The Phenomenology of an Insight

The Ineffable Insight

I remember that, even when I was very little child, I used to spend time ‘feeling myself from the inside’, observing myself carefully, because I had this profound desire to understand what the difference was between a thought, an intuition and a ‘something more’ that, every now and then, happened to me and I couldn’t give it a name. This ‘something more’ was an almost physical experience: at a certain point, while I was involved in one of my daily activities at the time, it was as if a light bulb turned on, right above my head. Then, this light reverberated inside my brain but also managed, in an almost magical way, to spread itself inside of me. The result was that I suddenly found myself in a state of clarity – both mental and emotional – of expansion, of great creativity and of almost bliss.

For years I did wonder how this phenomenon happened: what the ingredients were, the surrounding situations, the catalyzing events. I didn’t have great answers but that experience, which I can now call insight, was an invariable constant within all the events, all the circumstances, all the choices and decisions I made in the span of over sixty years of life.

Such a precious resource! An insight! An “Aha!” Experience!

Another of the reasons why I decided to tackle this topic – and, alas, I later realized what ‘Hercules’ labor’ it could represent – is having noticed how much confusion, how many misunderstandings, how much ignorance gravitate around the meaning, the nature and the experience of an insight, especially in the world of counseling and helping relationships.

The nature of this article is mostly an anthological one. I researched, in various bibliographical sources, the contributions, the different points of view and the various experiences around the insight: from the philosophical one to the psychological and psychiatric one, and finally to the neurological one. And, obviously, to the spiritual one.

In the first section, the anthological one, I report all the various contributions that I have collected as part of my research and some of my points of view.

In the second section, which I call exploratory-experiential, I quote, step by step, excerpts from a lecture offered by Carl R. Rogers that strongly touched and inspired me. Then, I report some fragments of a counseling session that I recorded, where I implement the most favorable conditions to support my client in reaching and acquiring one or more insights.

There is no conclusion, as perhaps there should be according to normal standards.

What conclusions can we draw about such an ineffable experience called insight?

The Meaning of Phenomenology

The term phenomenology was originally introduced by the German philosopher of Swiss origin Johan Heinrich Lambert in his work “Novum Organon”, 1764. Conventionally, the term has four main meanings in the history of philosophy, one taken from Hegel (1807), one from Husserl (starting in 1900), one from Scheler (1914) and, finally, one from Heidegger (1927).

• For Hegel, phenomenology is an approach to philosophy that begins with the exploration of “phenomena” (which presents itself to us in a conscious experience) as a medium for grasping the Absolute Spirit that is behind the phenomenon.
• For Edmund Husserl, phenomenology is an approach to philosophy that assigns primary relevance to intuitive experience, which looks at phenomena (which present themselves to us in a phenomenological reflection, that is, always inextricably associated with our point of view) as a starting point and an evidence in order to draw out the essential characteristics of experiences and the essence of what we experience.
• Max Scheler, in “Phenomenology and Theory of Knowledge” (1914), suggests to overcome the conception of phenomenology as a method, shifting the attention to the occurrence of the phenomenon itself: the primacy no longer belongs to the cognitive method which objectifies the activity of the to see, but to what is shown in the mode of self-giving. To achieve this result, a change of attitude capable of shifting the view from perspective is necessary. That is shifting the view from the predominant perspective with which one relates to the world. This change is not intellectual but concerns the center of orientation of the person’s emotional sphere.
• For Martin Heidegger, the phenomenological vision of the world of things must be overcome through the understanding of the Being that is behind all entities, and can be considered as an introduction to ontology.

According to “The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology”, phenomenology is “A philosophical method that develops from the individual and his conscious experience and which seeks to avoid a priori assumptions, prejudices and dogmas. Phenomenology” continues the Encyclopedia “examines phenomena in the way in which the actors perceive them in their immediacy”.

In other words, phenomenology is an approach that considers the phenomena of everyday life (the phenomenon is what appears and not what it is) as not to be taken for granted, questioning the way in which we look and are in the world.

The main proposition of phenomenology, in fact, consists in maintaining that everyday reality is socially constructed, starting from accumulated practical knowledge, which is shared and taken for granted by a community. The point of interest, then, is to see how the actors define the situations, the world as it appears to them, trying to “bracket” precisely those cultural notions from which the actors interpret reality itself.

The Meaning of Insight

In-sight: inner vision (inner vision); it is a term of English origin, used above all in psychology, and generally defines the concept of intuition in its most immediate and sudden manifestation. And also:

1. an example, an act or a result of understanding the true nature of a thing or things, especially through intuitive understanding;
2. a penetrating mental vision or discernment, the ability to see the truths underlying facts, the intrinsic qualities;
3. an immediate, clear and sudden understanding.

