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The first formal definition of transpersonal psychology was published by Sutich in 1968.

This definition
focused mainly on higher human needs, values, states, and potentials.

Lajoie and Shapiro- Based on thematic analysis, the authors suggested that transpersonal psychology
studied “humanity’s highest potential,” and “unitive, spiritual, and transcendent states of
consciousness”

Based on this work, transpersonal psychology appeared to be concerned primarily with a human
potential to go beyond the ego and achieve higher states of consciousness.

Focus on self- transcendence through elevated states of mind was only one of three themes present in
descriptions of the field. The definitions studied could be classified into three themes: transpersonal
psychology as a beyond-ego psychology, as an integrative/holistic psychology, and as a psychology of
transformation.

As a beyond-ego psychology- it focuses on experiences that are transpersonal in content. It includes


exceptional human experiences stemming from intentional practices such as shamanism and
meditation, as well as occurrences that arise from various forms of mysticism, psi phenomena, near-
death, and out-of-body experiences, which do not necessarily require intentional practices. These can
lead to various experiences, such as transcendent, peak, and unitive, and also to a variety of stages or
qualities that can be seen as beyond-ego, such as compassion and altruism. These latter are related to
developmental levels of optimal human potential, including higher consciousness, advanced ego
maturity, and elevated values, meaning, and purpose reflecting such a potential. At the inception of
transpersonal psychology, this beyond-ego aspect was a dominant focus of the field.

As an integrative/holistic pursuit- transpersonal psychology examines the phenomena of psyche as


elements that belong not merely to the ego, but to larger contexts as well: the living body in its entirety,
the therapeutic relationship, the social and ecological situation, or the greater-than-human matrix of
existence. It also refers to transpersonal as a psychology that embraces wider contexts through holistic,
multicultural, integrative, or integral approaches.

As an approach to transformation- transpersonal psychology studies psychospiritual development


beyond conventional sexual and cognitive maturity, self-actualization, and other forms of transformative
growth. Here the transpersonal is not merely the content of a beyond-ego psychology, nor just the
widened context of a whole-person psychology, but also the force or catalyst that drives human
development toward its greater potentials. In addition, from this vantage transpersonal psychology
considers how its findings might apply to ethical thinking and behavior, compassionate social action,
service to humanity, or the transformation of such areas as psychotherapy, education, business, and so
on.
Transpersonal psychology: An approach to psychology that

1) studies phenomena beyond the ego as context for

2) an integrative/holistic psychology; this provides a framework for

3) understanding and cultivating human transformation

In its early years, transpersonal psychology functioned primarily as a psychology of these “farther
reaches of human nature” understood as states of consciousness, stages of development, practices, and
aspirations relating to aspects of the self that are beyond the personal ego. Considered as a psychology
of selfexpansiveness: Transpersonal psychology studies the self conceived not only as isolated individual
bound to the here -andnow of the present, but capable of expanding to include others, nature, or all of
space and time, or of embodying some larger aspect of the world. These shifted boundaries may be
reflected as non -ordinary states of consciousness.

From this perspective, the altered states of consciousness that characterize spiritual, mystical, and
transcendent experience are not delusional distortions, but can be understood as perceptions and
experiences associated with a self that seems expanded beyond its conventional limits.1 That is, the
boundary between me and not-me is shifted inward and outward, as well as forward and backwards in
time, and, from that shifted stance, the aspirant or mystic apprehends the world as something quite
different—sometimes ecstatically or terrifyingly different—than it appears to be from the ordinary sense
of self.

If the self is capable of expanding beyond its conventional boundaries, and if a transpersonal psychology
studies those aspects that are beyond the ordinary experience of self, this suggests the need for
understanding the whole person in a sense that includes not only body and mind, but also relationship
and situatedness in the world.

A Whole-Person Psychology/Multi-disciplinary Orientation Definition: Transpersonal studies is a whole-


person, transformative approach to human existence and human experience that includes the spiritual
and transcendent as well as the social and community dimensions of human life, all within the context
of the global eco-system in which we live.

Note that this definition is not of transpersonal psychology, but transpersonal studies as an approach to
something broader than psychology: a holistic perspective that examines human life in the context of an
interconnected world. If one attempts a whole-person psychology, it soon becomes clear that the
psyche is not a discrete thing functioning in isolation from body, community, or environment, but a local
aspect of an interconnected whole, a whole that must be engaged in order to understand any of its
facets. Transpersonal is then necessarily more than a psychology; it must also be a multidisciplinary
scholarly orientation which has been called transpersonal studies. Transformation as process is
specifically distinct from the states and stages of transformation first considered within the field, and
implies more than simple progress from one developmental stage to another. Transformative process is
a journey in which there is not simply movement from one place or stage to another, but in which the
landscape, the destination, and the journeyer shift and change as part of that movement.

