Dark Night, Early Dawn: Steps to a Deep Ecology of Mind (SUNY series in Transpersonal and Humanistic Psychology) Paperback – Import, 26 May 2000

Insightful! Lots of dots connected in nuanced and incisive analyses that do not take any conclusion as a final point, but continues to challenge what’s been realized in light of more experiential evidence.

I am writing this review as someone who has done personal work with therapeutically-induced non-ordinary states of consciousness, and from my perspective as a registered psychologist. This book had incredible resonance for me at both theoretical and experiential levels. My work with what Bache calls 'psychedelic states' involved many of the themes he touched on in this book: particularly death and rebirth experienced with a 'collective' element. Like Bache, I also needed to ask of my experiences in those states, "how can this level of suffering possibly have any therapeutic value?"I was unfamiliar with the research he drew upon to make his points. His overall thesis, however, fits very well with my theoretical understandings derived from depth, transpersonal, developmental and feminist psychologies as well as systems theory. I found it interesting that the title of this book seems to allude to Gregory Bateson's 'Steps to an Ecology of Mind' without making reference to Bateson's work directly. I would be interested to read an integration of Bache and Bateson's perspectives.What I found most compelling was the idea that it is theoretically possible to enter a structure that may exist at the interface of personal and collective unconscious and to engage in therapeutic work at that interface that may have profound impacts on both the individual and the species mind (or what Jung might have called the 'collective unconscious' for readers who are more familiar with that term). I have always been intrigued by the interface between the self and the social - I wrote my Master's thesis on that topic. My own work, however, has explored that interface as it shows up in ordinary states of consciousness. I didn't have much of a basis for extending that exploration beyond the 'daytime sky' as Bache might call it.He offers a compelling framework that brings forth new possibilities for extending and integrating a wide body of theory across many disciplines. I find his argument about the epistemological crisis of our times very much on point. He also offers something valuable for those who have experienced non-ordinary states and who have struggled to integrate material that had strong themes of suffering, death, rebirth, all situated within a seemingly bizarre 'transpersonal' or 'trans-species' experience.This book is now situated among other 'foundational' pieces in my personal library - beside Carl Jung, Gregory Bateson, Carol Gilligan, and many others.

Dans cet ouvrage épais, Bache explore la théorie et l'épistémologie d'une écologie de l'esprit basée sur son expérience intensive de la psychologie transpersonnelle, mais aussi par son savoir académique rigoureux. Il nous emmène dans un terrain peu exploré par les académiciens, avec une rigueur appréciable, en commençant pas donner un cadré référentiel pour les expériences de continuité de la conscience à travers le temps.Bache commence par passer en revue l'épistémologie de la réincarnation, du karma, et des vies antérieures, en remettant courageusement en cause ses propres théories précédentes. Par honnêteté intellectuelle, Bache utilise des comparaisons avec d'autres expériences comme les NDE (EMI) pour conclure que l'esprit humain est plus large que ce que l'on pouvait concevoir.Riche d'une longue expérience avec les états modifiés de conscience, et avec une précision d'explorateur rompu à la description objective, et en se basant sur les théories du champ de Sheldrake, l'auteur nous amène à prendre conscience d'une forme de conscience plus large que la conscience humaine individuelle. Plus précisément, les êtres humains partages une conscience commune, un inconscient collectif, qui a sa propre vie et sa propre dynamique. Revenir à cette conscience que nous sommes tous "Un" est la clé d'un changement majeur dans la société humaine, et l'écologie globale.Le livre présente aussi une critique de la pensée de Ken Wilber qui tombe tout à fait sous le sens, et permet un progrès significatif dans la pensée spiritualiste contemporaine.Ce livre est un "changeur de vie" : il n'est plus possible, après l'avoir lu, de revenir en arrière...

Brilliant! Anyone interested in soul, expanding consciousness, the work of Stan Grof and how we co-create a humane future, will love this book.