In Psychology:

• an understanding of the relationships that sheds light on a problem or helps solve it;
• an understanding of the the motivational forces behind actions, thoughts or behaviors.

In Gestalt Psychology:

• the redefinition of the system by the subject which allows the resolution of the posed problem. This concept is important because it describes the learning process in new terms, not by “trials and errors” as per the behaviorist tradition, but by reconfiguration of the problem space. a conceptual restructuring of the available elements and consequent leap towards the solution.

In Psychotherapy:

• the recognition of the origins of emotional difficulties.

In Psychoanalysis:

• the input that generates a change in the patient.

The process of learning through an insight began to be theorized in the 1920s before the Second World War, precisely within the Gestalt movement. Wolfgang Kohler (1887-1967) had studied the behavior of chimpanzees faced with the task of reaching a banana using a series of sticks of different lengths. Only by fitting two sticks together could the chimpanzee reach the prize. After a long exploration of the tools at his disposal, of the cage and of the external environment, the chimpanzee suddenly (as if by intuition: the phenomenon of Aha Erlebnis), when all of a sudden the long-sought solution suddenly comes to mind ) assembles the two sticks and reaches the banana; therefore not through trial and error but because it re-configured the different elements of the system (sticks, cage, banana, distances, etc.) in order to achieve its goal. For Kohler, an insight is the sudden discovery of a new way of interpreting the total situation, it is therefore the discovery of relationships between elements, relationships different from those identified before the discovery. The focus is therefore not on learning, understood as the accumulation of experience and the use of continuity. But insight does not deny any past experience.

In such cases where the situation does not present the possibility of restructuring and in the absence of strategies, the subject resorts to what is already known to him, while the discontinuity with respect to previous conditions occurs when the situation makes it possible.

Cognitive Psychology, taking up the Platonic distinction between “dianoia” (the type of rational knowledge that draws conclusions from the elaboration of premises) and “noesis” (the faculty of intuitive and pre- discursive knowledge), defines an insight as a form of reasoning which, rather than analyzing a problem in detail through a process of progressively approaching the solution, reaches it through a sudden intuition.

Although these two forms of reasoning are often complementary, an insight is particularly important in solving new problems, for which strategies, borrowed from experience, often prove themselves insufficient. A classic example of a problem that is generally solved through an insight is the candle problem (the candle problem, described by Karl Duncker in 1945, consists of fixing a candle to the wall having only the same candle, some matches and a box of pins).

The term insight refers to a learning process that dissociates itself from the associative conception and that of ‘trial and error’. The individual suddenly has a sort of enlightenment and connects the previously scattered elements into a unitary and innovative form, giving them a new meaning. Insight is a sort of sudden restructuring of the cognitive field. Thanks to the new closure there is learning.

The Nature of an Insight

“The Greeks had a ready answer for when the mind suddenly finds the answer to a question, an answer that has been sought for a long time. The insight was considered a gift from the Muses, its origins were divine. It served to underline the belief of Greek culture that there are things that are not meant to be explained scientifically. The essence of an insight is that it comes from a supernatural, unpredictable and uncontrolled source. In other words, the origins of insight are unconscious and therefore inexplicable. Wittgenstein thought that as long as there is an expression like ‘having an insight’ – that it works in the same way as the expression ‘feeling pangs of hunger’, thus causing us to treat ‘a moment of insight’ as the name of a experience – people will continue to stumble upon the same disconcerting difficulties and find themselves staring insistently at something that no explanation seems to be able to clarify.
Others think that the moment of insight is indeed a mystery, but it is one of those mysteries that begs to be explained in causal terms.”

(Stuart Shanker. Atkinson College, York University, Toronto, ONT, Canada. 1996)

The Eureka Experience

It was Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (Roman writer and architect, 80 BC-15 BC) to be the first to tell the story of how Archimedes, while he was considering how to ascertain the quantity of gold in the crown of King Hiero II, decided to go to the baths of Syracuse. When he entered the bathing pool, he observed that the amount of water coming out of the pool was equal to the volume of his immersed body. Since this fact indicated the method of explaining the case, Archimedes did not delay, but, moved by delight, jumped out of the pool and, going home naked, began to shout that he had found what he was looking for. And while running, he shouted in Greek: “heure’ ka, heure ‘ka” (εὕρηκα or ηὕρηκα), “I have discovered it”, “I have found it”.

This story has embodied the Western attitudes toward the insight for two thousand years: the serendipitous occurrence of events, the sudden burst of inspiration, the exhilaration and distraction that comes with an unexpected discovery, and, above all, the sheer mystery of the ‘eureka experience’. How did Archimedes manage to make the connection between the amount of water that flowed out as he entered the pool and the problem to solve that King Hiero had entrusted to him? Why had no one ever noticed before that the volume of an irregular solid could be measured by the displacement of water? And Eureka is more than a statement, it has become the emblem of one of the most deeply kept secrets of the human mind.

