Intimations of a Spiritual New Age: II. Wilhelm Reich as Transpersonal Psychologist. Part 2: The Futural Promise of Reich’s Naturalistic Bio-Energetic Spirituality
International Journal of Transpersonal Studies September 1, 2018 DOI: 10.24972/ijts.2018.37.2.23 (opens in new tab) via Semantic Scholar
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractThe later work of Wilhelm Reich anticipated a future planetary-wide 'New Age' form of this-worldly spirituality, overlapping with thinkers from the 1930s–1950s such as Jung, Toynbee, Bergson, Heidegger, Teilhard de Chardin, and Simone Weil. This paper develops implications of Reich's shift from bio-energetic psychotherapy to a mysticism of universal life energy (cosmic orgone) and conflicted 'spiritual emergency.' These implications include connections to neo-shamanism; transpersonal psychologies of presence, Being-experience, and self-actualization; essentializing reinterpretations of the historical Jesus; evolutionary continuities in consciousness studies; emergent system approaches in science; and potential for a New Age planetary identity for humanity.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Philosophy |
| Key finding | Argues that Wilhelm Reich's later system anticipated a planetary-wide New Age spirituality and has implications for neo-shamanism, transpersonal psychology, and a New Age planetary identity for humanity. |
Abstract
This is the second part of a consideration of the later Wilhelm Reich as anticipating a future planetary-wide “New Age” form of this-worldly spirituality in ways overlapping with figures from the same era of Western crisis from the 1930s through the 1950s, including Jung, Toynbee, Bergson, Heidegger, Teilhard de Chardin, and Simone Weil. Where the first part of this treatment of Reich as transpersonal psychologist traced his evolution from his bio-energetic psychotherapy to a Weberian this-worldly mysticism of a universal life energy, his cosmic orgone, with its attendant features of conflicted “spiritual emergency,” this second paper seeks to further develop some of its still largely unrealized implications. These include the relation of his later system to neo-shamanism; transpersonal psychologies of presence, Being-experience, and self actualization; essentializing reinterpretations of the historical Jesus; evolutionary continuities in contemporary consciousness studies; emergent system approaches in science; and the potential for a New Age planetary identity for humanity.