What is "metapsychiatry"

Metapsychiatry is the name given to a spiritual teaching and form of psychotherapy developed by psychiatrist Thomas Hora, M.D. Thomas Hora (1914–1995) in the second half of the 20th century.

At once eclectic and unique in its entirety, borrowing as it does from Judeo-Christian, Zen Buddhist, and Taoist religious traditions, along with theistic existentialist philosophy and phenomenology, it is characterized and perhaps distinguished by its unusually clear and precise definitions of psychological terms and conditions, and what it calls “spiritual reality.”

Its iconoclastic style and world-view originate with its assertion that “the meaning and purpose of life are to come to know reality.” It defines Reality as the underlying benevolent intentionality of the universe; also as “God” or “Love-Intelligence” or “Infinite Mind.”

To assist individuals in the process of discovering this essential characteristic of the nature of life, and, given its emphasis on knowing rather than merely believing (it calls itself “an epistemological method of truth realization”), Metapsychiatry offers what it labels “the two intelligent questions” as the principal tools by which truth can be sought and realized:

1. What is the meaning of what seems to be? Or What is the meaning of my experience? (known in philosophy as the phenomenological question)
2. What is what really is? (known in philosophy as the ontological question)

The first of these questions is intended to help the student recognize and understand the discordant values held in consciousness that are responsible for one’s problems in life. It is based on the notion, of ancient provenance, that experiences in life are not random occurrences, but emanate from the values cherished in consciousness. It directs seekers to identify and scrutinize their secretly held world views and “mode of being-in-the-world” to assess their existential legitimacy.

When there is acknowledgement of and regret for attachment to troublesome values, the second question redirects attention toward existentially valid values the appreciation of which leads to harmony with reality. The qualities of peace, assurance, gratitude and love (creating the acronym PAGL) are cited as indicating when that state of blissful equanimity has been attained, and are used as criteria by which to evaluate the viability of possible courses of action.

Metapsychiatry’s exposition is currently available via a set of books, audio tapes, CDs, and a video DVD from the PAGL Foundation (an organization established in the 1980s to assure the dissemination of Metapsychiatry’s teaching), whose web site is pagl.org. Also provided on that site are copies of newsletters with articles by students of Metapsychiatry, as well as contact information for those amenable to communicating with fellow students.