Trance channeling, a practice with historical roots across many cultures, is more common than often assumed. An online survey of 83 self-identified trance channelers found that most began channeling in middle age and identified as spiritual but not religious. Participants did not show pathological levels of dissociative or psychotic symptoms, anxiety, or depression. Their personality traits, absorption, and empathy were similar to norms, but they scored as sensory-processing sensitives. They reported strong noetic beliefs, including life after death and telepathy. Most described their channeling as willful and conscious, and reported a positive life impact. Lower psychotic symptoms, older age at onset, and higher sensitivity predicted greater positive impact.
A professional development program combining self-compassion and mindfulness practices improved primary school teachers' well-being in the Czech Republic. Teachers who participated reported higher self-efficacy and self-compassion, and lower depression, anxiety, and emotional exhaustion immediately after the program compared to a control group. While the control group's subjective well-being worsened over the school year, the intervention group remained stable, suggesting a protective effect. The study involved 104 teachers from five schools, with outcomes measured before, immediately after, and five months following the program.
School-based yoga and mindfulness interventions have shown mixed results: some quantitative studies report null or counterintuitive effects like increased stress and negative affect, while qualitative interviews reveal student-reported benefits even when quantitative outcomes are not statistically significant. These inconsistencies suggest the field could benefit from transpersonal research methods, developed in transpersonal psychology to study inner and spiritual experiences. The paper re-envisions a previously published school-based yoga study through this lens, arguing that combining transpersonal methods with traditional quantitative and qualitative approaches may yield richer evaluations of these interventions.