PACIFIC WORLD - The Institute of Buddhist Studies

322Pacific Worldtive overview of Dzogchen doctrine and practice (the data to be interpreted5 ). The final section of the article applies the cybernetic theorydiscussed in part one to the doctrines and practices presented in part two.This analysis provides new insights into Dzogchen by showing in explicitpsychological terms how its doctrines and practices affect, and ultimatelytransform, the consciousness of the practitioner.A CYBERNETIC MODEL OF CONSCIOUSNESSCybernetics is a subfield of systems theory concerned with identifyinggeneral principles governing the regulation and evolution of system steadystates. The application of cybernetics to mind naturally inspires somesuspicion and controversy. Cybernetics seems to stand well outside themainstream of current psychological discourse. How is a cybernetic approachto mind justified?The psychological and methodological issues raised by this questionare, however, beyond the scope of this article. Despite this, the value of acybernetic approach to mind (and then Dzogchen) is indirectly demonstratedby its results, i.e., the insights it generates about the tradition.Nevertheless, in defense of a cybernetic approach to mind, two specificpoints are worth noting. First, the impression that cybernetics is radicallynon-conventional is somewhat misleading. Cybernetic-type thinking isimplicit in some traditional psychological theory. 6 The theories of personalityof Sigmund Freud, Henry Murray, and Karl Menninger are all“cybernetic” in nature, particularly the emphasis on maintaining andrestoring mental (egoic) equilibrium in the face of internal and externalconflict. 7 Freud’s pleasure principle functions as a “hydraulic,” equilibrium-seekingprocess that is essentially homeostatic. 8 The concept ofequilibrium is at the heart of psychoanalysis in general, where “regulatorymental mechanisms” are explained as “equilibrium-seeking systems.” 9Second, a significant number of psychologists and cognitive theoristscurrently (and explicitly) advocate systems-based theories of mind (i.e.,theories that draw upon general systems theory, cybernetics, dynamicalsystems theory, and chaos theory). These psychologists and cognitive scientistsfind systems-based approaches attractive because they seem best suitedto modeling the apparently “systemic” nature and behavior of the mind. 10The credibility of a cybernetic approach to mind automatically lends itsome validation as a theoretical framework for interpreting religious andmystical experience. But given the existence of more mainstream psychologicaland epistemological theories, why choose cybernetics over thealternatives? In response to this question I will make only one point. Twoapproaches currently dominate theory about the nature and causes ofmystical experience: perennialist philosophy and psychology, and