Neal Chase | Saybrook University (original) (raw)
Papers by Neal Chase
Can dreams and dreaming open access to alternative ways of knowing and being? The following descr... more Can dreams and dreaming open access to alternative ways of knowing and being? The following description of dream epistemologies and quasi-dreamlike epistemologies is an open ended musing upon the general themes garnered from the course work and experience of the graduate level Dream Studies Certificate Program (DSCP) provided by Saybrook University. It is composed in a spontaneous prose format in the “impressionistic style” (p. 269) of phenomenological reporting described by Steinar Kvale (1996) and contains some free flowing stream of consciousness imagery as narrative devices for more immediate communication.
Keywords: dreams, dreaming, wake-dream continuity, existential, phenomenological, epistemology, psychology, wisdom traditions, science, spirituality, religion, neurophenomenology, free will, person-centered science
The focus of this study is a psychological commentary on the Dramatic Worldview of Alan Watts. Wa... more The focus of this study is a psychological commentary on the Dramatic Worldview of Alan Watts. Watts (1960/2004) set forth this worldview in three lectures entitled “The Nature of Consciousness,” which were originally recorded over a two day period in the year 1960 in his home, an old ferryboat in Sausalito, California. A structured transcript of these sessions with notes is attached as an Appendix. The themes in the lectures are assessed and evaluated in the light of psychological approaches, theory, and schools of thought in the history and development of psychology. Transpersonal and existential perspectives are used to illuminate salient features of Watts’s worldview. These transpersonal and existential perspectives are integrated within the author’s own parallel constructions.
Keywords: Alan Watts, metaphysics, science, religion, spirituality, worldview, transpersonal, existential, mystic, numinous, noetic, person-centered science
Articles by Neal Chase
Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences, 2017
Various psychological, philosophical, and healing traditions focus on the development of will on ... more Various psychological, philosophical, and healing traditions focus on the development of will on the supposition that will is needed so people can make authentic choices and have self-determination in their lives or so that they can approach psychological healing and personal transformation....
Doctoral Dissertation by Neal Chase
The work of this dissertation entails the exploration of the metaphysical foundations of a scient... more The work of this dissertation entails the exploration of the metaphysical foundations of a scientific psychology. From that standpoint, this dissertation appears to be theoretical; but from the standpoint of practical application and experiential origin, the work is concrete: that is, empirically grounded in fact. Openness to confluent relations of the concrete and the experiential is the main approach asserted by William James (1842-1910) in his own program for the metaphysical foundations of a scientific psychology: what James termed a radical empiricism. Eugene Taylor (1946-2013) placed James’s program within the context of Psychology as a Person-Centered Science (Taylor, 1992). Thus situated, psychology expands beyond nominal boundaries, becoming itself metaphysical and epistemological, and therefore foundational to all the sciences in general. Taylor (2012a) indicated the core significance of James’s tripartite metaphysic of radical empiricism, noetic pluralism, and pragmatism as key to understanding the foundations of a person-centered science--what James termed the “essence” (or pulsating heart) of “the humanistic conception” (TMT, p. 43). James passed on before he was able to complete his fuller, more mature articulation of his program; and thus, described his own life’s work as an unfinished “arch” (SPP, p. 5). The exploration of James’s unfinished arch is therefore James’s own analogy for the exploration of the metaphysical foundations of a scientific psychology: that is, the foundations of a person-centered science.
Can dreams and dreaming open access to alternative ways of knowing and being? The following descr... more Can dreams and dreaming open access to alternative ways of knowing and being? The following description of dream epistemologies and quasi-dreamlike epistemologies is an open ended musing upon the general themes garnered from the course work and experience of the graduate level Dream Studies Certificate Program (DSCP) provided by Saybrook University. It is composed in a spontaneous prose format in the “impressionistic style” (p. 269) of phenomenological reporting described by Steinar Kvale (1996) and contains some free flowing stream of consciousness imagery as narrative devices for more immediate communication.
Keywords: dreams, dreaming, wake-dream continuity, existential, phenomenological, epistemology, psychology, wisdom traditions, science, spirituality, religion, neurophenomenology, free will, person-centered science
The focus of this study is a psychological commentary on the Dramatic Worldview of Alan Watts. Wa... more The focus of this study is a psychological commentary on the Dramatic Worldview of Alan Watts. Watts (1960/2004) set forth this worldview in three lectures entitled “The Nature of Consciousness,” which were originally recorded over a two day period in the year 1960 in his home, an old ferryboat in Sausalito, California. A structured transcript of these sessions with notes is attached as an Appendix. The themes in the lectures are assessed and evaluated in the light of psychological approaches, theory, and schools of thought in the history and development of psychology. Transpersonal and existential perspectives are used to illuminate salient features of Watts’s worldview. These transpersonal and existential perspectives are integrated within the author’s own parallel constructions.
Keywords: Alan Watts, metaphysics, science, religion, spirituality, worldview, transpersonal, existential, mystic, numinous, noetic, person-centered science
Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences, 2017
Various psychological, philosophical, and healing traditions focus on the development of will on ... more Various psychological, philosophical, and healing traditions focus on the development of will on the supposition that will is needed so people can make authentic choices and have self-determination in their lives or so that they can approach psychological healing and personal transformation....
The work of this dissertation entails the exploration of the metaphysical foundations of a scient... more The work of this dissertation entails the exploration of the metaphysical foundations of a scientific psychology. From that standpoint, this dissertation appears to be theoretical; but from the standpoint of practical application and experiential origin, the work is concrete: that is, empirically grounded in fact. Openness to confluent relations of the concrete and the experiential is the main approach asserted by William James (1842-1910) in his own program for the metaphysical foundations of a scientific psychology: what James termed a radical empiricism. Eugene Taylor (1946-2013) placed James’s program within the context of Psychology as a Person-Centered Science (Taylor, 1992). Thus situated, psychology expands beyond nominal boundaries, becoming itself metaphysical and epistemological, and therefore foundational to all the sciences in general. Taylor (2012a) indicated the core significance of James’s tripartite metaphysic of radical empiricism, noetic pluralism, and pragmatism as key to understanding the foundations of a person-centered science--what James termed the “essence” (or pulsating heart) of “the humanistic conception” (TMT, p. 43). James passed on before he was able to complete his fuller, more mature articulation of his program; and thus, described his own life’s work as an unfinished “arch” (SPP, p. 5). The exploration of James’s unfinished arch is therefore James’s own analogy for the exploration of the metaphysical foundations of a scientific psychology: that is, the foundations of a person-centered science.