A Psychology of Transformative Process Definition: transpersonal as a psychology of transformative


process understands the individual mind, human communities, and the cosmos itself to be
interconnected living systems in constant engagement with creative self-expression and self-invention.

Transformative process is a term that evokes not merely psychological self-actualization that drives
toward the highest human potential but also a philosophy and cosmology that understand the world as
living process purposefully evolving toward a meaningful end even though that end may not be distinct
from the process itself. In psychology, this type of transformative process has also been called
individuation (Jung, 1939, 1969), psychosynthesis (Assagioli, 1965), the formative tendency (Rogers,
1978, 1980), an actualizing tendency (Rogers, 1963b), autopoiesis (Maturana & Varela, 1980), holotropic
(Grof, 1998, 2003), and the evolution of consciousness (Combs, 1995; Wilber, 1979), among other terms.

Describing transpersonal as a whole-person, transformative approach conveys the unique vision and
values of transpersonal psychology in a simple and effective way. In addition, this definition points to the
fact that the individual is interconnected with community, and both are woven into the world. The rich
connotations of each of these strands provides an opportunity to imagine how they might be woven
together into an easily accessible short-phrase definition. Transpersonal psychology is a transformative
psychology of the whole person in intimate relationship with an interconnected and evolving world; it
pays special attention to self-expansive states as well as to spiritual, mystical, and other exceptional
human experiences that gain meaning in such a context.

Criticisms Of Transpersonal Psychology

One criticism of transpersonal psychology is that its multiplicity of definitions and the lack of
operationalization of many of its terms have led to conceptual uncertainty about the content of the
field.

The fact that transpersonal psychology is not limited to any particular philosophy or worldview, does not
limit research to a particular method, and does not limit inquiry to a particular domain has added to the
confusion.

• The field was dead due in part to its inability to define itself (e.g., Wilber, 2000)

The approach has been criticized for being unscientific (Kurtz, 1991; Shermer, 2002)

• Antiscientific, unrealistic, asocial, authoritarian, absolutist, dogmatic, dangerous (Ellis, 1986, 1989)

• Psychologically unsound (Ellis & Yeager, 1989; May, 1986)


• Unable to adequately define itself (Wilber, 2000)

• Its methodology (Friedman, 2002) If it is possible to show, empirically and with accepted methodology,
that following a spiritual discipline will have an impact on people’s lives, on their experience of
difficulties and suffering, of illness and disease, then transpersonal psychology will have made a
difference.

Spiritual positivism of transpersonal psychology and Problem of epistemology- Thereby he means a


fallacy that is similar to the fallacy of classical positivism: it is the assumption that there is a reality “out
there,” which is completely independent of the observer and indifferent to the instruments that are
used to observe it. It was a painful process for science to understand that reality can only be accessed
from certain perspectives, that reality gives itself up only from certain perspectives, and that a
consensus about what this reality truly is, is quite difficult to reach. This is even more so for any
transcendent and spiritual reality. To state that transcendent and spiritual realities are the same for, and
accessible to, everybody is at best extremely naive and probably simply wrong.

Problem of Objectivism- Popper’s criticism of positivism came exactly through the insight that one
cannot observe even the simplest thing without a background theory. If one had no theory, one would
have no clue what to look for, how to organize all the perceptions in the perceptual field into meaningful
wholes, or how to interpret their relationships. Meaning is distilled out of what is perceived, because it
is first imbued with meaning. As humans, we construct the reality we think is out there to a large
degree.

Inner Experience and the Problem of Epistemology- But what is it that is perceived? Can one simply
apply the positivist formula that “whatever is perceived is there?” How does one go about the fact that
some, in their transpersonal musings, perceive “spirits,” “fairies,” or “demons,” some say they perceive
“God,” some say it is some divine intuitions, some call it emptiness, others say it is not really emptiness
but something else, and so on? Put differently, inner experience is no innocent and simple access route
to an unambiguous reality. On the contrary, inner experience is highly ambiguous, opaque, and
dependent on assumptions. One can, of course, claim that there is such a thing as preconceptual
experience where concepts do not enter.

