Flight from Experience 3: Gnosticism
Gnosticism refers to a theory of human happiness and salvation that are achieved by means of the integration of conscious and unconscious drives or habits or the creation of a social order which provides a human solution to the problem of evil. In either case, human beings are themselves the sources of their own healing and happiness. However, to insist that happiness results either from the integration of unconscious drives or in the creation of social orders alone is to reject human experience in favor of some mythic version of experience.
Flight from Experience 2: Challenges to Self-Awareness
Psychologists have found that people are generally not great observers of their own experience. Consequently, mindful self-presence is an increasingly important tool in contemporary psychotherapy. But we should be cautious not to assume that mindfulness alone will lead to happiness. Rather, it is a vital first step that points beyond itself.
Flight from Experience 1: Observation Biases
The orientation of contemporary psychology is primarily to experience. However, biases exist that tempt us to be poor observers of our own experience. Here good observation means heightening conscious awareness of inner experience. In part, this means managing thoughts and expectations about what I should be feeling or what other people might feel or what I am expected to feel.