Dark Night Early DawnThis is an interesting and even heroic work, well worth the money. In large part the author combs the relevant literature and supplements it with his own experience from deliberately induced psychedelic states in order to mine for the material he presents.Among other things the book deals with collective mind and group karma. As a professional worker in the field of environment I can vouch for the fact that some of the shared mind phenomena reported by the author, particularly elements involving group pain are quite real. I have encountered this effect in the course of environmental work. My experience did not evolve from any clinical or therapeutic exercise but rather as the result of the intense conflict (non-physical) involved in trying to manage environmental activities. Until I opened this book, I had not the remotest idea that some of the experiences I went through were of a form recognized by Mr Bach.It is true that group karma exists and apparently the tragedy of Cambodia is a case in point. However, it is important to note that the perceived effects of group suffering referred to in the book may not necessarily indicate the operation of "group mind" but rather may arise as the results of "aspects of mind shared by a group". There is a big difference. In the first instance it may be easy to depose the ego-self from its central throne and to substitute, as Mr Bach attempts to do, a group responsibility (group mind). In the case "aspects of mind shared by a group" this displacement is not so easily accomplished. I think a better term than "group mind" or even "collective mind" might be the term "shared aspects of mind".Apart from "Earth experience" in general, that is humankind's experience with matter, evolutionary progression (our animal nature) and so forth, the particular character of situations that spark group karma is directly due to limited numbers of people. In the matter of human strife, there is always one person or, perhaps a few people, acting to precipitate trouble. In general this is also true of the causes of most large environmental problems. The author of Dark Night Early Dawn feels that the collective human actions currently despoiling the environment will lead to a broad physical catharsis (as a karmic act involving all of humankind). He proposes that the survivors of such a global tragedy, knowing the causes of the events, and with the collective ego of the despoilers eliminated, will thus be driven to experience a great awakening.However, one is minded to ask, as I continually do, if perhaps the idea that there will be survivors to such a catastrophe is not merely wishful thinking. The result of inappropriate environmental response (by humanity considered in the collective) will, on the contrary, very likely be extinction. For it is a fact that most species having inhabited the Earth are actually extinct right now and many major branches of life have withered without issue. Humanity might "pull through", promoted by an enlightened cadre of survivors but equally likely it might not, and on present balance it will not.In order to justify the overall analysis, the author goes to great lengths to argue that the personal ego-self can be, as it were, eliminated. He says, "as the self dies a deeper form of individuality is liberated", which in itself is fine. He goes on to say "as the isolation of the private mind is consumed the self or ego dies - this is nothing more than the awakening ego of our - ashes - a truer form of individuality etc".However, to my mind the whole form of one's ego must yet remains as an accessible construct regardless of the way one may choose to become detached from it. With effort, the ego can obviously be suppressed, shelved or transcended but it cannot be destroyed, how could it be otherwise? It can of course be superceeded but it is true that the sense of spiritual-self remains where the ego is suppressed. Subsequently this superceeds and modifies the ego in its development (if one is still in an apparently specific incarnation). One should be careful about the true implications of "eliminating" the ego-self. One remains responsible for what one is and what one has done regardless of forays into higher planes of consciousness. This responsibility is assumed by the "higher-self" even if manipulating one or an infinite number of avatars (threads of self-consciousness).I agree with Ramakrishna (as quoted in Dark Night Early Dawn) that "The genuinely human body & mind of the avatara is an opaque covering. Beneath this veil there is no individual soul, no eternal facet of the divine, instead there resides the complete divine reality, with infinite facets". Of course the infinite facets shine into the "avatars" and these are responsible for producing the ego as they forget their true origin. As to the purpose of this, I suppose the only answer can be that in this manner the divine reality thus recreates itself into a "higher" more advanced state. In this sense the individual ultimatly realises its identity with the divine state which is and was never anything but perfection in the first place and the truth dawns that the whole thing was just a self-test, successfuly executed. The Journey To EnlightenmentThe Journey To Enlightenment