The Four Basic Perinatal Matrices
In his e book The Journey of Self-Discovery: Dimensions of Consciousness and New Views in Psychotherapy and Internal Exploration, Stanslav Grof presents his new cartography of the human psyche as developed throughout his medical work with psychedelics and holotropic breathwork. Whereas conventional psychotherapy is conceptually confined to the recollective materials of every particular person’s biography, Grof’s mannequin extends to the trans-biographical, together with the perinatal stage.
The perinatal stage of the psyche is characterised by the presence of allegories of start and dying. It’s accompanied by speedy acute struggling together with exaggerated physiological manifestations similar to nausea, suffocation, temperature fluctuations, and so on. This current agony is alternately or concurrently skilled as sequences of start and dying, of a human and/or transcendental selection. Though cited as unattainable by present neurophysiology, on account of an absence of a totally myelinized cerebral cortex in newborns, particular and verifiable particulars of a person’s start are recalled. These recollections demand a revision of sure outdated theories.
This deep reencounter with start can resolve profound existential crises by internalizing the intrinsic non secular points of the expertise and by exploring the varied aspects of the collective unconscious. The expertise is huge, together with options which are archetypal, mythological, mystical, transpersonal, and extra. As a result of all of them revolve round start (perinatal), the medical phases of start function a passable mannequin to categorise and perceive the dynamics of the perinatal stage of the unconscious. The phases correspond to the 4 perinatal matrices: the Amniotic Universe, the Cosmic Engulfment (or No-Exit), the Loss of life and Rebirth Battle, and the Loss of life and Rebirth Expertise.
The primary fundamental perinatal matrix (BPM I) is termed the Amniotic Universe. Its organic foundation is the symbiotic unity of the fetus and maternal organism. The shortage of boundaries and obstructions permits a very undisturbed life. This intrauterine existence is far akin to the trendy deprivation tanks, the place a removing of the senses supplies a melting into an oceanic ecstasy. The paranormal dissolution of boundaries generally is a blissfully trusting and heavenly expertise, or a disintegration of the acquainted and dependable, leaving a generalized nervousness of concern and paranoia. Nice imagery might relate to floating inside the ocean or in outer area as an astronaut connected to the mothership by a tether, and Eden experiences. Unfavorable imagery leads into the BPM II, together with contaminated waters, chemical warfare, evil metaphysical forces, and malicious astral influences.
The second fundamental perinatal matrix is known as the Cosmic Engulfment. Its organic foundation is the primary medical stage of supply. Life is now disturbed by chemical alerts of impending mechanical restrictions of the contracting uterus. The umbilical twine can turn out to be constricted inflicting an absence of blood and oxygen and due to this fact heat and nourishment. This cosmos is now not a spot of blissful dissolution, however of existential angst. There may be an imminent but unidentified hazard afoot. The person will not be unified with the surroundings, however is condemned to a claustrophobic nightmare with no escape. That is now a hellish expertise of struggling and metaphysical loneliness. The person is misplaced in a void, separated from its environment by the restriction of the umbilical twine. Unfavorable imagery arising includes a depersonalization and derealization, perceiving all beings together with oneself as senseless, meaningless robots; merely cogs of a diabolic machine.
The third fundamental perinatal matrix is the Loss of life and Rebirth Battle. The organic foundation is the second medical stage of start, in which there’s cervical dilation and propulsion via the start canal. The journey from heaven and hell delivers one into purgatory, the place the person is purged, cleansed, and ready. BPM III is a battle for survival amidst crushing pressures. The additional restriction of the umbilical tether results in suffocation and anoxia, which appears like catching afire. Allegorically, this burning is a pyrocatharsis, a purifying hearth that blazes via the ripe karmic seeds of the person’s psyche. Different imagery contains raging parts of nature similar to volcanoes and tidal waves, excessive technological weaponry similar to atomic bombs, and sexual orgastic experiences. The volcanic ecstasy of this third matrix is a construct up and explosion of contractions and unimaginably pleasurable releases. There may be nonetheless a way of one thing sinister among the many pleasure, which may give the imagery a sadomasochistic angle, for instance being amongst a satanic orgy of demonic witches. The important thing to understanding the distinction right here is that struggling is now not hopeless or helpless, however has a course and a purpose. The person is being purged and delivered into the sunshine.
The fourth fundamental perinatal matrix is named the Loss of life and Rebirth Expertise. Its organic foundation is the third medical stage of precise start. The umbilical twine is lastly utterly minimize. One emerges a person separated from the all or the mom. The person is now expelled from Eden and compelled to fend for himself. This occasion is the start for the fetus and dying for the re-experiencer of what Alan Watts known as the skin-encapsulated ego. In each instances there are visions of a tunnel and a white mild on the finish. A last pyrocatharsis is suffered as mild enters the eyes and your entire nervous system is extremely stimulated, and the burden, or lack of weight, of the physique is felt for the primary time. Imagery from BPM IV can embody the supply physician as a harmful deity or sacrificial priest, utilizing his forceps and anesthesia as harmful but useful instruments on the threshold to and from this world.
The 4 fundamental perinatal matrices are just one signature characteristic of Stanislov Grof’s new cartography of the human psyche. The trans-biographical map extends past the recollective materials utilized by conventional psychoanalysis, as far transcendental and as deep as perinatal. Solely listed below are a few of the most profound existential crises resolved and reconciled.