The literature on insight lists four main characteristics of this experience:

1. its lightning speed (the experience is surprising and immediate)
2. a sense of ease (the solution is worked out without difficulty)
3. the positive affect (insights are rewarding)
4. the feeling of being right (after the insight, the individual judges the solution as true and has confidence in his judgement).

Although this phenomenology is well known, no theory has explained why the sensation of insight is the way it is. We propose a flowing account of insight: the positive effect and the perceived truth and confidence in one’s judgment are triggered by the sudden appearance of the solution to a problem and the concomitant and surprising smoothness of processing.

Keywords: “Effect, trust, insight, truth, fluency in processing, surprise.”

The sudden appearance of a solution through an insight, the famous “Aha!” effect, is a particular outstanding experience that people have when solving a problem, as the following example illustrates. After working for weeks on new types of mathematical transformations, the French mathematician and physicist Henri Poincaré (1854-1912) stopped working and went on a geological excursion, during which he no longer thought about the mathematical problem. During the trip, one day he got on a bus: “As soon as I stepped on the bus, the idea came to me, although nothing in my previous thoughts seemed to have prepared me for this, that the transformations that I used to call Fuchsian functions they were identical to those of the non-Euclidean geometers… I didn’t even start to check but I suddenly felt absolutely certain“. Only after returning home did Poincaré verify the discovery. Later, studying arithmetic questions, Poincaré experienced an idea that “had the same characteristics of conciseness, lightning-fastness and immediate certainty“.

According to Poincaré, “an insight is a truly aesthetic sensation that all true mathematicians recognize, and it is truly sensitivity,” capable of stimulating “aesthetic emotions.”

Poincaré’s descriptions illustrate the main characteristics of the experience of insight:

1. suddenness – the solution to the problem pops into mind, unexpectedly and surprisingly
2. ease – even if processing the problem was very difficult before, it is processed quickly and easily after finding the solution
3. positivity – an insight brings a genuinely moving experience that happens before the solution is evaluated and therefore is not pride
4. truth and trust – after an insight, the individual judges his solution as true and expresses confidence in his judgment, even before evaluating the veracity of the solution with a formal analysis.

Therefore, an insight is an experience that can occur concurrently or subsequently to problem-solving attempts, in which the content of the problem comes to mind easily and offers a feeling of pleasure, with the belief that the solution is true and the confidence in this belief. Although a body of excellent researchers has examined the cognitive and brain processes that can lead to insight, there is no coherent explanation of the phenomenology (experience) of an insight.

It is astonishing that for many researchers phenomenology is sufficient to define an insight.

To better understand the conceptual and methodological significance of the phenomenology of the experience of an insight, it is important to advance from a first-person perspective (based on data accessible only to the subject) towards a third-person perspective (based on externally observable data) to explain why an insight is felt the way it is.

Insight and Smoothness of Elaboration

Some recent research in Cognitive and Social Psychology has identified the fluency of elaboration as a state of feeling that helps integrate the experiential components of an insight. The fluency in elaboration is the ease with which information is processed in the cognitive system, pertaining to the perceptual input of semantic representations or the retrieval of memory contents.

Our basic hypothesis is that the solution to a problem triggers both positive affect and confidence in the truth of the solution. Next, we will review the evidence and relate it to an insight regarding the impact of smoothness on feelings of ease (2), truth and trust (4), and the importance of lightning speed(1).

The Pleasure of Easiness

The smoothness and fluency of elaboration depends on the content- independent dynamics of information processing, i.e. the ease and the speed with which processing occurs, independent of content. As compared to the insight, fluency reflects the rush of insight and the ease with which the solution is understood. High processing fluency in itself appears to have a hedonic connotation, because stimuli, that are easily and quickly processed, are preferred to stimuli that are difficult to process. The sense of pleasure, as a genuine consequence of fluency, can resemble the joy that accompanies the experience “Aha!” and can result in the aesthetic emotion that Poicaré believed intimately accompanies an insight.

Poincaré also thought that the aesthetic emotion and its absolute certainty were somehow related.

The effects of fluency on truth and confidence in judgment.

Smoothness triggers not only affective preferences but also a wide range of other judgments, such as clarity or familiarity of a stimulus.

Fluency not only does influence the apparent truth of one’s statements but also the confidence in one’s performance. The speed and ease with which an answer comes to mind increases one’s belief in the truth of the answer, and therefore in one’s personal abilities.

The Role of the Lightning Speed

Insights come suddenly. The presence of a sensation of heat was noted, which gradually increased as insight approached. It also appears that people seem to feel low levels of fluency during most of the problem- solving process and fail to anticipate the moment of insight.

