Being In Uncertainties, Mysteries, Doubt

Abstract

I was once, or, I should say, many times, out of my body.This was when, decades ago, sensory deprivation tanks were de rigueur on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles.I can reliably say I had transcendental experiences, some of which were "out of body," but then once the black, warm saltwater catapulted me into a panic attack, that was it for me.Never again.I often wonder what additional frontiers, new landscapes, I could have explored had I not panicked.So much for the rational part of my brain.I cannot deny I have had other edge-of-myseat experiences subsequently; perhaps I could call them transcendental, but never in the confines of a coffin-like tank.How can I account for them?And why the panic?Unlike many other paradigms in the broader field of psychology, transpersonal psychology, and therapy, has never been squeamish about the anomaly, the novel, the unexpected.An exceptional contribution, Marks-Tarlow's article (2020, this issue; subsequent citations refer to this article) is a welcome and expansive deepening of our understanding and exploration of our intensely idiosyncratic experiential worlds, through fresh eyes and a unique perspective.Transpersonal psychology's emphasis on the whole person, on not pathologizing, on not reducing what is human to categorical caricatures, deeply resonates not only with my own contemporary clinical and philosophical sensibilities, but also with a variety of burgeoning contextualist psychoanalytic perspectives beginning in the 1970's (e.g., Atwood & Stolorow, 1979).To my mind, Marks-Tarlow substantially extends these sensibilities in her