This section provides commentaries related to comments and insights about the Human Development area of the Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential

Related Sections

1. Classification in the literature

The state of information on modes of awareness, and the attitude towards them, is such that no comprehensive classification of them exists. Basic texts such as the Varieties of Religious Experience (William James, 1961), The Multiple States of Being (Ren� Gu�non, 1984), Altered States of Consciousness (Tart, 1971), or the Varieties of Psychedelic Experience (R E L Masters and Jean Houston, 1967), do not provide extensive classifications as might be expected.

1. Difficulties

Specific difficulties encountered in drafting descriptions include:

(a) Absence of clear descriptions: The absence of any clear-cut description or definition of the concept or mode in question. Where necessary, minimal descriptions have been included pending the discovery of appropriate material.

1. Identification procedure

1. Scope

It is a basic mistake to assume that the concept of human development is held in the same way, whether between cultures or within any culture. The questions as to whether an individual can "develop" (other than in the obvious ways that preoccupy educators, economists, physicians and psychologists) and as to whether certain modes of awareness "exist" (and the nature of that existence) are not understood in the same way in different contexts.

This section provides commentaries related to the methods used for the Human Development area of the Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential

Related Sections

• 4.1 Method: assumptions
• 4.2 Method: criteria and definitions
• 4.3 Method: procedures
• 4.4 Method: descriptions
• 4.5 Method: classification of modes of awareness

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There are some domains and initiatives that explicitly recognize the value of some form of spiritual experience and its development.

1. Self-sacrifice and inner transformation

1. Religious experience

1. Absence of official recognition