"Transpersonal
Psychology" is a branch
of psychology
that is concerned with the study of those states and processes
in which people experience a deeper or wider sense of who they are,
or a sense of greater
connectedness with others, nature, or the "spiritual"
dimension.
The
term "transpersonal" means "beyond the personal"
and a common assumption in transpersonal psychology is that
transpersonal
experiences
involve a
higher mode of consciousness in which the ordinary mental-egoic self
is transcended.
Transpersonal Psychology is a relatively new
development in academic psychology that has yet to be recognised
formally by the American
Psychological Association.
However, in 1997, the British
Psychological Society approved
the formation of an academic Transpersonal
Psychology Section, as well as
one for the related area of Consciousness
and Experiential Psychology.
Among
the topics currently being explored by transpersonal psychologists
are:
Experiences of love
Empathy
Creativity and inspiration
Channeling
Transpersonal Art
Altered states of
consciousness
Dream consciousness
Mind-body relationship
Psychedelic experience
Mystical experiences
Spiritual emergencies and
crises
The
Dark Night of the Soul
Archetypal experiences
Near-death
experiences, death and dying
The psychology of
meditation
Practice
and experience within Eastern and Western religious and esoteric
traditions
Buddhist psychology
Ecological consciousness
Psychology
of Self and self-realisation
The Higher Self
Self-transcendence
Male
and female perspectives on the transpersonal
Paranormal experiences
Transpersonal
approaches in psychotherapy / counselling and in education
The evolution of
consciousness
Transpersonal research
methods
Integral approaches to
knowledge
The Perennial Philosophy
An
integrative
approach
Although transpersonal psychology is a branch
of psychology, it recognises the importance of a non-parochial
and integrative approach in
which other disciplines are acknowledged to have their own
contributions to make in our combined explorations of the
transpersonal.
These other disciplines include philosophy,
psychiatry, sociology, politics, education, anthropology, history,
literary studies, religious studies, biology and physics.
What
Transpersonal Psychology is NOT
Transpersonal
psychology is, in the broadest sense, a scientific enterprise
- it
is NOT a religion or ideology.
Individual
transpersonal psychologists may or may not have their own religious
or spiritual beliefs, although most will be engaged in some kind of
transpersonal practice (e.g., meditation,
ritual, service, devotion, transpersonal therapy, reflective living,
political action).
Although
there is currently a predominance of Buddhist-inspired transpersonal
psychologists,
other traditions are also well represented. These include Christian,
Jewish, Sufi, Hindu, Shamanic, Taoist, Tantric, Magical,
Gurdjieffian, Theosophical, and Agnostic.
What
Transpersonal Psychology is NOT
Transpersonal
psychology is
NOT the New Age.
Although transpersonal psychology represents a paradigm shift in
consciousness, science and culture, it seeks to distance itself from
the kind of uncritical adoption of New Age beliefs that
characterises certain elements of the so-called counter culture.
Transpersonal
psychology has very little, if anything, to do with crystals, UFOs,
alien abduction, chakras, auras, fairies, psychism, aromatherapy,
levitation, fire-walking, or the millennium, except as these
phenomena, practices or experiences may be investigated in terms of
their transformational consequences.
What
Transpersonal Psychology is NOT
Transpersonal
Psychology is
NOT metaphysics.
This is
rather more problematic, because many would claim that transpersonal
experiences imply a metaphysical belief in a spiritual, divine, or
transcendent realm.
However,
there
are
some transpersonal
psychologists who understand the transpersonal in more immanent
terms, for example the developing of a greater sense of
connectedness with the deeper Self, the world of nature, or the
social, interpersonal dimension.
In practice it is important that transpersonal psychologists are
clear and open about their own metaphysical assumptions.
What
Transpersonal Psychology is NOT
Transpersonal
Psychology is
NOT anti-rationalist.
Although
many would argue that the highest states of transpersonal
consciousness are ineffable and beyond a rational appreciation,
transpersonal
psychology does not dismiss or devalue rational and intellectual
analysis, which can add much to our knowledge and understanding in
these areas.
However,
it is important also to acknowledge
the reality and importance of non-rational modes of knowing, such as
intuition, integrative awareness, and contemplation.
Pioneers
of Transpersonal Psychology
William James,
through his ground-breaking work on paranormal
experiences and the varieties of religious experience.
Aldous Huxley,
especially because of his investigations into the apparent expansion
of consciousness using mescalin,
and for his analysis of the elements of the "Perennial
Philosophy".
