Alexander Zelitchenko

Alexander Zelitchenko (born 1956) is a psychologist, philosopher, and historian.

Born in Moscow, Zelitchenko attended Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, where he received a M.Sc. in 1979. He earned a Ph.D. degree in 1982 from the Russian Academy of Science. Since 1986, he taught in the Faculty of Psychology of Moscow State University. Since 1994, he is working as an independent author.

Major contributions

Alexander Zelitchenko's major contributions belong to five fields:

Ontology and epistemology

Zelitchenko elaborated the dynamic model of united multilayer World, where different layers not simply interact, but turn one in others. All layers are material, although each of them is formed by material of own subtlety. This model eliminates contradictions between scientific and religious worldviews as well as ones between idealism and materialism.

One phase of the World Process ("Cycle of the World"), where subtle worlds "give birth to" the coarse proves idealistic views, while another phase of the Cycle of World where the coarse "is sublimated" into the subtle proves materialistic views.

The Cycle of World consists of infinite multitude of smaller cycles, organized by World Hierarchy. Each of these cycles realizes own idea, which is embodied on the first phase of cycle and transformed into the meaning of its embodiment in the second phase.

The model disclose relativity of human's perceptions of the entities as things, beings and IDeaS demonstrating reality of the triads "thing-being-idea", which the person interpret either as thing, or as being, or as idea depending on cultural tradition of interpretation of such triad.

Such view open the door for new understanding of religious realities (and religious beings) and in significant extent removes cover of mystery from them.

One more Zelitchenko's contribution in field of epistemology consists of emphasizing two-component composition of knowledge. In CONTRAST to views on knowledge originated in information theory as on the text or on the structure, the important role of personal experience in all types of knowledge (not only "empirical knowledge") is disclosed.

Philosophical anthropology, Theoretical Psychology and Philosophy of Psychology

Zelitchenko introduced "two-polar model" of human being, which discloses the essence of a human being as a being bridging material world and some subtle ones. Correspondingly, a human being possesses the different bodies for operating with these worlds, from which the body working with the most subtle world until now is not recognized by academic science.

The systematization of the phenomena, in which higher bodies manifest themselves, resulted in elaboration the program for new scope of psychology - Psychology of Dukhovnost (Russian word, which is close to and often mistranslated as 'spirituality', but does have not the same meaning at all), or Higher Psychology with its own subject of study and, what is even more important, own applied tasks, which are correlated with applied tasks of "classical" psychology, but see the lasts from the quite different positions.

Tracing the development of awareness of the spiritual body allows to observe the field of complex forces acting on the human being and in significant extend predetermining his fate and, what is even more important, the line of his development.

Analyzing the composition of the human higher mental bodies, he discloses the "parts" which are common for all members of some society and which May Be considered as the collective psyche of this society. Some of these parts are unconscious (for average level of consciousness) and may be related to Jung's archetypes. Among these archetypes, there are constitutional traits as well as the program of development of the society. These discoveries open the way for creating new science - sociopsychology with the almost completely new subject of study - "collective psyche".

Zelitchenko introduced both the concept and the scale of brightness of mental-spiritual state and expand the last for the measurement of "spiritual height" (level of spiritual development) of individuals and societies as a whole. This instrument provides principally new opportunities for studying the history and especially the history of culture.

Theology

Studies of Scriptures of various religious traditions from the point of view of spiritual development of human being allow Zelitchenko to disclose latent meanings of different Scriptures, which are turned out to be significantly same for different traditions. Thus, for example, the texts of all Gospels tell us AbOUT the goal, principles and method of the spiritual development.

Philosophy of History

Zelitchenko elaborated the methodology of empirical study of the spiritual height of both existing societies and the societies, which existed in the history a long ago. The theoretical basis of this methodology is the fact of transfer of the brightness of spiritual state of creator on his creation. Thus, we have possibility to reconstruct the brightness of people living many centuries ago through the brightness of things they made.

Exploring this methodology in near 30 expeditions around almost all significant regions of the Cultural History, Zelitchenko reconstructed the picture of History as a history of human spiritual development.

Extremely important role in this picture play "Flashes" - relatively short periods repeated periodically approximately once in 500 years, which activate extraordinary the peoples and result in revolutionary rise of creativity and birth of new culture (or in Zelitchenko’s terms "metacultures"). Such metaculture go through the different stages of its life, which lasts about 2000 years.

Such reconstruction continues the line of metahistorical thought started in works of Oswald Spengler, Lev Gumilev and Daniil Andreev.

In accordance with Zelitchenko, today we are living on the eve of new Flash.

History of culture and religions

Analysis of brightness of different cultures and religious discloses their different roles in the history - each of them develops the peoples of different spiritual height and lifts them to the next level of their spiritual development. Thus, it is possible to introduce the concept "rank of culture (religion)" and to see the overall History as a Pyramid, where the lowest level is occupied by many cultures (and religions) of lower rank, and the higher level of Pyramid the less cultures (religions, or quasi-religions) belong to this level.

Bibliography

• Psikhologiya dukhovnosti (Psychology of dukhovnost, or Psychology of spiritual life, or Higher Psychology): Creative Work; Love; Life with God; Psychic and Spiritual – Worlds, Energies, Spaces, Bodies; Dukhovnyy Crises; Search for Self and for Sense; Desolation, "Dross" and Purification. (in Russian), 1996, Moscow, Transpersonal Institute Publishing House, ISBN 5-88389-012-1
  • Vol.1 Dukhovnost and Psychology
  • Vol.2 The work with dukhovnyy crisis

• Razgovory uchenogo s Uchitelem, Nauka i esoterika. (In Russian), Moscow, 2000, Transpersonal Institute Publishing House, ISBN 5-88389-055-5
  • (In English) The scientist's Conversations with the Teacher San Jose, New York, Lincoln, Shanghai: Writers Club Press, 2001, ISBN 0-595-19412-5
  • (In German) Gespräche des Gelehrten mit den Lehreroder, Wege aus dem Dunkelwald, 2004, Leipzig, Bohmeier Verlag, ISBN 3-89094-403-5
• Svet Zhizni (Light of Life, History of Humankind in Psychosphere of Earth (or History and Developmental Psychology of Nations) (in Russian), 2006, Moscow: Otkrytyy Mir
  • Vol.1 Fundamentals and beginnings
  • Vol.2 Our era
  • Vol.3 Search for the sun in the cloudy sky

External links

• Information page, including English excerpts from the books, CV and full list of publication
• Project Russkiysvet (in Russian)
• Blog Russkiysvet (in Russian)

ru:Зеличенко, Александр Исаакович