East-West Psychology Symposium Presentation: Processing Decolonization
I had the honor of presenting a paper titled “Processing Decolonizaiton” at a recent East-West Psychology Student Symposium at the California Institute of Integral Studies where I teach and am also working on my PhD in East-West Psychology.
The presentation can be viewed at this link. I am introduced at the 20.50 minute mark on the recording.
Processing Decolonization
"The problem of decolonization whether of the colonized or the colonizer is primarily a recovery of psychological liberation, which is the intuition of the One in the Many. It is secondarily an application of this liberation in one's relations with selves and others."~ Professor Debashish Banerji
The above quote from Professor Banerji was in a discussion in the Modernity, Colonialism and Transcultural Hermaneutics class in the Fall of 2021 at CIIS. This paper uses that quote as a reflective theme to examine the recovery of psychological liberation regarding decolonization. Using a specific spiritual psychology method of self-inquiry, the goal and question is how we can move more effortlessly towards psychological liberation and realization of the “One in the Many.” This spiritual psychology technique I will be describing and demonstrating in this paper is contained within a body of teachings titled the ‘Marriage of Spirit’ from enlightenment teacher Leslie Temple-Thurston and described in her book The Marriage of Spirit: Enlightened Living in Today’s World, a book co-authored with Brad Laughlin. I have been a student of Leslie Temple-Thurston for the past 27 years working extensively with these methods personally and in group settings. I believe it is a relevant, useful method in which to examine the complexities regarding the issue of decolonization. I am interested in how this method may be used as a practical application to assist groups who may be interested in working together in the efforts towards decolonization and how we get to that recovery of psychological liberation. It is a self-inquiry method, rooted in wisdom from Eastern traditions and blended with Western psychology, that works well on an individual mental/emotional level and is even more beneficial when used by groups with common interests.
The Marriage of Spirit processing techniques aim for liberation from polarized, separate states of consciousness inherent in the human experience and playing out in archetypal patterns such as victim, tyrant, rebel, savior.
The overarching goal of the work is the reconciliation of opposites. A survey of news reports these days show tyrants now act as victims, victims act as tyrants, saviors run around trying to save everyone only to become burnt-out victims of their own efforts. Rebels become tyrants. No one wins in this toxic melee, this “Tower of Babel moment” as Professor Banerji stated in one class. Archetypes of colonizer and colonized are contained within the overall patterns of victim and tyrant.
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