The four basic perinatal matrices

The four basic perinatal matrices

In his book The Adventure of Self-Discovery: Dimensions of Consciousness and New Perspectives in Psychotherapy and Inner Exploration, Stanslav Grof presents his new cartography of the human psyche as developed during his clinical work with psychedelics and holotropic breathwork. While traditional psychotherapy is conceptually limited to the memory material of each individual's biography, Grof's model extends to the transbiographical level, including the perinatal level.

The perinatal level of the psyche is characterized by the presence of allegories of birth and death. It is accompanied by immediate acute suffering, including exaggerated physiological manifestations such as nausea, suffocation, temperature fluctuations, etc. This present torment is experienced alternately or simultaneously as a result of birth and death of a human and/or transcendental variety. Although described as impossible in current neurophysiology, the lack of a fully myelinated cerebral cortex in newborns brings to mind specific and verifiable details of an individual's birth. These memories require a revision of certain outdated theories.

This profound encounter with birth can resolve profound existential crises by internalizing the intrinsic spiritual aspects of the experience and exploring the various facets of the collective unconscious. The experience is vast, including archetypal, mythological, mystical, transpersonal and more features. Since everything revolves around birth (perinatal), the clinical stages of birth serve as a satisfactory model to classify and understand the dynamics of the perinatal level of the subconscious. The stages correspond to the four perinatal matrices: the amniotic fluid universe, the cosmic engulfment (or no-exit), the struggle for death and rebirth, and the experience of death and rebirth.

The first perinatal basic matrix (BPM I) is called the amniotic universe. Its biological basis is the symbiotic unity of the fetus and the mother's organism. The absence of boundaries and obstacles enables a completely undisturbed life. This intrauterine existence closely resembles modern deprivation tanks, where removal of the senses causes melting into an oceanic ecstasy. The mystical dissolution of boundaries can be a blissfully trusting and heavenly experience, or it can be a dissolution of the familiar and reliable, leaving a general sense of anxiety and paranoia. Pleasant images may refer to floating in the ocean or space as an astronaut attached to the mothership by a tether, and Eden experiences. Negative images lead into BPM II, including contaminated waters, chemical warfare, evil metaphysical forces and malevolent astral influences.

The second basic perinatal matrix is ​​called Cosmic Engulfment. Its biological basis is the first clinical stage of delivery. Life is now disrupted by chemical signals of impending mechanical restrictions on the contracting uterus. The umbilical cord can become narrow, leading to a lack of blood and oxygen and therefore a lack of warmth and nutrition. This cosmos is no longer a place of blissful resolution but of existential dread. There is an immediate but unidentified danger. The individual is not united with the environment but is condemned to a claustrophobic nightmare with no escape. Now this is a hellish experience of suffering and metaphysical loneliness. The individual loses himself in a void, separated from his surroundings by the restriction of the umbilical cord. Negative images are characterized by depersonalization and derealization, in which all beings, including oneself, are perceived as meaningless, meaningless robots. simply cogs in a diabolical machine.

The third basic perinatal matrix is ​​the struggle for death and rebirth. The biological basis is the second clinical stage of labor, in which dilation of the cervix and propulsion through the birth canal occurs. The journey from heaven and hell takes one to purgatory, where the individual is cleansed, cleansed and prepared. BPM III is a fight for survival under oppressive pressure. Further restriction of the umbilical cord causes suffocation and anoxia, which feels like a fire. Allegorically, this burning is a pyrocatharsis, a purifying fire blazing through the ripe karmic seeds of the individual's psyche. Other images include raging elements of nature such as volcanoes and tidal waves, high-tech weapons such as atomic bombs, and sexual orgasmic experiences. The volcanic ecstasy of this third matrix is ​​a build and explosion of contractions and unimaginably pleasurable releases. There is still a feeling of something sinister in the joy, which can give the images a sadomasochistic angle, for example in a satanic orgy of demonic witches. The key to understanding the difference is that suffering is no longer hopeless or helpless, but has direction and purpose. The individual is purified and brought into the light.

The fourth basic perinatal matrix is ​​known as the death and rebirth experience. Its biological basis is the third clinical stage of actual birth. The umbilical cord is finally completely cut. One emerges an individual who is separated from the universe or from the mother. The individual is now cast out of Eden and forced to fend for himself. This event is the birth of the fetus and the death of the reliving of what Alan Watts calls the ego encapsulated by the skin. In both cases there are visions of a tunnel and a white light at the end. Final pyrocatharsis occurs when light enters the eyes and the entire nervous system is intensely stimulated and the weight or loss of weight in the body becomes noticeable for the first time. BPM IV's images may include the maternity doctor as a destructive deity or sacrificial priest, using his tweezers and anesthesia as destructive yet helpful tools on the threshold to and from this world.

The four basic perinatal matrices are just one distinctive feature of Stanislov Grof's new cartography of the human psyche. The transbiographical map goes beyond the memory material used by traditional psychoanalysis, as transcendent and as deep as perinatal. Only here are some of the most profound existential crises resolved and reconciled.

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