The time measurement of achieving insight varies from 50 to 150 thousandths of a second!!!

Firstly, insight comes as a release after the tension of investigation.

This instance is underlined by the story of Archimedes’ uninhibited exultation, by the preceding desire and effort. Deep inside each of us, there is this urgency to know, to understand, to see the why of things, to discover the reasons, to find the cause, to explain. The investigation is beyond any doubt, it can absorb a man and can invade the very structure of his dreams. What better example can be found for this dark, demanding, imperious urgency than a man running naked and shouting: ‘”I’ve got it!”, “I’ve found it!”.

Secondly, an insight comes suddenly and unexpectedly.

It did not arrive while Archimedes was in a mood and pose that a sculptor would choose to represent ‘The Thinker’. It came like a flash, on an insignificant occasion, in a moment of relaxation. There is an aspect of the insight that is universal: it is not achieved by learning rules, following concepts or studying a methodology. An insight is the origin of new rules that integrate or even supplant the old. Genius is creative, it does not take consolidated routines into account and originates innovations that will be the routines of the future.

Thirdly, an insight is a function not of external circumstances but of internal conditions. Many have frequented the baths of Syracuse without understanding the principles of hydrostatics, but who has not bathed without feeling the water, without finding it hot, cold or lukewarm? There is a strange difference between insight and sensation: the occurrence and content of the sensation is in an immediate correlation with external circumstances. The insight depends on personal qualities, habitual orientation, on a perpetual being on the alert that constantly asks the small question: ‘Why?’. Insight depends on an accurate presentation of defined problems. If Hiero had not asked Archimedes the question, and if Archimedes had not thought about it deeply, the baths of Syracuse would not have been more famous than many other baths.

Fourthly, an insight is between the concrete and the abstract.

Archimedes’ problem was concrete, and his conclusion was concrete: he had to do with weighing the crown in water. It is an insight into the concrete world of perception and imagination.

An insight comes through the habitual conformation of the mind, occurring after a mental fixation is broken – “thinking outside the box”.

Before Archimedes could solve the problem, he needed an instant of inspiration but he no longer needed any further moments of inspiration when he went to offer the solution to the king. What was once an insoluble problem has now become incredibly simple and obvious.

At the beginning, there is a period of darkness in which one gropes around in uncertainty, where one is unable to grasp where the problem is and then, only gradually, one begins to ‘understand’. The initial darkness gives way to a subsequent period of increasing light, of interest, of trust, of absorption.

“I was browsing through the books at the Stanford Public Library and, in the space of an hour, I experienced one of those wonderful moments that each of us have in our lives when we suddenly feel enlightened by an instant understanding. In a flash, I understood who I was and why I had done the things I had done, things that were incomprehensible at the time. I accepted them and found confidence in my authenticity.”

Ned Herrmann, author of ‘The Creative Brain’, McGraw-Hill, NY, US, 1989

“Big problems are solved by being reduced into smaller problems. Strokes of genius, or insights, are nothing more than the result of a continuing investigating habit that clearly and distinctly grasps all that is involved in the simple things that everyone can understand.”

Bernard Lonergan, author of ‘Insight: A Study of Human Undestanding’, Toronto, ONT, Canada, 1992

The Hierarchy of an Insigth

 

Neuro-Imaging Discoveries

These studies indicate distinct patterns of cognitive processing and hemispheric involvement for recognizing solutions, with insight and without insight. Two neural correlations of insight were observed: an increase in signal in the right anterior occipital temporal gyrus, with a sudden increase in high frequencies (gamma band), preceded by an increase in alpha frequency power and decrease in neural activity over the visual right cortex. These effects are not attributable to emotional responses because the neuronal activity preceded the tested individuals discovering the solution. It was concluded that individuals, who arrive at the solution to a problem, suddenly change the focus of their efforts shortly before the insight arrives, causing a resolutive information, which connects the various elements of the problem, to emerge suddenly to consciousness. Where some cognitive aspects involve continuous processing, with insight some information is transmitted from one stage to another. As such, insight is similar to a broad cognitive domain that includes perception and processing of language (e.g., metaphors, jokes, tales). The sudden flash of insight occurs when distinct neural and cognitive processes are stimulated together.

Beerman and Bowden[1] discovered that the initial processing, regarding the solution, is active in both hemispheres but fades more quickly in the left hemisphere due to a subtle semantic focus of misleading interpretation of one of the test words, while it persists persistently active in the right hemisphere due to broad semantic activation. However, this activation in the right hemisphere very rarely reaches the level of awareness because it is weak, diffuse, and probably suppressed by the stronger, albeit deceptive, processing of the left hemisphere.

