From personal to transpersonal? An evolutionary stance and ‘self’ as the centre of narrative gravity

Abstract

For an ‘evolutionary thinker’, storytelling may be considered a shared derived trait (synapomorphy) of the human lineage. Once we began to tell stories, they became a key trait shaping our subsequent evolution. Furthermore, whether the ‘centre of narrative gravity’ is cosmological (as in creation myths) or focused on an individual character, the form of narrative is itself evolutionary, describing a process of transformation from an initial situation to subsequent states (with or without ‘resolution’). This article articulates the basic logic of an ‘evolutionary stance’ and applies this heuristic to a consideration of narrative, epistemology, religion, and the status of ‘self’. In the process, insights from evolutionary biology (including the concept of ‘major evolutionary transitions’), cognitive science (including predictive processing and relevance realisation as well as computational definitions of ‘self’) and analytical psychology are drawn upon. The article ends with a consideration of practices – from meditation and active imagination to psychedelic-assisted psychotherapies – aimed at suspending the activity of the personal ‘self’ and shifting the ‘centre of narrative gravity’ to reveal transpersonal elements of the psyche. Although we inevitably resume narrativizing our existence, the experience of temporary breaks in our personal narratives may enable us to tell more inclusive stories.