Insight

I think that the body of science and thinking that might be called modern psychology, or Western psychology, or orhtodox psychology, could benefit by working with the spiritual traditions that are far older than it, for example Buddhism, which incoroporates an anceint practice of study of the mind. Comparatively such traditions could be seen to have more authority than modern psychology.

I have seen a book along these lines, a collaboration between the Dalai Lama and a Western psychologist. This can only be a good thing.


If insights can be gained from looking to spiritual traditions regarding normal psychology, I wonder how long it will be before science is taken to the spiritual worldviews regarding paranormal psychology, examining the transition where mind becomes spirit, and all the possible spiritual interactions that may follow. I've written on this blog before about how, roughly put, it's strange that rational people dismiss a lot of spiritual beliefs as superstition - for example amulets to ward off evil and curses, beliefs in interactions with deeply hostile spirits, and beliefs in ghosts and the possiblity of not transcending to Heaven on physical expiration. There is so much in these world traditions that could be considered evidence of the paranormal - and was wholly believed until quite recently.
But that's not everything, because spirituality does not just offer explanations of parapsychological ill health, it also offers solutions ( through the 'shamanic' ways, for example, or Christian exorcism).
Perhaps one day there will be a fuller and harmonious formal science of the mind that incorporates what is now known and practiced in religious traditions.