7.4. The Recursive 10-Step Transcendental Feedback Phenomenological Methodology (TFP):

At the present time the TFP methodology has only been applied to analyze consciousness during the release of a deep traumatic experience. This experience is known in the mystical literature of the West as purgation. I am calling that experience PMU-10. Time will tell how broadly the TFP methodology can be applied.

The deeply meditative characteristic of a TFP reduction means the procedure will take time: The recursive 10-step TFP methodology that follows loops relentlessly over a period of years. In the process of the TFP reduction the noema, intentionality, mental imagery, together with the physical, behavioristic, and other subreductions are intuited from time to time. These intuitions of essences in step 9 then culminate in the intuition of a great deal of the meanings of the experience in step 10. To clarify the 10-step methodology given below, its application to the experience of PMU-10 is given in Chapter 8, 9, and 10. Helpful for understanding the application of TFP, shown at Chapter 8, are the following: Chapter 2 gives the narrative of PMU-16, Chapter 3 helps clarify the 10 hour experience of purgation, Chapter 4 helps clarify the 4 to 7 second experience of mystical union, which immediately follows purgation. Mystical union was followed by a 6 hour period of deep sleep. The call the whole experience, including purgation, mystical union, and deep sleep, PMU-16. Experiences of PMU-16 are found in all cultures (see the references at the end of Chapter 2).

Here are the 10 steps of the recursive TFP procedure or methodology for analyzing the release of trauma:

1. Make the 'epoche' by bracketing-out extended consciousness and focusing on core consciousness. Then take 'the natural attitude' when performing the process of recalling and reflecting on the various aspects of core consciousness during the experience. This recall and reflection is greatly aided by an SD technique for organizing the recall, termed causal loop diagramming. This technique helps the analyst see the elements of the recall as sequences of cause and effect, structured as a set of positive and negative feedback loops.
2. The recall in step 1 releases pent-up energy (cathexis). This gives the analyst the potential for writing a spirited narrative of the experience. An Engineer's Story is an example of such writing. It is a narrative of the religious crisis leading to, and including PMU-16. It is shown at Chapter 2. See, in particularly, the exerpt starting with paragraph heading, The Heart Begins to Open, and the paragraphs that follow it.
3. Use other techniques from system dynamics - such as stocks, flows, and auxiliaries, together with one of the SD software packages - to convert the causal loop diagram of step #1 into a system dynamics flow diagram or noema. In the process of choosing the state variables or stocks of the flow diagram for a subjective experience, it will be helpful to determine the intentionalities of the experience. For example, intentionalities of the release of trauma, such as the purgative phase of PMU-16, are about mental images and archetypes. They are modeled using state variables. In SD state variables are called stocks.
4. Establish mathematical relationships between adjacent variables in the model (e.g., As an example from the model of purgation, the intensity of the variable WilledAttention is dependent on the intensity of the variable FearOfDeath). The flow diagram together with the mathematical relationships between the adjacent variables form a multiloop nonlinear feedback system.
5. Use the resulting flow diagram and its mathematical model - together with an SD software package - to simulate the model's variables. For example, there are 38 variables in the model of PMU-16 at present, 23 of which represent an aspects of consciousness during the ten-hour experience. One can use the software package to display the simulations of sets of variables side-by-side on graphs to get a moment-to-moment description of various aspects of consciousness as a function of time throughout the experience.
6. The recall of the actual experience is called the reference mode. When the simulations of step 5 and the reference mode fail to match, first fine tune the model structure and eventually adjust constants in the equations and manipulate table functions. This is done recursively, recalling at subtler and subtler levels until the sets of simulations accurately match the reference mode. This step takes much of time and effort, but, among other things, it succeeds in focusing the analyst's mind so that he or she can recall finer and finer - second by second - details of consciousness during the experience. This is the noesis. Note here that traumatic experiences are retained permanently in episodic memory.
7. Focus on each element of the flow diagram developed in step 6, while at the same time always being aware of the entire flow diagram or map or total structure. This gives a comprehensive focus to the analyst's mind so that his or her thought about core consciousness during the experience can proceed to more and more subtle and deep levels.
8. Study relevant literature and scientific papers to gain additional perspective and depth of insight about the various elements or aspects of consciousness shown in the flow diagram or map of consciousness.
9. Allow intuition to reveal the experience's structure and essences. These may include, but are not limited to:
   • The flow diagram or noema and the intentional objects. The latter are archetypes and mental images and their relationships to associated hyle.
   • The reification of consciousness in the body revealed by the Eidos and other aspects of the physical subreduction.
   • The reification of consciousness in the body revealed by the behavioristic subreduction.
10. Allow the meditative mode to collect the intuitions of the meanings of the experience: In the meditative mode the analyst passively watches the work of his or her analytical mode in step 1 to 6 and watches his or her intuition of essences mode in steps 7 to 9, while always awaiting the emergence of further intuitions that ultimately reveal the meanings of the experience. This meditative mode is always going on automatically in the mind of the seeker of truth during the desperate years of the TFP Reduction.

Arlen Wolpert
http://world.std.com/~awolpert/gtr508.html

July 19,2004

Return to homepage of the General Theory of Religion.