Teilhard de Chardin,
who developed a model of the evolution of consciousness that
integrates biological science
with Christian theology.
Sri Aurobindo,
who developed a similar model of
the evolution of consciousness,
based on Eastern philosophies.
Carl Gustav Jung,
who introduced the concepts of the collective
unconscious and archetypes, and
especially for his attempt to
understand religious archetypes from a psychological perspective.
Abraham Maslow,
through his studies of self-actualization,
peak experiences, self-transcendence, and metamotivation.
Maslow was one of the key founders of both the
"third force" (humanistic psychology) and "fourth
force" (transpersonal psychology).
Together with Anthony Sutich and Stan Grof, he
was responsible for the establishment of the Journal
of Transpersonal Psychology (1969)
and the Association for
Transpersonal Psychology (1972).
Roberto Assagioli,
the founder of psychosynthesis,
a transpersonally-based approach to therapy and personal growth.
Stan Grof,
through his extensive explorations of transpersonal experiences
resulting from the use of LSD
and Holotropic Breathwork TM.
Charles T. Tart,
who pioneered empirical research
into altered states of consciousness.
Ken Wilber,
currently the leading theorist
in transpersonal psychology,
who has developed a brilliant model of the evolution of
consciousness that integrates the philosophies and psychologies of
West and East, ancient and modern.
Scotton,
B.W, Chinen, A.B. and Battista, J.R. Eds. (1996) Textbook of
Transpersonal Psychiatry and Psychology. New
York:
Basic Books
The
contributions of spiritual traditions - Hinduism, Yoga, Buddhism,
Vajrayana, Zen, Taoism, Tantra, Shamanism, Kabbalah, Sufism and
Christian mysticism - to psychiatry and psychology
Native
American healing
Aging
and adult spiritual development
Meditation
research and clinical aspects of meditation
Consciousness
studies and research
Psychedelics,
Ethnopharmacology and Psychopharmacology
Parapsychology
Cross-cultural
studies and Anthropology
Diagnosis
of Religious and Spiritual Problems
Offensive
spirituality and spiritual defenses
The
treatment of former members of cults
Transpersonal
Psychotherapy
Music
Therapy
Addiction
and recovery
Guided-Imagery
and Visualization Therapy
Guided
Imagery and Music
Breathwork
Dying
and near death experience (NDE)
Past-Life
therapy
Ecological
survival
Social
Change
Charles
T. Tart „Transpersonal
Psychology: Definition of” (1997)
Journal of Consciousness Studies-Online
Transpersonal
psychology is a fundamental area of research, scholarship and
application
based
on people's experiences of temporarily transcending our usual
identification with our limited biological, historical, cultural and
personal self
and, at the deepest and most profound levels of experience possible,
recognizing/being
"something" of vast intelligence and compassion that
encompasses/is the entire universe.
From
this perspective our ordinary, "normal" biological,
historical, cultural and personal
self is seen as an important, but quite partial (and often
pathologically distorted)
manifestation or expression of this much greater "something"
that is our deeper origin and destination.
We
are forced to use imprecise terms
like "something" because ordinary
language,
as a partial manifestation of our ordinary self, which is itself a
partial manifestation of our deeper transpersonal "self,"
is
of only partial use in our research and practice in transpersonal
psychology, and needs to be supplemented with other expressive and
communicative modalities.
Transpersonal
experiences generally have a profoundly transforming effect on the
lives of those who experience them,
both
(I) inspiring those experiencers with an understanding of great
love, compassion and non-ordinary kinds of intelligence, and also
(II)
making them more aware of the distorting
and pathological limitations of their ordinary selvesthat
must be
worked with and transformed
for full psychological and spiritual maturity.
Because people ordinarily identify primarily
with the personal, which tends
to separate us, rather than
with the transpersonal, which
experientially impresses us with our fundamental unity and oneness
with each other and all life,
intelligent knowledge of and/or contact
with the transpersonal can thus be of great potential value in
solving the problems of a world divided against itself.
Conventional scholarly disciplines
and activities are thus subsets of the general transpersonal
perspective, important and
useful in themselves, but limited.
Transpersonal psychology, as both an area of
scholarly and scientific study and as an area of therapeutically
applied discipline, is one of these subsets, focused on the
psychological factors that either facilitate or inhibit contact with
and understanding of the transpersonal and the effects of
transpersonal experiences on the rest of life.
Transpersonal psychology draws knowledge and
practices from main-stream psychology, anthropology, history,
sociology and other disciplines when helpful and needed, and tries
to understand them from the more inclusive transpersonal
perspective.