There is often activation of the right posterior parietal cortex prior to insight which may be associated with unconscious processing solutions. This very strong alpha frequency is observed in the right temporal area shortly before the presentation of cues and indicates an inhibition of the right temporal area, which is associated with the integration of distant semantic or lexical information.

We also noticed a theta frequency band that may be associated with the increasing search of memory space for a possible solution.

The Development of an Insight in a Counseling Relationship

Carl R.Rogers[2]

Taken from ‘The Journal of Consulting Psychology’, 1944, Vol.VIII, No. 6, Nov-Dec, 331-341

Lecture given at the National Conference of Social Work, Cleveland, Ohio, US, May 24, 1944, to the program planned by the American Association for Applied Psychology.

In dealing with adolescent and adult clients, one question which faces the worker – whether psychologist, case worker, psychiatrist, or educational counselor – is: “How may this individual come to an effective understanding of himself?” It is recognized that once the individual genuinely understands his behavior, and accepts that understanding, he is able to adopt a more realistic and satisfactory control of his actions, is less likely to hurt others to gain satisfactions, and in general can become more mature. But how to reach this goal?

This understanding of self we customarily call insight. we find rather general agreement that the achievement of insight is the keystone of the process of therapy. Whether we are dealing with a student who is maladjusted, or a marriage which is skidding toward failure, or a war neurosis, the essentials of a therapeutic experience seem to be the same. First comes the experience of release – the pouring out of feelings, the loosening of repressions, the unburdening of guilt, the lessening of tension. There follows, if progress is to be made, the understanding of self, the acceptance the acceptance of one’s impulses, the perception of relationships, which we classify with the term insight. Then, from this more accurate vision of inner life, from this new understanding of the network of personal changes, come new plans, new choices, new and more satisfying ways of encountering the realities with which an individual must confront himself. While each of these steps is essential, and none can happen without the other, the middle step, achieving insight, is crucial and deserves much more attention than it has received in the past.

In counseling and counseling research being conducted at Ohio State, we are gradually accumulating more information about this important aspect of psychotherapy. We are discovering that in counseling relationships governed from a non-directive perspective, meaningful insights develop with a spontaneity and vigor that is astonishing. We are increasingly convinced, although research evidence is still sparse, that this spontaneous insight is not a characteristic of other counseling approaches. We believe that the directive procedures that are characteristic of so much educational assistance do not produce insights of this quality. The evidence could lead us to the conclusion that a spontaneous insight is a rare occurrence within more interpretive approaches such as psychoanalysis. Consequently, it seems worth presenting examples and research evidence regarding the achievement of self-understanding.

An insight, as it is, being defined through our practical experience and research findings, involves elements such as:

1. an acceptance of one’s own impulses and attitudes, whether good or bad, including attitudes that have been repressed in the past;
2. an understanding of one’s behavioral patterns, the perception of new relationships;
3. fresh perception of reality made possible by acceptance and understanding of the self;
4. the capacity of designing new and more satisfying ways within which the self can reconcile itself with reality.

Insight, Vipassana and Meditation

Vipassanā is a Pāli term which has the Sanskrit prefix “vi-” and the verbal root “paś”. It is often translated as ‘insight’ or ‘clear vision’, although the prefix “in-” can be misleading: “vi” in Indo-Aryan languages is equivalent to Latin “dis”. The “vi” in Vipassanā can therefore mean ‘seeing within’, ‘seeing through’ or ‘seeing in a special way’. otherwise, the “vi” can function as an intensive, and therefore Vipassanā can mean ‘seeing deeply’.

A synonym for Vipassanā is “paccakkha” (Pāli; Sanskrit: “pratyaksa”), “before the eyes,” which refers to direct experiential perception. The type of vision denoted by Vipassanā is that of direct perception, as opposed to a knowledge deriving from reasoning and argumentation.

In Tibetan, Vipashyana is “lhanthong”. the term “lhag” means ‘higher’, ‘superior’, ‘larger; the term “thong” is ‘sight’ or ‘seeing’. Thus, lhanthong can be translated as ‘the higher seeing’, ‘the great vision’ or ‘the supreme wisdom’. This can be interpreted as ‘a higher way of seeing’, and also ‘a seeing of what is essential nature’. Its nature is lucidity and clarity of mind. Henepola Gunaratana, a Theravada Buddhist monk, defined Vipassanā as: “Looking at something with clarity and precision, seeing each component as distinct and separate, piercing through everything in order to perceive the most fundamental reality of things.”

