{"id":22590,"date":"2025-01-22T15:16:21","date_gmt":"2025-01-22T14:16:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kennethsorensen.dk\/?p=22590"},"modified":"2026-05-05T15:00:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T14:00:08","slug":"conversation-about-the-self-and-the-superconscious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennethsorensen.dk\/en\/conversation-about-the-self-and-the-superconscious\/","title":{"rendered":"Conversation About the Self and The Superconscious"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Alongside the search for the Self \u2014 Assagioli on the Superconscious as a region of life already available, and the seven paths that lead there<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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By Roberto Assagioli<\/strong>
A brief conversation held on January 28, 1968
Assagioli Archives, Florence [i]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>
Translated and edited by Jan Kuniholm [ii]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editorial Note<\/strong>
The abstract and contextual subtitle in this online edition have been added by the editor, Kenneth Sorensen, to support readability, navigation, and archival consistency. The original wording has not been altered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

In this conversation, Roberto Assagioli reframes the work of spiritual psychosynthesis around the Superconscious rather than around the elusive Self. He sets out seven paths to the spirit: a modern intuitive psychology, the mystical religious way, the aesthetic, the illuminative, the heroic, the ethical-regenerative, and the ritual, and identifies beauty, goodness, and truth as the most accessible qualities of the Superconscious. Distinguishing the Self from the Superconscious, he draws a parallel with the Buddha, who never asserted the Self but pointed instead to a state of bliss, and concludes that one can live a rich and full Superconscious life without ever having the direct experience of the Self. The recurring image is one of refusing to spend all one’s effort cleaning the psychological cellars and instead climbing to the bright terrace where joy, beauty, and a wider life are waiting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We have to go and see [for ourselves] if there is a \u201cSuperconscious\u201d \u2014 that is, to have a direct experience of it. There are seven roads, or paths to the spirit:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. A modern psychology: intuitive or cognitive, but not in the \u201crational\u201d sense, ie, becoming conscious directly in two ways:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
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    1. Emptying the field of consciousness of habitual contents and directing the attention and aspiration of feeling to what is impersonal, to what is essential.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n