The problem of Ontology- In fact what is relevant is that mainstream science is following this
paradigmatic pull, conceptualizing the mind as machinery that is, ultimately, somehow identical with or
causally dependent on its physiological substrate, the neuronal system in general and the brain in
particular. Such a view makes consciousness a secondary entity. If such a view is true, then
consciousness is always late—and this is exactly the argument that is being used in modern discussions
about the causal relevance of consciousness. A consciously experienced impulse to act is only
experienced as such after all the neuronal antecedents have long before decided on the action.
Ultimately, the conscious self is a fiction created by extremely intricate neuronal machinery whose
whole purpose is to secure survival of the system. Surely, in this view there is no such thing as “inner
experience,” except in a secondary and epistemologically irrelevant sense. This “inner experience” can
only refer to states of the neuronal machinery and such states will have no relevance for knowledge of
the world at large

Contribution of Other Disciplines

1. Parapsychology

Parapsychology, a term coined by Max Dessoir (1889), refers to the study of a range of unexplained
phenomena that are considered paranormal or ostensibly paranormal. These phenomena include
extrasensory perception, psychokinesis, and life after death (also known as survival of consciousness.

A phenomenon is classified as paranormal if it cannot be understood in the context of conventional


scientific standards, on the assumption that no scientific rule, or law, or sufficiently proven theory,
exists to explain the nature of the phenomenon.

Many scientists prefer to explain paranormal phenomena as nothing more than fraud, or artifacts of
some kind of careless or unwitting laboratory practice.

Parapsychology is a sub-discipline dealing with fundamental issues of what is real and is not real
about human possibilities, especially in the transpersonal domain Transpersonal psychologists are
building applications that should take the realities of this foundation into account Both sub-disciplines
also bring into question fundamental assumptions about the nature (or possible “supernature”) of the
world.

Parapsychological findings provide a solid scientific basis for work in Transpersonal Psychology. The
birth of psychic research and Spiritualism in late 19th century America prefigured the science of
parapsychology, the modern study of trance channeling, and the psychology of religion.

Strong scientific evidence in parapsychology gives general support to some kind of reality to a spiritual
world and a spiritual life. Modern-day transpersonal psychology also has roots in psychic research and
spiritualism of the late 19th century and early-to-mid 20th century.

2. Anomalistic Psychology

Anomalistic psychology is the study of human behavior and experience connected with what is often
called the ‘paranormal’

• A phenomenon is classified as paranormal if it cannot be understood in the context of conventional


scientific standards, on the assumption that no scientific rule, or law, or sufficiently proven theory, exists
to explain the nature of the phenomenon.

• The term ‘Anomalistic Psychology’ was coined by Zusne and Jones (1982)
Parapsychology differs from the similar field of anomalistic psychology, a term coined by Zusne and
Jones (1982), in that the latter covers a broader range of phenomena than pure parapsychology, which
may still be of a paranormal nature, but also are popularly attributed to supernatural, magical, or occult
processes.

Anomalistic phenomena thereby may include UFOs, astrology, and crypto-zoological creatures such as
the Loch Ness Monster. In addition, anomalistic psychology tends to have a more explicitly sceptical
orientation than parapsychology

(differ betw. para amd anamalistic)

3. Psychotherapy

In the area of counseling psychology, research connecting religion, spirituality, and health has been a
vibrant research area.

The American Psychological Association (APA) has acknowledged the clinical value of using client's
religious beliefs in therapy, publishing such books as Religion and the Clinical Practice of Psychology and
A Spiritual Strategy for Counseling and Psychotherapy.

An individual’s religious orientation is now viewed as a useful adjunct to traditional forms of therapy
in bringing about desired therapeutic outcomes. In order to be a fully self-realized individual, however,
one needs first to heal the fundamental duality between the outer and inner selves – a goal achieved
through a process of personal psychosynthesis and that remains an important outcome in transpersonal
psychotherapy today.

A transpersonal approach sees certain non-ordinary states as evidence that humans participate in an
interconnected whole, evolving purposefully toward unseen but sometimes deeply felt ultimates. It is
the sensed presence of this process, whether expressed in the language of science or spirituality, which
infuses life with felt meaning.

Healing interventions such as psychotherapy then become focused on aligning the personal desire for
wholeness with this larger evolutionary current.

Transpersonal therapy takes a more holistic approach, addressing mental, physical, social, emotional,
and creative needs, with an emphasis on the role of a healthy spirit in healing.

Transpersonal therapy is used to treat anxiety, depression, addictions, phobia, and other mood and
behavioral problems. Those who are open to exploring their spiritual side, becoming more spiritually
aware, or finding a spiritual path, or who are having trouble finding meaning in their life, may benefit
from Transpersonal therapy
4. Anthropology

Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology,
cultures and societies, in both the present and past, including past human species

Transpersonal anthropology is the cross-cultural study of transpersonal experiences, including the


sociocultural evocation, interpretation, and utility of transpersonal experiences, and their
involvement in defining social roles

Transpersonal anthropology focuses on the investigation of the relationship between consciousness


and culture, altered states of mind research, and the inquiry into the integration of mind, culture.