Vipassanā (Pāli) or vipaśyanā (!वप$यना, Sanskrit, Chn. 觀 guān;Tib. !ག་མཐོང་), in Buddhist tradition means ‘insight into the true nature of things’. Vipassanā is one of the world’s oldest meditation techniques introduced by Gautama Buddha, and is often called ‘insight meditation’. It is often one of the two poles of Buddhist meditation: the other pole is ‘Samatha’. Samatha is a preparation for Vipassanā, it pacifies the mind and strengthens focus so as to allow the work of insight. In Buddhist practice it is said, while Samatha can calm the mind, only insight can reveal how the mind is disturbed. This leads to “prajñā (Pāli: “paññā, wisdom) and jñāna (Pāli: ñāṇa, knowledge).

A.H. Almaas[3]

“Let’s try to identify what this thing is, if there is something in moments of insight that gives you that belief, that certainty; something that makes insight have more truth than an ordinary perception of your state. There seems to be a sense of freedom present in the experience of insight than in the experience of ordinary perception of your state, right? Don’t you also feel a sense of expansion, of elevation, a sense of satisfaction? An insight generally consists of two things: the content of the insight and something else: the energy present in the insight that gives you a sense of certainty and expansion. Insight brings an intimate kind of closeness to yourself.”

A.H.Almaas, from “The Diamond Heart Book IV: Undestructable Innocence”, Shamballa Publications, Boston, MA, US, 2000

Osho[4]

“Meditation is an insight. Meditation comes when you have looked through all the reasons and found something missing, when you have gone through all the reasons and seen the falsity of them, then you have seen that all the reasons lead you nowhere, that you keep going in circles, remaining the same. Reasons guide you, and drive you mad, creating new desires, but nothing is ever achieved. When you have seen this, when you have looked into your life and seen the failures of reasons…No reason has ever succeeded, no reason has ever brought blessings to anyone. The reasons just promise, that’s all. One reason fails and another reason comes with a new promise…and you are deceived again. Then, one day, you suddenly become aware, suddenly you see, and this seeing is the beginning of meditation. There are no reasons in meditation. If you are meditating on something, then you are concentrating, not meditating. Then you are still in the world – your mind is still interested in trivial and cheap things. Then you are worldly, mundane. Even if you meditate to reach nirvana, you are worldly – because meditation has no goals. meditation is an insight that all goals are false. Meditation is the understanding that desires lead nowhere.”

From “The Orange Book of Meditation”, Rajneesh Foundation Europe, 1983

Excerpt from a Counseling Session

The counselee is a middle-aged woman.

Counselee: I’m living a time where I’m having difficulty with work. I’m not clear. It’s a time of transition and I see confusion. I have nothing that comes from the outside. The work is not going well. I lowered the prices..but I’m sorry..I feel like I’m selling out.

Counselor: You feel like you’re selling yourself short.

Customer: I feel like I’m selling out a quality and I’ve put myself at the level of everyone else. I’m tired of living like this. Much, too much effort. But this place is also the only thing I have (she breathes as if she is running out of air), this place has protected me.

Counselor: Mhm.

Counselee: I feel like crying.

Counselor: You feel like crying.

Counselee: Yes, I’m crying… I’m not good enough… (she cries).. I haven’t been able to make the best use of this place… it’s strong… I’m a failure inside.

Counselor: Mhm.

Counselee: (crying) It’s hard for me to let go of failure. I don’t know which path to take (she blows her nose)…I’ve never felt like this.

Counselor: You’ve never felt this way.

Counselee: Yes, I feel like a failure, I can’t do better. I sell out…I fail and I blame myself and I accuse myself. But if I look inside I actually want to do something else.

Counselor: Yes, you want to do something else.

Counselee: It takes me some time to do something else. I carry on for a while as it is and… I feel belittled though… (silence). A feeling of being in the void…ok, I’ll move on, maybe it’s just a moment. But it’s frustrating.

Counselor: It’s a frustrating time for you.

Counselee: Yes, I put a lot of energy here, I put the best of me into it but if I’m not smart and not being smart won’t work. I’m not good at promoting myself… and…

Counselor: You feel that you have to learn to be smarter and smarter.

Counselee: It’s not in my nature. But now I have to bring out my weapons. I feel unarmed. (she cries)

Counselor: You feel unarmed.

Counselee: Yes. I should have a modality that the world uses but I’m not capable of it. Oh, I didn’t know I would cry so much…but I did. I can’t do it alone anymore, but I don’t know who to ask for help. And anyway, I’m tired of living here, it’s too hard. I had never felt this sensation before. Before there was a common thread, now I can’t find it anymore. I have two dualities inside. (smiles) What a mess!

Counselor: You don’t know whether to stay or not, and you can’t put in the energy on your own anymore.

Counselee: Exactly! And I put energy into it every day, it’s just that it’s all very strange. I made it on my own for ten years!!!!!

Counselor: Mhm.

Counselee: I want to get out of here and do something, but it scares me because there’s nothing out there. I feel a little lost, I can’t find the thread of the skein.

Counselor: You can’t find a the thread of the skein.

