The main purpose of this chapter is to introduce Embodied Spiritual Inquiry (ESI) as a novel participatory research method in the context of spiritual and contemplative studies. ESI applies Albareda and Romero's interactive embodied meditations (Ferrer 2003) in the context of a participatory research paradigm inspired by Cooperative Inquiry (CI; Heron 1996) in order to access multiple human...
Embodied spiritual inquiry (ESI) is a radical approach to integral and transpersonal education and research offered as a graduate course at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). Inspired by elements of participatory research and cooperative inquiry, ESI applies interactive embodied meditations to access multiple ways of knowing (e.g., somatic, vital, emotional, mental,...
This chapter explores some central lessons the Spiritual but Not Religious (SBNR) movement can learn from the evolution of the field of transpersonal psychology. The chapter focuses on the challenge of spiritual narcissism , understood as deep-seated belief in the universal superiority of one’s favored spiritual choice, path, or account of ultimate reality. Two major conceptual frameworks...
In memory of David Fontana (1934-2010), pioneer of British transpersonalismThis paper discusses a number of key issues raised in the recent dialogue on the work of Ken Wilber between John Rowan and Michael Daniels, mediated by David Fontana and chaired by Malcolm Walley (Rowan et al., 2009). First, it responds to Rowan’s defence of Wilber’s work in the wake, of the paclicipalory critique....
This essay discusses the meaning of embodied spirituality—based on the integration of all\nhuman attributes, including the body and sexuality—and contrasts it with the disembodied\nspirituality—based on dissociation and/or sublimation—prevailing in human religious\nhistory. It then describes what it means to approach the body as a living partner with which\nto co-create one’s spiritual life,...