Nurturing mental health in Auroville

AVToday: What is your background as a psychologist?

Jerry: Before I started psychology, I was educated as a teacher in primary school. I saw educators who were not developing anymore because they were busy with their work, so I started school psychology. I studied more and more psychology – I couldn’t stop at one path. I’m a developmental, social, organisational and clinical psychologist. My professors were not happy with that at all! They felt I should restrict myself to one path. But my interests in the world and my affinities are broad, because I think we need it all in order to understand. We need to look from all sides, and take a big perspective to really understand what is happening. So that was the seed of the later, more integrated approach I took. 

What made you shift to Auroville?

I don’t know what made me shift here! Eight years ago, I presented my Seven Eyes framework at an international congress in Budapest. An Aurovilian approached me and said ‘You have to come to Auroville’. A year later I went, and I was shocked to see what was happening here, on an organisational level. After six weeks, I went home and promised myself never to return to Auroville, because I thought it would be too challenging for me to live there. Then I realised my conclusions were very mental, and that it’s better to open my heart to understand what people are doing there. So I opened my heart, and I went back two more times in the next two years. And everything was telling me that I should join. 

I couldn’t get rid of the feeling of being part of that experiment – until I gave in. So then I decided to come to Auroville five years ago. I was 68 then. I sold my house, gave away my belongings. It was a big step. 

What happened when you joined Auroville?

When I joined Auroville, I didn’t want to be a psychologist or therapist. I joined the Teachers’ Centre in Auroville, because I wanted to help children to grow up in a balanced, harmonious way.  Then the Council and Working Committee asked me to create an organisation for mental health care. At first I said ‘no’, but I gave in when the Teachers’ Centre also asked me to do therapy with families and children. I had experience in reforming mental health organisations in the Netherlands, but starting a mental health centre in Auroville was difficult. No one wanted to give me space, and many were afraid of getting trouble from people with psychiatric problems. I started at home. Eventually, Sanjeev from SAIIER arranged the dining room of the Mitra youth hostel near Town Hall, and I changed it into a little office with three rooms. That was three years ago now.

I wanted to give Mattram a deeper foundation than the traditional one that is  based on the Diagnostic Statistical Manual [commonly used in The West to diagnose mental illnesses], which identifies sicknesses. This diagnostic system does not look at the causes of disorders and tries to cure them by getting rid of its symptoms. The real problem is mostly a developmental disorder when people are losing clarity about their values and how to deal with that. They can be in a transient state when they, for instance, start to question their old convictions when their heart is opening, because then there is a more direct, deeper reality showing up. So I help people understand their transient state when this is the cause, and help them to go through this transition much more easily. 

What is your Seven Eyes approach?

When I reached my age of retirement about 10 years ago, I went through a contemplative exploration about what was the essence of my life, and Seven Eyes developed from this.

The insights I got were so overwhelming and precious that I wanted to share them to support other people in their development. I was lacking a structure to present these insights, so I extensively studied all kinds of models, brought together by the integral philosopher Ken Wilber. These were all too complicated to be of real practical help, so I stayed with the simple established chakra approach. I wasn’t happy with its formulations, so I contemplated what could be their origin, and developed Seven Eyes from there.

In Seven Eyes everything we can develop is already present in our inner being and we have only to awaken to them for our realisation. The path to this awakening is the structure of my approach. I start with looking at our impulses, and show that by discovering their origin, we create a connection or bridge to the divine. So this possibility of connection repeats at every of the seven levels which are respectively: impulses, images, conviction, connection, inspiration, wisdom, attunement and surrender. 

Studying them is discovering that we are more than our bodies, our feelings, our convictions. But it’s not the approach of peeling back an onion until nothing is left anymore; it’s not the Buddhist approach of “emptiness”. Rather, it’s really opening up to the whole. And by doing that, we become who we are in essence.

Is your framework related to Sri Aurobindo?

In a way, yes. But, in my reading, Sri Aurobindo’s approach is more focussed on surrendering to the descendant or to the influence and creations of a higher divine level.  My focus is more to develop what is already in us, and that – at a certain level – will also organically open up to more divine inspiration. That is the ascendant approach. Opening up too early to the descendent has mostly not the right motivation and has created religions and belief systems that are more of a hindrance on our paths. This is also what great teachers as Ramana Maharshi, Krishnamurti and Socrates advise us. The real transformation will take place at the moment when our own essence is meeting that higher inspiration. There the mystical experiences take place.

So, are you saying that the mystical can still be intrinsic in your system, depending on one’s tendencies?

The message of Seven Eyes is that we acknowledge that there is a part of ourselves that we still have to discover and is beyond the mental. It is not dependent on our tendencies but on the discovery where our tendencies are originating from, before they were conditioned by our culture in ways that are totally alienating us from who we are in essence.

Now you’re planning to leave Auroville. Why?

I have suffered migraine headaches my whole life, and these have worsened during my five years in Auroville. At a certain moment I had to go to Apollo Hospital in Chennai because I had three attacks a week. The medicine at the hospital prevented the heavy attacks but made my headache chronic. I stopped the medicine and went for an Ayurvedic treatment that, together with a pranayama technique, brought relief. I have to avoid stress as much as possible but the hot climate contributes to my migraines. I am also leaving because I need rest after all these years of hard volunteer work for Auroville. But I will not be totally out of Auroville.  I carry this experiment with me in my heart and will contribute to it when there is a real opportunity.

Are there other reasons?

My criticisms of Auroville are still there, and they were only growing in these five years. I recently went to Auroville’s elections for membership of the working groups. I was shocked by people’s reasons for wanting to join a committee, without any knowledge or experience and education. I was shocked by how Aurovilians reacted to that. They were applauding because the applicant was so spontaneous or authentic. I thought, ‘My goodness, when we’re not taking being here seriously, what am I doing here?’ But I know that changes in culture are not so easy. And I was happy that I didn’t have to change a culture; that I could create a new culture with Mattram. And I realised that changing the culture in Auroville would be a long term project. Maybe my book Eyes of Evolution could be a contribution to this change, but then it has to be taken seriously. When I visit Auroville, I could give courses if there’s interest, and work with groups of people who deeply care.

The Eyes framework is really about connection. That is why the subtitle of Mattram is “sharing for connection”. With COVID, mental health is really in danger, not only in Auroville but all over the world. Sharing is becoming more and more important to keep a healthy connection. This is what the booklet Eyes of Evolution is about, to support people in keeping a healthy connection with themselves and each other. 

Mattram just started. The team will continue after my departure because the team appreciates this foundation and the organisational structure that is based on this.

Any final thoughts?

Eyes of Evolution is about awakening to our true nature, that is also the nature of what we consider outside or apart from us. But the real work starts after awakening, because only then we know what it is really about.

For me, this is the way to realise the beautiful dream that Mother had of Auroville.