Glossary

Glossary of Transspirituality Terms

Discussion of these fresh ideas sometimes requires fresh terminology. These terms are offered to provide a fresh perspective, to help illuminate these concepts.

ABBREVIATIONS

HPD = human potential development; akin to Abraham Maslow's metamotivation.

HCN = humanly created norms or human conventional norms, which exist on three levels: behavioral (individually unique routine), social (between two or a few people), and cultural (among all group members).

NEN = naturally emergent norms, which exist beyond human convention and typically evolved through integration with other life in the environment.

NEOLOGISMS

WELLNESS WHEEL DIRECTIONAL NEEDS

austral needs - those needs that emerge in the South of one's growth cycles; dependency needs. E.g., belonging, affirmation, love.

boreal needs - those needs that emerge in the North of one's growth cycles; independency needs. E.g, response-ability, renewal, wisdom.

occidental needs - those needs that emerge in the West of one's growth cycles; counterdependency needs. E.g., dropping what no longer serves, harvest from efforts, autonomy.

oriental needs - those needs that emerge in the East of one's growth cycles; interdependency needs. E.g., safety, seeing the big picture, trust.

COMMUNICATION

polylogofication - words that have evolved to gather many meanings, often to the point of obfuscating what the speaker actually means.

sublogofication - something needing of expression that has yet to find some means for full expression.

NORMATIVITY

anormative (-ity) - norm compliance resulting in more need frustration than need resolution.

eunormative (-ity) - norm compliance resulting in more need resolution than need frustration.

human conventional norms (or humanly created norms) [HCN] - standard patterns for need relief based upon human construction, occurring along three levels:

1. Behavioral - individually unique routine; e.g. your idiosyncrasies.
2. Social - between two or a few people; e.g., small classroom agreeing it is unnecessary to raise hands to speak.
3. Cultural - among all group members; e.g., driving on the right side of the road in the USA, or driving on the left side of the road in the UK.

Of particular interest are these last two, summarized as sociocultural norms.

naturally emergent norms [NEN] - standard patterns for need relief based upon what has emerged naturally to resolve a need; e.g., water is the NEN for relieving thirst. NEN exist beyond human convention and typically evolved through integration with other life in the environment.

divergence - departure of HCN from NEN, where the norm one follows may be personally sanctioned or sanctioned by others but is nonetheless a departure from the natural means for relieving need (and ostensibly all norms are about need relief). E.g., the NEN for relieving thirst is water, but the common HCN is something with some taste, like soda pop, coffee, tea, or even alcohol. Drinking one of these instead of water to relieve thirst is an HCN divergence from NEN.

counterdivergent deviance - noncompliance to some sociocultural norm(s) [HCN] when compelled to follow more closely to a natural means for need relief [NEN]. It appears likely that almost all "deviance" has some root in this counteraction to divergence.

transnormative - transcending at least some sociocultural (HCN) norms in society. In a modern (secondary) society, everyone is transnormative in some way since not all available norms can be followed.

transconventional - intentionally transcending a significant number of available sociocultural (HCN) norms that are divergent, often for political or religious purposes, or simply to allow growth that tends to be limited by such HCN.

transsprititual - compelled to transcend divergent HCN as one is pulled toward unity of life and all existence, toward HPD.

NEED REFERENCING

need reference (-ing) - the trusted approach to easing a felt need, often learned from others. E.g., heat is a need reference for the need to restore the body's temperature equilibrium when getting too cold.

need relief - easing of homeostatic imbalance experienced either as pain (too much of something) or desire (too little of something), triggering need referencing for actions to restore a sense of balance.

• pain - warning to remove something perceived to be threatening. One of two primary need referencing triggers.
• desire - inducing a drawing in of something perceived to be missing. One of two primary need referencing triggers.

need strain - the homeostatic experience of something not at its ideal level of balance; below its ideal level of balance generally triggers desire to prompt something to be drawn in, while above its level of ideal balance generally triggers discomfort to prompt something to be moved away.

psychosocial need strain - the experience of ego needs (boreal/independency) and social needs (austral/dependency) relative to each other, where ego needs are less resolved relative to social needs, or where social needs or less resolved relative to ego needs. This tension appears to be the basis for political orientation.