The field differs from mainstream Transpersonal psychology in taking more cognizance of cross-
cultural issues -- for instance, the roles of myth, ritual, diet, and texts in evoking and interpreting
extraordinary experiences.

Transpersonal studies as an approach to something broader than psychology: a holistic perspective


that examines human life in the context of an interconnected world. If one attempts a whole-person
psychology, it soon becomes clear that the psyche is not a discrete thing functioning in isolation from
body, community, or environment, but a local aspect of an interconnected whole (Hartelius, 2006)—a
whole that must be engaged in order to understand any of its facets.

Transpersonal is then necessarily more than a psychology; it must also be a multidisciplinary scholarly
orientation (Boucouvalas, 1999)—an orientation that has been called transpersonal studies. The
interdisciplinary nature of the field was identified by Boucouvalas (1980) as part of her work to outline
the early field. By this time a transpersonal anthropology already existed.

Transpersonal approach might also be applied in other areas of scholarship, such as sociology (Walsh,
1993), social engagement (Rothberg & Coder, this volume), education (Rowe & Braud, this volume),
medicine (Lawlis, this volume), business (Schott, 1992), law (Scoglio, 1998), art (Herman, this volume),
literature (Kalaidjian, 1991), philosophy (Hartelius & Ferrer, this volume; Wilber, 1995a), ecology (Fox,
1990), and so forth.

The cultural neurophenomenologists are mainly anthropologists working in the areas of dreaming, the
senses, medical anthropology, symbolism, and of course transpersonal anthropology.

5. Positive Psychology

By extension, it appears that humanistic and transpersonal psychologies are contributing considerably
less to the growing scientific interest and evolving research, a fact of which has been noted by
advocates of the emerging positive psychology movement and used by it as a basis on which to
marginalize and exclude humanistic/transpersonal psychology from the realm of scientific psychology.
Generally speaking therapists’ agenda may follow goals related to more conventional or humanistic
approaches to psychotherapy, such as the promotion of human traits and qualities that favour
optimal functioning and well-being, including happiness, optimism, hope, resilience, forgiveness,
creativity, flow and peak experiences, emotional intelligence, hardiness, self-efficacy, and self-esteem,
as well as pursuing less conventional transpersonal goals.

In this regard, transpersonal psychotherapies can be closely in line with humanistic and positive
psychology goals, while also addressing transpersonal goals not usually the focus in humanistic and
positive psychology, such as increasing self-expansiveness and higher functioning.

Positive psychology is the scientific study- what makes like most worth living. Much of psychology has
been concerned with answering the question "what is wrong with you?" It has sought to make
individuals less miserable to treat pathology and mental illness the goal positive psychology movement
used to make normal life more fulfilling it asks the question "what is right with you?".

The goal is to help individuals move up the other side of the scale. the field is intended to complement
not replace traditional psychology. it does not seek to deny the importance of studying how things
going wrong but it does assert that strength is as important as weakness, and that it is just as
important to build on the best things in life, as to repair the worst.

Positive psychology is concerned with increasing well-being. Martin Seligman, co-founder of the
positive psychology movement, describes well-being as being made up of five pillars positive emotion,
engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment.

The term "flow" was coined by Mike Csikszentmihalyi cofounder of the positive psychology movement.
Flow is a state of absorption in one's work is characterized by intense concentration, loss self-
awareness, a feeling of being perfectly challenged, neither bored nor overwhelmed, and a sense that
time is flying.

Flow is an intrinsically rewarding experience it can also help one achieve a goal, or improve skills, and
is highly related to creative insight. Mindfulness is intentionally focused awareness ones immediate
experience. The experience is one of moment by moment attention to thoughts, emotions, physical
sensations, and surroundings.

To practice mindfulness is to become grounded in the present moment. Benefits include reduction of
stress anxiety depression and chronic pain. Learned optimism is the idea that a talent for joy can be
cultivated. That said, it's important to note the research tells us that the path to fulfillment requires
considerable hard work. there are a few, any shortcuts, to sustained happiness and wellbeing. It is
contrasted with learned helplessness which is when one believes that he or she has no control over
what occurs and that external forces such as genetics or social class ultimately dictate his or her ability
to accomplish a task or succeed.