Counselee: Yes, but I don’t know how to do it. It’s a strong moment, without clarity. And there are also fears. I’m not strong and rational enough. I was strong. No! I still am (her face lights up and she laughs). Of course I am! But I would like to know what the direction is for me now.

Counselor: Oh.

Counselee: I want to move towards this new work, I want to work with people, but I don’t know how to get there. No! It is not true! It’s already inside me! I know! I can feel it! Yes, I’m starting to feel some direction now. (she cries) I still can’t relax but I’m strong and I have direction. Oh God how much I cry! (she is crying out loud). I also feel anxious. It’s the first time I’ve felt so alone when faced with a problem.

Counselor: Ah, it’s the first time you feel like you’re alone when faced with a problem.

Counselee: Well, that’s not true! It’s happened other times and I’ve always managed it. It’s tiring, very tiring. But I know I can do it, even if I’m alone this time too. And I’m very alone. (silence)

Counselor: Mhm.

Counselee: (crying) This hurts, it hurts so much. I have no real friends around. Oh God, I cry so much!

Counselor: Yes, you are crying.

Counselee: I am there for others with all my heart, but no one does the same for me (the crying increases). When I’m the one in need, no one is there. As soon as I can give something, I give it! However, I have a lot inside me! I’m not a failure! It’s just that there’s a big change going on and I don’t know how to move yet. But I’m strong and I’m not a failure.

Counselor: I seem to feel as though something inside you has awakened and wants to manifest itself.

Counselee: YES!!!! It’s as if something inside was born and I don’t know how to grow it. It’s so new! It’s almost disarming!

Counselor: It seems as thoug something new is born inside.

Counselee: Yes, that’s true. And I want to cut with the old. But I still don’t know how to do it.

Counselor: Mhm.

Counselee: Yes, maybe I’m still a little young in certain aspects but I can change. (she smiles, her face relaxes and lights up) I want to put myself in a place where someone sees on me. I want substance.

Counselor: You want substance.

Counselee: Yes, I want substance and support because I offer these things to others… Yes! (open laughter) And I also want to be more compassionate with myself. I deserve it. Do you know what? I don’t even remember the last time I asked for help! (surprised expression)

Counselor: Ah, you don’t remember.

Counselee: Well…actually I asked for help yesterday, it was an exchange though.

Counselor: Yesterday you did ask for some help.

Counselee: I never ask for help even to the father of my son. Yes, it’s true, I have to do it. But I don’t know if he is going to give it to me.

Counselor: I’m just suggesting a possibility.

Counselee: It’s true! It’s human to ask for help! Up until now I’ve taken everything upon myself, I’ve overloaded myself with everything.

Counselor: Yes.

Counselee: Now I try to put out the need for help, so I can show that I am strong but also vulnerable. And if I ask I don’t lose my strength… There’s just so much stuff…

Counselor: There’s a lot of stuff on fire.

Counselee: Yes, it’s as if it were a barbecue with many foods on it and each one has its own cooking time.

Counselor: Yes, there is a lot of “stuff on fire, on the grill”.

Counselee: Yes, I like this image (smiling), I like this image of a large barbecue, like the Australian ones, with vegetables, meat, fish… there are many things on the grill, with different cooking times and I have to move my attention on various things because I don’t want anything to burn. This BBQ image relaxes me!

Counselor: Yes, there is a lot of stuff on the grill.

Counselee: Oh, yes! And it will be cooked in a while. (a big smile)

The “Aha!” Moment – An Insight into Nothingness

Often when a Satori Moment occurs, our thinking stops and we become intensely present. Sometimes there is a surge of energy that is often perceived as an exhilarating moment, or of inspiration, or of profound peace. Sometimes we have to physically move, run or dance or jump. (Archimedes, for whom the term Eureka! became famous, is said to have run through the streets of Syracuse, naked, shouting Eureka! Eureka! Which means: I have found it! I have found it!). Not every moment of Satori are so illustrious. In fact, most appear to be quite ordinary and have a burst of energy that almost goes unnoticed. However, when an “Aha!” moment occurs, something inside shifts and the mind never returns to its original state.

A sudden insight. An insight into Nothingness. An “Aha!” moment.

A glimpse, perhaps for a few ephemeral moments that are beyond the mind, in which the mind stops working and we experience a great calm or a feeling of emptiness.

Roxy Iain MacNay, London, UK
Founder of the label ‘Red Cherry Records’
Founder of ‘Conscious TV’

“Satori, in psychological terms, is “beyond” the boundaries of the ego. From a logical point of view, it is to see the synthesis of affirmation and negation. In metaphysical terms it is to intuitively grasp that being is becoming and becoming is being”.
(Daisetz T.Suzuki, from the introduction to the book “Zen in the Art of Archery”, Eugene Herrigel, Pantheon Books, NY, 1953)

Epiphany, another way of calling an insight

“Look at epiphanies with extreme care,
seeing that they themselves are the most delicate and evanescent of moments.”.

