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Book: Sacred Psychology

Chapter: Death as Transformation

DOI: 10.1558/equinox.45209

Blurb:

Throughout the traditional cultures of the world, there are sacred rites and ceremonies that support transpersonal levels of consciousness, modes of knowing, and healing. In the teachings of many world religions, one often finds an injunction to die before you die. This refers to a psycho-spiritual process made possible through a traditional “science of the soul” which confers purification, illumination, and spiritual reintegration. This “alchemical” transformation serves to provide true healing, and to restore the wholeness of our primordial nature as human beings. Due to the desacralized foundations of modern Western psychology and its mental health treatments, it cannot access the metaphysical dimension found at the heart of all sacred psychologies. Without this vital understanding to help inform our therapeutic approaches, modern psychology remains at a profound impasse in its attempts to aid humanity in achieving more integrated modes of healing.

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