There are things that people can actively do to lead more fulfilling lives professor Howard Gardner is
leading a large scale effort to identify key individuals and institutions that exemplify good work work
that is excellent in quality socially responsible and meaningful to its practitioners the project also seeks
to determine how those two increase the incidents have good work in our society the good work project
argues that society as a whole would be better off to encourage individuals to pursue excellence for it to
gravitate toward project with a regularly achieve a sense of flow and to find positions that will help them
achieve higher levels of fulfillment.

6. Neuropsychology

Neuropsychology is a branch of psychology that is concerned with how a person's cognition and
behavior are related to the brain and the rest of the nervous system

Neuropsychology research has shown that increases in well-being correlate with changes in neural∙
activation Neuropsychology of visual imagery in altered states∙ Research into psychedelics has
opened new areas of inquiry: Early LSD work led to intensified study∙ of serotonin and continues to lead
to advances in Neuropsychology. It demonstrates the potential therapeutic effects of psychedelics,
that may lead to more effective∙ study of brain and related behaviour. Transpersonal perspective can
give a richer vision of the ways in which neuroscience contributes to∙ an understanding of spirituality
and mysticism. whilst scientific methodology is a defining hallmark of neuroscience, for example,
insights deriving∙ from hermeneutic and/or contemplative methods may be critical for interpreting
scientificallyderived data.

It is fallacious to think that the highly sophisticated images of brain function that characterise
neuroscience today determine neuroscientific theories; the theories are driven by intuitive ideas of the
how the mind works, which are shaped only partly by the data and images. Similarly, as shall be seen,
spiritual traditions themselves can gain from the fruits of scientific methodologies, which may operate in
interaction with contemplative or hermeneutic methods. Spiritual and mystical traditions are
essentially directed towards this goal, using terms such as∙ enlightenment, salvation, and higher union
to convey it. Therapeutic psychology similarly holds promises of individual transformation in terms of
overcoming neurosis and so forth.

Contributors in Transpersonal Psychology

1. William James

o First person known to have used the English term, transpersonal, in a 1905 Harvard course syllabus.
o He is arguably the father of transpersonal psychology.

o He referred the transpersonal aspects of personality as residing beyond the periphery of waking
consciousness having its influence to varying degree of psychopathology.

o He developed interest in “exceptional” human mental states like possession.


o Unknown subconscious part of human psyche was referred to as higher part of the universe.

o 1901-1902: Gifford Lectures on Natural Religion at the University of Edinburgh investigated the
religious questions through a psychological analysis of religious phenomena

o Emphasised that transpersonal experience is the legitimate subject matter of scientific psychology
and may be investigated using a “radical empiricism”

o Radical empiricism encompasses the observation of internal mental states and processes

o Radical empiricism says that experiences include both particulasr and relation between those
particulars, i.e., no philosophical view can be stopped at physical level and it should explain how
meanings, values can arise from it.

o His investigations include: Exploring whether the human personality may survive bodily death.

o His interest in religious experiences was also informed by his acquaintance with the mystical
doctrines his own experiments with the psychoactive nitrous oxide (laughing gas) (James, 1882, 1898).
o

Largely as a result of these drug-induced experiences, James was led to conclude that: “Our normal
waking consciousness, rational consciousness as we call it, is but one special type of consciousness,
whilst all about it, parted from it by the filmiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness
entirely different”

o The nitrous oxide experiment- Came up with the concept of pluralism i.e., existence of alternate point
of views.

o He believed that religious experiences are very powerful psychologically and can have important long
term consequences.

o He did psychical research, investigations of phenomenon which appear to be contrary to the physical
laws. This helped him understand many religious questions like- human personality surviving bodily
death.

o One argument of William James, was that there was logical way of distinguishing upon observation
that whether the consciousness, is a product of brain, i.e., generated by it or is a transmitter of brain.
Consciousness is affected by brain activity, however, could it exist independently of the physical body.
His investigations thus were mainly focused on persistence of consciousness after bodily death. Thus, he
insisted that one’s spiritual consciousness persisted after the carnal death. This was because he believed
that is the consciousness was the function of brain, in a transmissive sense and thus not productive, it
shall not disappear, upon the death of the brain. James majorly focused on the survival of experience,
stream of thoughts, consciousness after the physical body dies. His earlier work always treated
consciousness as dependent on brain functions. James also believed in panpsychism which has the
notion that all matter has some form of consciousness and much of it is beyond or superior to humans.
(Bailey, 1998) Further James also talked about subliminal or the collective consciousness. It is the
secondary, wider unconscious aspect of the individual. The waking consciousness was only this one part
of the spectrum and whole of consciousness in actual extends much beyond normal awareness and
memory.