James Joyce (writer and poet, 1882-1941, Eire)

Epiphanies are incredible gifts: they reveal our vastest wisdom and many universal truths.

Epiphany, from the Greek θεοφάνεια ‘epiphaneia’, meaning an extraordinary apparition or manifestation, originally referred to an insight through the divine.

Epiphany has many meanings: ‘an intuitive mastery of reality’, an enlightening discovery, a realization or agnition, a revelation, an insight, or simply ‘a moment of great and sudden realization about the ever-changing life’.

In more general terms, ‘religious epiphany’ is used when a person realizes his faith or when he becomes convinced that an event or occurrence was caused by a deity. For example, in Hinduism an epiphany might be Arjuna’s realization that Krishna (the incarnation of God who serves him as a charioteer in the ‘Bhagavad Ghita’) actually represents the Universe. The Hindu term for epiphany would be ‘Bodhodaya’, from the Sanskrit ‘Bodha’ meaning wisdom and ‘Udaya’ meaning growing. In Buddhism, the term refers to the Buddha finally realizing the nature of the universe, and thus achieving ‘nirvana’. The Zen term ‘Kensho’ also describes the same moment, referring to witnessing or realizing a koan.

An epiphany is a realization, an opening, a portal to the Divine. It happens when the mind, body, heart and soul focus and see an old thing in a new way, with the wonder and resilience of the human spirit.

An overwhelming explosion of light that seems to be able to change life right down to the cells of the body.

A dramatic, crystalline experience, drenched in light.

“TRUTH is within ourselves;
it takes no rise from outward things, whate’er you may believe so.
There is an inmost centre in us all,
where truth abides in fullness; and around, wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in,
This perfect, clear perception—which is truth.
A baffling and perverting carnal mesh binds it, and makes all error: and, to KNOW,
rather consists in opening out a way whence the imprisoned splendor may escape,
than in effecting entry for a light supposed to be without.”

Robert Browning (1812-1889, UK), from “Paracelsus” (1835)

And now…imagine to be looking for a diamond in a very large, dark room. There may be a light switch in the room, but neither the diamond nor the light switch are placed where you imagine they might be.

What to do?

We believe that people who are asked to solve problems from insight are probably faced with the same task. In insight problems, the ‘light switch’ is a particular way of looking at the problem, a critical representation, which makes the nature of the solution apparent. Most insight problems are difficult because the solver is blind to the critical representation. Unlike routine problems, for which previous experience is usually very useful in arriving at a quick solution, insight problems have the property that previous experience deceives rather than helps. Despite these obstacles, most people are able to solve problems from insight in some way, with varying degrees of effectiveness.

We believe it is possible to achieve insight within the domain of a particular problem.

Indeed, we argue that the process of achieving an insight can be viewed as a search, and that performance on insight problems can be predicted according to the availability of sources of research.

To develop some insights into our statement, consider some of the possible actions available to our diamond seeker in the dark room. One approach might be to randomly explore the room, hoping to bump into the light switch or diamond. Similarly, chance appears to have played a role in a large number of scientific insights (e.g. the discoveries of X-rays, or the vulcanization of rubber, or penicillin). However, both diamonds and insights would be even rarer if their discovery depended only on chance.

A better strategy would be to narrow your diamond search to the most promising area of the room. Or you could look for the light switch rather than the diamond, reasoning that the light switch should be easier to find and that the light would make the place where the diamond is visible.

Both approaches recognize the size of the room but try to maximize the chances of finding the diamond by limiting or guiding the search. Likewise, we don’t believe that insight problems can be solved by limiting the search.

Understanding an insight has to do with understanding the ways in which people limit their search.

[1] Source: Bowden, Jung-Beerman, Flack & Kounious, Trends in Cognitive Science, vol.9 no.7, 2005, New Orleans, LA, US

[2] Carl Ransom Rogers (8 January 1902, Oak Park, IL – 4 February 1987, La Jolla, CA, US) was an American psychologist, founder of The Client- Centered Psychotherapy initially defined as non-directive therapy and known for his studies on Counseling and Psychotherapy within the humanistic current of psychology.

[3]A.H.Almaas, pen name Abdul Hameed Al Ali, (born in Kuwait in 1944) is an author and a spiritual teacher who writes and teaches an approach to spiritual development, with reference to modern psychology and therapy, called “The Diamond Approach. He is the spiritual eader of the Ridhwan School, Boulder, CO, US.

[4] Osho, never born, never died. He only visited planet Earth between December 11, 1931 and January 19, 1990.