In recent years a number of assessments of the non-Western consciousness
disciplines have been undertaken by Western behavioral scientists. The
author suggests that a variety of conceptual, methodological,
experimential, and content inadequacies render the conclusions of these
investigations of doubtful validity. He then describes the models of human
nature postulated by these disciplines and the Western behavioral sciences,
suggesting that comparing them results in a paradigm clash. The failure to
recognize this clash seems to have resulted in inappropriate pathologizing
interpretations. Attention is drawn to the relevance of recent findings in
state- dependent learning, meditation studies, peak and transcendental
experiences, transpersonal psychology, and quantum physics to an assessment
of the consciousness disciplines, and suggestions for more adequate
investigation are provided.
Abstract Teaser