Consciousness-Based Psychology: Sri Aurobindo's Vision of Yoga, Health and Transpersonal Growth

Consciousness - Based Psychology - Sri Aurobindo's Vision of Yoga, Health and Transpersonal Growth - by Dr Soumitra Basu MD & Michael Miovic MD. Sri Aurobindo (1872 -1950) was the most important Eastern thinker in over 2000 years and his transformational worldview integrates the essential truths of biology, psychology, sociology and spirituality. This book is an East-West collaboration between two psychiatrists who show how Sri Aurobindo's model of consciousness-based psychology is relevant to contemporary thought and practice. The authors include:

• Extensive case studies from both India and the US that make the concepts relatable and applicable to real life.
• Fresh insights on a wide range of topics, from depression, trauma, and suicide to more controversial subjects such as parapsychology, reincarnation, alien abduction, and possession states
• A synthetic approach that is as comfortable with medications and psychotherapy as it is with chakras, energy healing, meditation, higher levels of consciousness, and supra-physical phenomenon.

Because the authors see no contradiction between science and the experiential knowledge of Indian yoga, they are able to:

• Understand possession states as involving an interaction among occult factors, psychological vulnerabilities, and biological mechanisms that serve as gateways
• Embrace the full range of human psychology from psychiatric conditions to normal ego development and transpersonal growth
• Use both science and spirituality to help real people with mental health conditions across continents, cultures, and a wide range of diagnoses and types of transpersonal development.

This book will be useful to anyone who is interested in spiritual, integrative, cross-cultural, or mindfulness-based approaches to mental health.