o The non waking states of consciousness were studied by him and he concluded that mind
encompassed so much more than what our waking state could fathom. The subliminal consciousness
was then high human awareness and transcendent wisdom. James also came to the view that the
personal consciousness of a human in connected ultimately to a transpersonal consciousness. He
termed it as ‘‘a superior coconsciousness.’’ This is the reservoir of memories of the inhabitants of earth
which are preserved and pooled within each individual. Years before Jung did his works on collective
unconscious, James proposed a continuum of cosmic consciousness. Thus he proposed the
interrelatedness of consciousness as between, the individual consciousness, the subliminal
consciousness of the medium and also the cosmic environment of other consciousness. He wrote- “Our
normal waking consciousness, rational consciousness as we call it, is but one special type of
consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the filmiest of screens, there lie potential forms of
consciousness entirely different.” For him, the world was alive with consciousness. “Plants had a form of
consciousness; so, too, did heavenly bodies and systems. Articulating a notion later to be called ‘‘Gaia,’’
Fechner believed in an ‘‘earthsoul’’ and ‘‘earth-consciousness’’ subsuming the consciousness of
individual forms of life that are part of its ‘‘self-sufficing’’ system.” Ultimately, the highest level
encompasses of an all-comprehensive consciousness which humans think of as God.

2. Carl Jung

o At one time a close associate and colleague of Freud, became highly critical of Freud’s dismissal of
spiritual experience as essentially an expression of neurosis.

o Following his split with Freud in 1913, Jung’s own spiritual and psychic experiences, and his dramatic
mythic encounter with the unconscious (Jung, 2009), profoundly influenced his psychological
development and thinking.

o Jung (1966b) referred to his unique approach to psychology, which he called analytical psychology, as
embracing both Freud’s psychoanalysis and Adler’s individual psychology.

o Jung’s analytical psychology can be seen as a meta-psychology of individuation, the path by which
each human being, through an inward journey of conscious engagement with the collective
unconscious, becomes who she or he is meant to be. Jung used the term individuation “to denote the
process by which a person becomes psychologically individual, that is a separate, indivisible unity or
whole.
o This involves discovery of the self, namely the conscious and the larger collective unconscious, by
engaging in conscious dialogue between the limited ego sphere of consciousness and the unconscious,
which structurally is comprised of the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious.

o The collective unconscious contains archetypes or psychoid pre-formations of the potential for all
lived human experience, more commonly recognized as instincts that evolved from antiquity through
perpetuity. Archetypes may be thought of as typical modes of apprehension.

o As a child he was introspective and engaged with active imagination, visioning, the spiritual and
imaginal realms, which were interests that continued through his medical education and later life. His
investigation of the transpersonal occult phenomena, with his cousin Helene Preiswerk, became the
subject of his medical school dissertation, a requirement for a medical degree from the University of
Basel. He was interested in her experiences with visions, trance states, seances, fantasies, and mediums.

o Jung questioned his father’s belief in Christian dogma, the meaning of religion, and god. The inner
world of the spiritual, symbols, and symbolism were of primary interest to him.

o For Jung transpersonal experiences are the attributes that always indicate collective unconscious
i.e., Collective unconsciousness in being reflected in the content of transpersonal experiences.

o Individuation- Jung saw the whole life cycle as a continuing process or metamorphosis that is
commissioned and homostatically regulated by the self. He reasoned that the stages through which
each human life proceeds are evolutionary extensions of those stages observable in non-human species.
Individuation is an expression of that biological process by which every living thing becomes what it was
destined to become from the very beginning. Jung spoke of individuation in the following manner: “I use
the term ‘individuation’ to denote the process by which a person becomes a psychological ‘individual,’
that is, a separate, indivisible unity or ‘whole’”

o He came to view the spiritual impulse as the manifestation and projection of essentially healthy
archetypes (universal patterns of experience) that exist within humankind’s transpersonal collective
unconscious. o In Jung’s Analytical Psychology, the fundamental goal of human life is individuation—
essentially a psycho-spiritual quest for full humanness and psychological integration, representing the
realization of the archetype of the Self.

o Psyche- entire mental apparatus, including conscious plus unconscious.

o Archetypes- Resides within collective unconscious. Archetypes structure consciousness and hold
potential for human experience mediated in interactions with the environment across cultures and the
ages

o Collective Unconscious- Instincts and archetypes. It is not made up of individual and rather has unique
content.

o Jung advanced the ideas that humans were in fact spiritual beings, with layers of consciousness that
included our inherited evolutionary animal and tribal natures and ancestry. He asserted that
transformations of libido or creative life energy included not only biological and social drives but
transpersonal, ontological, and teleological agendas as well.

o Spiritual impulses are the manifestation and projection of healthy archetypes that exists between
the humankind’s transpersonal collective unconscious.

