Strong Lasting Results

Theoretical Underpinnings 

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A previous author, the Fullbright scholar Claudio Naranjo, MD, has spoken to the issue of the underlying theory of the Quadrinity Process. In a monograph entitled The Quadrinity Process: A New Synthesis (1993), Naranjo elegantly lays out the internal working of the Process as an experience that touches the behavioral, psychodynamic, humanistic and spiritual domains. A major theme of his paper is the strength of transpersonal psychology, as a method that brings transpersonal value, value that transcends the self. He argues that the Quadrinity Process is methodologically sound, and enjoys its success due to its inspired adherence to common principles of transpersonal psychology.

Windhausen, on the other hand, inspired by the concept of the structure of psychotherapy and the dynamics of groups, is most interested as the Quadrinity Process as a Ritual des Uebergangs—Ritual of Transition. She argues that the Quadrinity Process is, due to its complexity and purpose, experienced as having existential meaning. She posits it is during these highly structured yet meaningful experiences that the individual participant moves forward into a new chapter of his or her life.

She argues that in the classic initiation ritual marking the end of puberty, each adolescent bears the full weight and responsibility of the adult as a new and mature member of the community. In the Quadrinity Process for adults, she argues that many participants are in a specific phase of their life, which is experienced as a crisis. They are often seeking a remedy for this crisis, looking for support and a new orientation. Or, they are standing at a crossing, such as at a divorce or serious illness, and are seeking to begin a new life phase, fully conscious.

Therefore, similar to the classic transitional rituals of puberty, the Quadrinity Process, especially in the first day or two, encourages a clear separation from everyday habits and ways of thinking. This is the move into the forest, into a contemplative mind set. This is called the "separation phase". The continuing process is called the "expansion phase", and finally the "reintegration phase" is experienced.
As Windhausen sees it, the Quadrinity Process has the inner working of the classic initiation rites; for instance, the on-going curriculum of experiences is ever-evolving, carrying the participant to the next level of experience. As a point of information to those who have not taken the 8-day Quadrinity Process, the curriculum is one in which the participant is consistently guided and directed by the instructors to experience a myriad of planned exercises. These planned exercises include emotionally cathartic experiences using visualizations and recollections of parental messages and childhood experiences. Other experiences include such activities as journal writing. Although there are no specific secrets of the process for an incoming participant, they are generally not told what their next day will bring. Windhausen argues that this curricular structure, in the absence of habitual behaviors, offers the potential for an inner life story to unfold and evolve. These outer curricular structures allow the participant to include inner psychic chaos (anti-structure) which then allows the individual to continue the transformative process in rich and various ways.

Windhausen, on a theoretical level, argues the parallels between the therapeutic process and the initiation (ritual) process. She suggests that the Quadrinity Process is a similar process in which things to be feared, things to be discovered, those things that are painful, unsavory personality characteristics and the like are faced in this structured (read ritualistic) environment with the likelihood that positive change will occur.