• conservative orientation - social needs are relatively more resolved than ego needs, leading to need referencing of an individualist mindset over a collectivist mindset.
• liberal orientation - ego needs are relatively more resolved than social needs, leading to need referencing of a collectivist mindset over an individualist mindset.
• independent orientation - ego and social needs are resolved equally relative to one another, leading to need referencing that tends to be more eclectic and situationally oriented.

In the United States, the two-party system allows these modalities to be more prominent, but in multi-party states, and with third party options in the US, there appears to be more intersecting modalities.

political orientation - the trusted approach to easing one's pscyhosocial need strain; when ego needs are more urgent than social needs this is typically prompts a conservative approach to need referencing, while social needs that are more urgent than ego needs typically prompts a liberal approach to need referencing; and a relative balance between ego and social needs appears to correlate with political independents.

referencing hierarchy - the order of immediately available means for need relief, with the first response primed for a knee-jerk reaction ready for self-preservation, and trailing off to less probable, less urgent, and remotely available responses.

constricted referencing hierarchy - when one routinely reacts to relieve needs with a more narrow set of rigid options, sometimes because such limited options is all one has available at the moment, if not all of the time, and this typically leaves one imbalanced. This tends to correlate with a vacillation between modal consciousness and continuum consciousness. Determining the veracity of options tends to rely on a lateral critique.

open referencing hierarchy - when one routinely responds to relieve needs with explored options that can lead to new ways to experience need and need relief, often associated with the liberty to reach one's higher potential [HPD]. This tends to correlate with a high frequency of modal-continuum integrative consciousness (MCIC). Determining the veracity of options tends to rely on a vertical critique.

rational supremacy - ascribed value accorded to rational/reason over intuitive/emotional, as opposed to the equal value of both when fully integrated and working toward needed balance; tends to be dominate in secondary society and less significant in primary societies. Opposite extreme to emotional overgeneralization.

emotional overgeneralization - the broad experience of emotional input with little if any discernment to determine relevant specifics needed to make a decision that impacts need. Opposite extreme to rational supremacy.

optimally integrated cognition - mental processes that integrates the full potential of emotions to provide relevant beliefs into needed awareness to empower the mind's information processing capacity, typically leading to more need resolution and especially higher developmental needs. Less than optimal integration tends to emphasize either fluid emotional decision making or rigidly rational decision making, with each missing the full contribution potential of the other.

modal consciousness - awareness of recognized norms (typically HCN but also NEN) available in a phenomenon; tends to be left-brained and masculine ascribed (yang), not to mention dominant and therefore privileged in modern (secondary) societies. Tends to be associated with rational supremacy leading to imbalance without a complementary continuum consciousness.

continuum consciousness - awareness of the range of possibilities that can naturally occur in a phenomenon; tends to be right-brained and feminine ascribed (yin). Tends to be associated with emotional overgeneralization leading to imbalance without a complementary modal consciousness.

modal-continuum integrative consciousness (MCIC) - awareness of a both the modalities in a phenomenon and its full range of possibilities; blending both a right and a left brain perspective; a significant aspect of the transspiritual experience.

lateral approach - orienting oneself against a questioned modality by positing one's affiliation with an opposing modality; often at a more generalized level with limited perspective of the opposing side (akin to veracity binary).

vertical approach - orienting oneself toward a questioned modality by moving beyond its generalizations to explore its relevant specifics along with other modality relevant specifics (akin to veracity continuum and matrix).

lateral critique - evaluating the veracity of an asserted truth by asserting the viability of one generalization over the viability of an opposing generalization; favoring a lateral approach over a vertical approach.

vertical critique - evaluating the veracity of an asserted truth by questioning generalizations of what is apparent to delve deeper into less apparent specifics; favoring a vertical approach over a lateral approach.

veracity variability - degree to which an asserted truth enjoys accuracy; encompasses veracity binary, veracity continuum and veracity matrix.

veractity binary - accuracy of an asserted truth is either/or, with no shades between.

veracity continuum - accuracy of an asserted truth falls along a range of gradient possibilities.

veracity matrix - accuracy of an asserted truth is relative, at least in part, to its intersectionality to items with their own veracity variabilities.