{"id":19353,"date":"2023-05-27T09:03:29","date_gmt":"2023-05-27T08:03:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kennethsorensen.dk\/?p=19353"},"modified":"2026-06-01T15:00:53","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T14:00:53","slug":"the-noetic-approach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennethsorensen.dk\/en\/the-noetic-approach\/","title":{"rendered":"The Noetic Approach"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

You may have dismissed a flash of inner light as imagination. The noetic approach takes it seriously, and asks why such experiences arrive so rarely in a pure state.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Roberto Assagioli<\/strong>
Doc. #22285, Assagioli Archive, Florence

Editorial Note<\/strong>
The abstract and contextual subtitle in this online edition have been added by the editor, Kenneth S\u00f8rensen, to support readability, navigation, and archival consistency. The original wording has not been altered.
The Noetic approach is identical to what Assagioli calls the Way of Illumination<\/a>, it is probably an unfinished paper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Abstract<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In this unfinished essay, Roberto Assagioli defines the noetic approach through three meanings of the Greek “nous”: from ordinary reason through higher mind to direct inner vision of reality. Inner light is one of the most widely reported human experiences across all cultures and times, yet it arrives filtered and mixed with illusion. The task of the noetic approach is to examine these experiences without bias, neither over-valuing nor dismissing them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Noetic is one of the words to which various authors have given different meanings, and it is well to carefully distinguish these meanings. \u201cNoetic\u201d comes from the Greek \u201cNous\u201d which has been translated as \u201cmind\u201d or \u201creason\u201d, or as the cognitive function.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some have given it the meaning of pure rational activity within the span of the normal human being. You know that man has been defined as a \u201crational animal\u201d and someone has corrected it to be \u201can animal sometimes reasonable\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A higher connotation of \u201cnous\u201d is the higher mind, or the higher reason; and for others it goes beyond human reason to the direct knowledge or intuition of reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is well to remember William James who in his writings on religious experiences has put these worlds:<\/p>\n\n\n