Via Kundalini: Psychosomatic excursions in transpersonal psychology

Abstract

A model of psychosomatic mysticism (PM) is proposed that reintroduces the body into transpersonal psychology. The argument for PM develops links between transpersonal psychology and neuroimmunology and includes scientific notions of the mind as embodied not just in the brain but more widely throughout the body, as well as the comparative analyses of perspectives on the body in various spiritual traditions. PM is used to examine how transpersonal psychology can integrate the body, thus meeting the goals of the clinician, the standards of the researcher, and the emerging needs of psychosomatic medicine. The core principles of PM are explicated, such as: 1) decentralized consciousness, 2) structural phenomenological correlations between the psyche and the body, 3) in‐depth understanding of energy as intentionality, and 4) the possibility of actualizing cosmic awareness in the individual psyche. Examples of the clinical use of psychospiritual practices of PM show practical applications of these principles. It is concluded that the studies of the embodied consciousness and subtle energies through PM can help to develop both transpersonal theory and applications.