Spirit's Pipeline into a More Integral Tomorrow

Sheikh Ragip

Robert Frager is the founding President of the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, and is currently a Professor and the Director of the Spiritual Guidance Program.  He teaches by the title of Sheikh Ragip in the Halveti-Jerrahi order of Sufis, and has a community of students in Redwood City, CA.

Stuart Davis

With eleven full-length albums to his credit, Stuart Davis has carved out a unique wavelength in the musical spectrum. Taking the topics of God, sex and death, and crafting them into inimitable pop songs with lyrical flair and unforgettable hooks, Stuart continues to be one of the great undiscovered singer/songwriters around.

 

 

Written by Colin Bigelow

Robert Frager is a wonderful of example of what it can mean to take a more comprehensive and integral approach to the human experience. With a Ph.D. from Harvard University, Dr. Frager is a practicing psychologist and the founding President of the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology. As a practitioner of Sufism for over two decades, Dr. Frager is also Sheikh Ragip of the Halveti-Jerrahi order of Sufis in Redwood City, CA.

Years ago, Stuart Davis was lucky enough to stumble upon Sheikh Ragip and his community of students, and this conversation is a wonderful rekindling of that relationship. In this part of their dialogue, Sheik Ragip and Stu explore some of the many faces of self-centeredness, or ego, on the spiritual path, and some of the ingenious methods for undoing the activity of self-contraction.

As they discuss, one of the most effective, and amusing, tools of the Sufi master has been the use of humor. But this wasnt a tool used only on students. Sheikh Ragip explains that many teachers throughout history have set themselves up to look foolish, because they were aware that the desire to maintain a self-image “goes all the way up” the path of spiritual growth.

An integral approach to spirituality suggests that there are three important elements of human consciousness that likewise “go all the way up:” states, stages, and shadow. States of consciousness include the normal states of waking, dreaming, and sleeping, and also span the spectrum of spiritual experiences, from gross, to subtle, to causal, to nondual. What all states share is that they are temporary, and for the most part can be accessed, with proper training (or simply by chance), in just about any order. Stages of consciousness range from egocentric, to ethnocentric, to worldcentric, to kosmocentric, and will affect how one interprets and understands various spiritual states. Stages are permanent acquisitions of the psyche, they unfold in a developmental order, and they cannot be skipped. The shadow elements of consciousness are those first-person impulses that, for whatever reason, have not been owned by an individual, and therefore appear in consciousness as “not self” (“I’m not angry, but my boss sure is,” or “I’m not angry, but I sure am depressed.”)

The great spiritual traditions of the world have developed incredibly skillful tools for eliciting profound states of consciousness (and their corresponding state-stages), but have generally remained ignorant of developmental structure-stages, and have few tools for explicitly dealing with the shadow. A more integral approach to spirituality in the modern and postmodern world would be sure to include all three of these essential parts of the human experience. Having the right tool for the right situation is essential in the use of skillful means, and Sheikh Ragip is unique in the fact that he is formally trained in both psychotherapy and mysticism, so he can make an informed opinion when consulting with students: yes, psychotherapeutic tools might help you in this situation, or no, you’re just getting lost in self-concern—let it go!

Sheikh Ragip and Stu go on to talk about the importance of unconditional love and acceptance on the spiritual path. Without that larger perspective, without that love of the whole person just as they are, you can get stuck doing “endless psychotherapy.” But once placed in that context of unconditional acceptance, you can use the same old human “stuff” (guilt, anger, shame, etc) that we all bring to the path as grist for the mill, and fuel for true growth.

All along the way, Sheikh Ragip shares some of his favorites stories to illustrate this wonderful dialogue. If Sheik Ragip is anything, he is an extraordinary storyteller, and we invite you to listen in....