The four basic perinatal matrices

In his book The Adventure of Self-Discovery: Dimensions of Consciousness and New Perspectives in Psychotherapy and Inner Exploration, Stanslav Grof presents his new mapping of the human psyche developed during his clinical work with psychedelics and holotropic breathwork. While traditional psychotherapy is conceptually limited to the memory material of each individual’s biography, Grof’s model extends to the transbiographical, including the perinatal level.

The perinatal level of the psyche is characterized by the presence of allegories of birth and death. It is accompanied by immediate acute suffering that includes exaggerated physiological manifestations such as nausea, suffocation, temperature fluctuations, etc. This present agony is alternately or simultaneously experienced as sequences of birth and death, of a human and/or transcendental variety. Although current neurophysiology cites it as impossible, due to the lack of a fully myelinated cerebral cortex in newborns, specific and verifiable details of an individual’s birth are remembered. These memories demand a revision of certain obsolete theories.

This deep reunion with birth can resolve deep existential crises by internalizing the intrinsic spiritual aspects of the experience and exploring the various facets of the collective unconscious. The experience is vast and includes characteristics that are archetypal, mythological, mystical, transpersonal, and more. Because they all revolve around birth (perinatal), the clinical stages of birth serve as a good model for classifying and understanding the dynamics of the perinatal level of the subconscious. The stages correspond to the four perinatal matrices: the Amniotic Universe, the Cosmic Immersion (or No Exit), the Death and Rebirth Struggle, and the Death and Rebirth Experience.

The first basic perinatal matrix (BPM I) is called the Amniotic Universe. Its biological basis is the symbiotic unity of the fetus and the maternal organism. The lack of boundaries and obstructions allows for a completely peaceful life. This intrauterine existence is much like modern deprivation tanks, where the elimination of the senses provides a meltdown in oceanic ecstasy. The mystical dissolution of boundaries can be a heavenly and blissfully confident experience, or a disintegration of the familiar and trustworthy, leaving a pervasive anxiety of fear and paranoia. Pleasant images can be related to floating in the ocean or in outer space like an astronaut attached to the mothership by a rope and the experiences of Eden. Negative images lead to BPM II, including polluted waters, chemical warfare, evil metaphysical forces, and malicious astral influences.

The second basic perinatal matrix is ​​called the Cosmic Engulfment. Its biological basis is the first clinical stage of labor. Life is now disturbed by chemical signals of impending mechanical restrictions from the contracting uterus. The umbilical cord can contract, causing a lack of blood and oxygen and, therefore, of heat and nutrition. This cosmos is no longer a place of blissful dissolution, but of existential anguish. There is an as yet unidentified imminent danger afoot. The individual is not unified with the environment, but is condemned to a claustrophobic nightmare with no escape. This is now a hellish experience of suffering and metaphysical loneliness. The individual is lost in a void, separated from his environment by the restriction of the umbilical cord. The negative images that arise present a depersonalization and derealization, perceiving all beings, including oneself, as mindless and mindless robots; just cogs in a diabolical machine.

The third basic perinatal matrix is ​​the Struggle for Death and Rebirth. The biological basis is the second clinical stage of labor, in which cervical dilation and propulsion through the birth canal occur. The journey from heaven and hell takes one to purgatory, where the individual is purged, cleansed, and prepared. BPM III is a fight for survival amidst crushing pressures. Further restraint from the umbilical tether leads to suffocation and anoxia, which feels as if on fire. Allegorically, this burning is a pyrocatharsis, a purifying fire that burns through the ripe karmic seeds of the individual’s psyche. Other images include raging elements of nature like volcanoes and tidal waves, high-tech weaponry like atomic bombs, and orgasmic sexual experiences. The volcanic ecstasy of this third womb is a buildup and explosion of unimaginably pleasurable contractions and releases. There is still a sense of something sinister amongst the pleasure, which can give the images a sadomasochistic angle, for example being amongst a satanic orgy of demonic witches. The key to understanding the difference here is that suffering is no longer hopeless or helpless, but has a direction and a goal. The individual is being purged and delivered to the light.

The fourth basic perinatal matrix is ​​known as the Death and Rebirth Experience. Its biological basis is the third clinical stage of actual birth. The umbilical cord is finally severed completely. An individual separate from the whole or from the mother arises. The individual is now expelled from Eden and forced to fend for himself. This event is the birth of the fetus and the death of the re-experiencer of what Alan Watts called the ego encapsulated in the skin. In both cases there are visions of a tunnel and a white light at the end. A final pyrocatharsis is experienced as light enters the eyes and the entire nervous system is intensely stimulated, and the weight, or lack of weight, of the body is felt for the first time. BPM IV imagery may include the delivery doctor as a destructive deity or sacrificial priest, using his forceps and anesthetic as destructive yet useful tools on the threshold to and from this world.

The four basic perinatal matrices are just one distinctive feature of Stanislov Grof’s new mapping of the human psyche. The transbiographical map extends beyond the memory material used by traditional psychoanalysis, as transcendental and as profound as it is perinatal. Only here are some of the deepest existential crises resolved and reconciled.