o Jung believed that psyche has growth-oriented tendency that resolves oppositions and unites
conscious and unconscious contents.

o The process of individuation is facilitated by encouraging the transcendent functions like creative
and imaginative images, symbols and myths which represent the process of psycho-spiritual
transformation.

o Jung’s principal interests in spiritualism, paranormal and occult phenomena, symbolism, and the
psychology of religion, along with his research, clinical practice, writing—and the training of Jungian
analysts, underscore the importance of his work to psychodynamic psychology in general and
specifically to transpersonal psychology. Undeniably, Jung was one of the major precursors, if not the
actual founder, of a transpersonal psychology

Roberto Assagiloi

o Roberto Assagiloi was an influential Italian psychiatrist who founded the psychological theory and
methodology of Psychosynthesis (Whitmore, 2014). Although the theory finds a common ground with
Humanistic Psychology and Existential Psychology, it brings about a uniquely synthetic approach to
Transpersonal Psychology.

o According to Assogioli, the theory of Psychosynthesis is based on the possibility of progressive


integration of the three realms of personality all revolving around the essential Self through the use of
the will (Whitmore, 2014). The three core ideas that are crucial to psychosynthesis are disidentification,
the idea of the Self and the concept of synthesis.

o In case of disidentification, according to Assagioli, when a person disidentifies, they gain the ability to
go back and forth among different thoughts, feelings and behaviours (Whitmore, 2014). They avoid
being stuck in one way of existing.

o Another core concept of psychosynthesis being the idea of Self, Assagioli believed individuals had the
capability to explore their personal experience as it becomes conscious through introspection, giving
them a sense of identity.

o Through the concept of sysnthesis, Assagioli theorized that people are not unified whole but rather
made up of various subpersonalities (Whitmore, 2014). The process of integrating these
subpersonalities into a larger whole is what termed as synthesis.
o Assagioli’s interest in other levels of consciousness, which he identified as superconscious, was
another key aspect of his psychological theory (Whitmore, 2014). Superconscious is attributed to be the
highest level of consciousness that cannot be directly accessed but inferred from the moments of
peak experiences.

o He believed that a person’s primary task is to find a sense of completeness within oneself, and a
connection with a larger whole.

o Freud focused on levels of unconsciousness while Assagioli focused on levels of consciousness which
he identified as superconscious, was another key aspect of his psychological theory (Whitmore, 2014).
Superconscious is attributed to be the highest level of consciousness that cannot be directly accessed
but inferred from the moments of peak experiences. o During Peak Experience a person feels connected
to the world around them and get a deeper meaning of life.

4. Abraham Maslow

o Maslow shifted the focus of his work toward high-functioning individuals. Maslow was a major figure
in the development of humanistic and transpersonal psychology, which recognized the importance of
individual human experience, the validity of mystical and spiritual experience, the interconnectedness
of self with others and the world, and the potential for self-transformation.

o His work explored the values and motivations of highly developed or “self-actualizing people,” which
he defined as, “those who have come to a high level of maturation, health, and selffulfillment”

o Maslow’s (1962, 1962/1968) research suggested a key role for peak experiences in spurring some
people along towards these advanced stages of development (i.e., self-actualization).

o For Maslow, peak experiences were “moments of highest happiness and fulfillment” (1962/1968, p.
73), and included phenomena such as aesthetic, mystical, creative, and insightful experiences, among
others.

o Humanistic psychology promotes positive inner experiences mental health and full realization of
human potential (Self-actualization)

Talks about experiences which are ignored by mainstream psychology.

∙These experiences include love, empathy, creativity, altruism, intuition

5. Ken Wilber
o The works of Ken Wilber, can be aptly explained by “transcend and include.” He was always very
interested in psychological and spiritual development, which reached to the transpersonal level. One
of his very first contribution was classifying consciousness as a spectrum rather than having just two
poles. For Wilber, there wasn’t only the baseline waking consciousness and unconsciousness, but, other
states, that is in between these two extremes.

o He produced a cascade of ideas in the form of psychological structures, the two extremes of
consciousness is then formulated into a series of splits, “first into the total organism, against the
environment, then the ego against the body, followed by the persona against the shadow. Each step
reduces the inner life of the individual another step, and increases its alienation, first from the outer
world and then from the shadow aspects of itself. “The individual experiences transcendental states of
being related to gender identity (e.g. androgyny), ecological understanding (e.g. shamanism),
identification with a World Soul (e.g. Gaia), and other holistic ways of thinking, seeing, and being.”

o The spectrum of consciousness according to Wilber is on 3 levels- pre personal, personal and
transpersonal. The transpersonal stage is more examined by eastern mystic traditions, such as
Buddhism and Hinduism. He proposed 11 levels encompassing pre personal, personal and
transpersonal.

o The pre-personal stage is usually accounted for by traditional developmental thinkers such as Piaget,
Freud, Erikson, and Kohlberg. The personal stage is generally described by ego psychologists such as
Jane Loevinger as well as humanistic psychologists such as Abraham Maslow. The transpersonal stage is
examined generally speaking by Eastern mystic traditions such as Buddhism and Hinduism. Having laid
this out, Wilber goes into greater detail in specifying stages within these three broad developmental
categories.

