an article on the differences between the personal and tanspersonal thought process
Transpersonal Psychology -- personal and transpersonal thinking
Perhaps the major differences between personal thought (linear) and transpersonal thought (non-linear), is that the transpersonal thought process is instantaneous, spontaneous and does not rely on having to 'think about' or 'consider' something -- a process which requires preconception.
Throughout history, mankind has sought to explain his experience of life and has used the words and language of the time. Just because the Christian Bible says that "Moses" did all the things he did, does not make "Moses" a real person who existed at the time (try looking for "Moses" in Egyptian history). "Moses" could actually be a metaphor for something else -- and by looking at the roots of the word in the Hebrew and Aramaic, a very different but plausible story arises.
personal (linear) thought
Linear thought follows a line of reasoning -- it is usually subjective and objective; it's quite often based on "if something then something else" because this is a logical progression.
Our education system starts off by giving us a picture of (for example) a tree and it defines the image as a tree. This precludes every other language apart from English. If only the teacher were to say "this is what we call a tree".
transpersonal (non-linear) thought
One day I was standing in a village square in rural Italy and I happen to put my hand on an old tree; immediately I felt all sorts of (what I call) emotions and saw in my minds eye different images which had no relation to what I could see around me. What I "picked up on" was the history of the last 200 to 300 years of what happened in that geographical location -- something which was confirmed by the old man I was with at the time.
The article relating the 'stem cell' to the transpersonal self could be linked by non-linear thought to every "spiritual" book that has ever been written -- especially to every reference that involves the concept of "virgin".
Possibly the simplest common example of non-linear thinking is a process that is known as "brainstorming" -- or "mind-mapping" where you take one "key word" and write down every "thought" that "comes to mind" whether it is a rational progression from a word or not.
another way of writing this would be to say that "non-linear thinking" embraces a process whereby, for me, some "idea" arises in my awareness which may not be obviously or logically connected to whatever else is going on around me in that moment.
Religion: personal -- Spirituality: transpersonal
Linear thought suggests that if a dictionary defines "XYZ" (in Sanskrit for example) as "ABC" (in English) then every occurrence of "XYZ" should be translated as "ABC". Yet we forget, that for each "ABC" in English, there are shades of meaning.
For example there are six usage definitions of the word "linear" in Webster's dictionary - each dependent on the context of where the word is used. The average translator would take one of these definitions (usually the one most familiar) and attempt to fit this into the translation of the Sanskrit "XYZ".
I once sat with a group of theology linguists who were given a text written in Hebrew to translate. The translations of the Catholic and Protestant were slightly different but relatively similar. One Chinese man who came from a traditional Taoist priest background translated the passage very differently. Who was correct?
Linear thought follows what is accepted as "fact" of the Bible; non-linear thought allows that there can be other possibilities apart from what we are taught as "fact".
However, if one maintains a fixation (linear thought progression) which follows a particular school of thought (or doctrine) -- be it Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism etc, the absolute parallels between the metaphors used in each can not be seen.
Heart as the Transpersonal Mind
Medically, the heart cannot be started by any means if a little (the Sino-Atrial) node in the back of the heart is not functioning. Linear research didn't see that.
the sino-atrial node is the heart's own 'brain' -- a bridge between the conscious and unconscious nervous system .. connected to the subtle energy sources BOTH between the ears and between the legs.
(see also: Transpersonal - of men, minds and fish )