After my Masters in Comparative Literature, following some random series of events, I got introduced to Qualitative Research. This field of work was, and probably still is, not very well known to most.
So what does a Qualitative Researcher do? To put it briefly, a qualitative researcher meets people in various settings and understands them more deeply. This understanding then can be used for academic researchers or business strategy development. I mostly worked for business houses.
This is how I started learning about the human mind. This is how I got to slowly uncover the complex world of Psychology as a discipline/ subject.
Thus I did not come across the subject of Psychology as a student; neither did I get to see the human mind from the point of view of a therapist. But as a qualitative researcher I had the opportunity to meet people in a free and wholesome way. I could understand their life and mind in an intuitive and perceptive manner, not influenced by the studied theories of a psychology student or transactional priorities of a therapist. There was a spontaneous joy of knowing people deeply in this way.
The other part of being a Qualitative Researcher is extensive travelling. I went to remote villages as well as posh cosmopolitan cities, I met people in their humble huts and their sprawling mansions, I met them in their innocence and their haughtiness. This made me know India in its wideness, diversity, eccentricities, benevolence and its undying spirit. The land of India, as if, wanted to make me feel its presence in innumerable ways.
But over the years, working as a qualitative researcher, I felt there was a piling sense of chaos and conflict within me. I started questioning the meaning of my work as that contributed mostly to business strategies. These strategies are meant for occupying people’s minds in a certain way. The dehumanization of the human mind is well-planned and mostly celebrated by the strategy-makers. People are not human beings, they are considered merely “consumers”.
And then life itself took a turn and once again, following a random series of events, I came to a point when I left my work as a Qualitative researcher and started exploring the subject of Psychology more intensely.
There were many discoveries that were waiting for me.
The first, of course, was that psychology is not a subject to be merely studied or understood, it is a subject to be lived. Since the ancient times to the modern, human beings have never stopped exploring the human mind and hence the resource available to us is immense. To someone who is in a hurry to “get a gist” might only scrape the surface or even get a skewed understanding. So the subject itself demands a sincere and patient seeking of clarity and truth. Many windows of the mind open and close when one starts applying the studied knowledge in real life. Hence, psychology is ultimately subjective and experiential.
Secondly, the euro-centricity and reductionism has made modern psychology only a fraction of what it is supposed to be. Eurocentricity is perhaps connected to the fact that modern psychology began in Europe. Reductionism is related to the rather arrogant conviction of modern man that everything that is not “scientifically-proven” is not true. This has led to discarding many other psychological systems that exist in different cultures. Only recently we see meditation and other energy healing practices finding some acceptance in mainstream psychology. However, they are present as mere tools or measures to improve mental health. The wisdom or the philosophy behind these practices are not really included. The deeper psychological wisdom of these indigenous systems might get lost in all the glitters of the wellness industry.
And this brings us to the third point which comes from my own experience in Qualitative research. Business strategies are formulated using Western psychology theories. Then media is used to magnify the effect of those strategies and narratives are created that occupy our mind. They colonize our mind, without us being conscious. They use our ignorance and innocence to prison us in our own minds. Once captivated in our own minds, we (consumers) are easy to manipulate. We enter the hoax of happiness, only to be left with dissatisfaction, emptiness and the need for more.
Confused and depressed, we reach for a therapist. But the therapist, inspite of her good intention, might not really make a huge difference. To start with, the therapist and the strategy-maker might be using the same Western psychology theories. The problem and the solution often seem to reek of a narrow ego-centricity.
The rational mind seeks some logical explanation and the therapist might give that. But the problem with our analytical mind is that it gets easily distracted. Restlessness sets in again. The vicious cycle of suffering goes on. To control the mind, many therapy styles have started including mindfulness practices, body movements, art-based expressive routines or breathing exercises. Often, these practices seem to yield good results if continued over a period of time. And we carry on with our life trying to form a meaning of life based on social acceptance and identifying ourselves with the popular (or conventional) narratives. However, our inner world remains unattended. It is easily shaken by uncertainty, easily excited by external stimuli.
Then how is the inner world strengthened? The answer lies in knowing the true meaning of psychology.
Psychology is not just about our mind that modern science has made us believe. Rather it connects to the spirit, the energy that animates the Creation. We find acknowledgement of that spirit in most ancient and indigenous psychological systems. Our mind must open to this spirit. It is this openness that gives us freedom from our limitedness and the sufferings linked with it. Our mind needs to expand our sense of identity in a deeply meaningful way. We can begin with the stories, symbols, myths, legends that our ancestors have left for us. In many of our folklores and fables we can still sense the intensity of a luminous consciousness.
Consciously or unconsciously, every living being is on a journey of transformation. To learn to participate in this transformational exercise should be the true goal of future psychology.
To shape such a psychology the attempts of the academic scholars can never be enough. The common man’s wisdom is very often filled with insights and revelations. Thus, psychology has to open its arms and become rich through acceptance from all. Only then can it churn the essence and bring up the nectar of a new consciousness.
Religion had tried to open the mind and connect it to a higher Presence. But this psychological endeavour has reached its end. Now human mind is mostly caught up with the externalities of religion. Time has come to take only the essence from all the religions and cultures and feed them into modern psychology. Time has come to take a leap of faith and open ourselves to the light of a greater psychology.
In my own psychological journey, words of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have been a constant guide. I will never be able to express the immense gratitude I feel for all the clarity, assurance and revelation their words have showered me with. It is the unending Grace of the Divine that I was given an ardent devotee of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother as my father.
However, one of the crucial realizations in my own psychological seeking had been this fact – that nothing comes to us before the Universe decides it is the right time. Inspite of the fact that I had umpteen number of books of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother at home since my childhood, I never had any inclination to study them before I was faced with an inner crisis. But gradually the same books became my greatest source of inspiration.
Perhaps the same is true for the great leap that psychology as a discipline has to take… In the words of Sri Aurobindo: “greater psychology awaits its hour“.
But we can definitely broaden our horizons and free the colonies that our minds have become. Let us NOT belong to the market and the dark desires. Let us belong to the Universal Energy that flows in us, around us. Let us belong to our nurturing Earth and the endless Sky. Let us get on a psychological adventure of accessing many subtler and subliminal worlds that exist within us.
In this way, by opening our minds to the MANY REALITIES AND LAYERS OF EXISTENCE, we will gradually slacken the hold of all the belief-systems – old or new, religious or scientific, political or consumerist. Psychology, then, can cease to be merely about the physical phenomenal world; it can help us to cognitively know the metaphysical world too. Infinite will be the possibilities of psychology.
You can write to me at psychologytoinfinite@gmail.com