of Psychology
and Religion, Encyclopedia of Muslim-American
History, Religious Studies Review, Tikkun, and the
International Journal of Transpersonal Studies.

About the Journal

The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies is


a Scopus listed peer-reviewed academic journal, and
the largest and most accessible scholarly periodical
in the transpersonal field. IJTS has been in print
since 1981, is published by Floraglades Foundation,
sponsored in part by Attention Strategies Institute,
and serves as the official publication of the
International Transpersonal Association. The journal
is available online at www.transpersonalstudies.org,
and in print through www.lulu.com (search for IJTS).

128 International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Boeving

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