1. Undifferentiated or Primary Matrix: At this stage the soul or being exists in an unconscious state. This
is best typified by the infant’s primal relationship to the mother (actual) or Mother (archetype), an
account of which has been supplied by Jungian thinker Erich Neumann. Here the infant has no separate
identity, but exists in a chthonic state of oneness with the collective unconscious.

2. Sensori-Physical: Here the young child is beginning to develop an identity in terms of sensing the
world around him and engaging with it physically. One strand of thinking that has articulated this level of
being is the cognitive psychology of Jean Piaget, who spoke of the infant going through a sensory-motor
stage of thinking where it explores the world directly and works out quasi-mental structures based on
that activity.

3. Phantasmic-Emotional: This aspect of pre-personal development represents the growth of an imaginal


and emotional life in the young child. Psychoanalysis has probably done the best job of delineating this
aspect of pre-personal development, especially via the psychosexual stages of Sigmund Freud (the oral,
anal, and genital stages of young children).

4. Representative Mind (Rep-Mind): Here we see the beginnings of the formation of mental structures in
the mind, which are still illogical when compared to conventional thinking. This stage is best described
by Jean Piaget as the ”pre-operational” stage of thinking, when the child is using magical thinking,
animism, participation, and other basic schemas to make sense of the world. This is the last stage of
Wilber’s Pre-Personal category of development.

5. Rule-Role Mind: This stage corresponds most closely to Jean Piaget’s category of concrete operational
thinking, where the child is beginning to use logically consistent mental structures in organizing its view
of the world. For example, a child will now understand concepts like one-to-one correspondence,
reversibility thinking, and categorization in contemplating a set of objects. The child is also internalizing
the rules of the society he lives in, and works at assuming an appropriate social role within his culture.

6. Formal-Reflexive: This stage most closely approximates Jean Piaget’s stage of formal operational
thinking, which begins in late childhood/early adolescence. Here the teen is able to leave concrete
objects behind and simply think about thinking (he now, for example, can solve equations in algebra).
The teen is able to think reflexively (in other words, he can see himself thinking) and thus is able to
entertain a pluralistic and critical way of dealing with life issues and topics.

7. Centaur (Vision-Logic): Here the soul or self begins to transcend the verbal ego-mind and integrate all
aspects of previous stages including not only verbal, cognitive, and emotional ego states, but also the
Jungian-derived ”shadow” (or the complementary aspects of unconscious processes). This stage is
characterized by autonomy, integration, authenticity, and/or self-actualization, and is the final stage
belonging to the Personal category in Wilber’s theory. Now begins the Transpersonal realms.

8. Psychic: Here the individual begins to transcend the egoic states of the previous levels. This stage
brings with it the possibility of psychic experiences such as clairvoyance, precognition, and other
parapsychological phenomena, and also transcendent states of being related to gender identity (e.g.
androgyny), ecological understanding (e.g. shamanism), identification with a World Soul (e.g. Gaia), and
other holistic ways of thinking, seeing, and being.

9. Subtle: Wilber defines this stage as follows: ”you are seeing something beyond nature, beyond the
existential, beyond the psychic, beyond even cosmic identity. You are starting to see the hidden or
esoteric dimension, the dimension outside the ordinary cosmos, the dimension that transcends nature.
You see the Light, and sometimes this Light literally shines like the light of a thousand suns.” (from an
interview published in Quest Magazine, 1994 Spring , pp. 43-46).

10. Causal: Wilber describes this stage in this way: ”This is total and utter transcendence and release
into Formless Consciousness, Boundless Radiance. There is here no self, no God, no final-God, no
subjects, and no thingness, apart from or other than consciousness as Such” (from his book The Atman
Project, p. 84).

11. Non-Dual: Wilber explains this stage as follows: ”The entire World process then arises, moment to
moment as one’s own Being, outside of which, and prior to which, nothing exists. That Being is totally
beyond and prior to anything that arises, and yet no part of that Being is other than what arises.”

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