A whole person understanding of postconventional development needs to offer a facilitative agent, what is here called a psychocentric dimension, with a unique and necessary role in the transformation of individual consciousness, that complements and completes the egocentric and cosmocentric domains. Sri Aurobindo and the Mother’s writings and praxis concerning what they called the psychic being...
I explore psychological aspects of a mystically-awakened state as depicted in the Kabbalah. This awakened state is portrayed using imagery of light and is associated with wisdom. The path towards the state entails intense hermeneutic work, and the core characteristic of the awakened person is the ability to see into that which is concealed—be it in scriptural texts, fellow humans, or the outer...
This article provides a summary of Haridas Chaudhuri’s contributions to the field of integral psychology. First an outline and a brief discussion of his principal tenets and triadic principle of integral psychology are presented, followed by a review of Chaudhuri’s critical reflections on some aspects of early transpersonal psychology. The article concludes with a reflection on recent trends in...
This article provides an overview of Sri Aurobindo’s Integral Yoga Psychology (IYP), with a focus on relevance to clinical practice. After summarizing recent developments in integrative medicine that have brought transpersonal themes into the mainstream of contemporary healthcare, the transformational paradigm of IYP is used to articulate a spiritually-informed approach to psychology and...
Wilhelm Reich is the focus of this second in a series of papers on a group of independent figures from the 1930s into the 1950s—also including Jung, the later Heidegger, Toynbee, Bergson, Teilhard de Chardin, and Simone Weil—who in the context of those years of crisis articulated overlapping visions of a future “New Age” spirituality that might in some more distant future serve to balance and...
This article outlines the mystical path followed by Jungian analyst and author Marion Woodman. It unpacks the mystical aspects of Jungian psychology and uses Woodman’s life as a lens to view how the practice of mysticism can operate within alternative psycho-religious belief systems. Woodman deeply embraces mysticism as a transformative, feminist practice by focusing her work on healing the...
This is the second part of a consideration of the later Wilhelm Reich as anticipating a future planetary-wide “New Age” form of this-worldly spirituality in ways overlapping with figures from the same era of Western crisis from the 1930s through the 1950s, including Jung, Toynbee, Bergson, Heidegger, Teilhard de Chardin, and Simone Weil. Where the first part of this treatment of Reich as...
Historically the exclusive purview of contemplative religious paths, awakening into nonduality was considered the pinnacle of human attainment, even if, in some traditions, it proved to be the threshold to even more sublime states. Awakening was traditionally available only to dedicated elite seekers, usually renunciates who practiced for years in monastic communities, their progress directed...
Transpersonal psychology can be understood as a transformative psychology of the whole person embedded within a diverse, interconnected, and evolving world that pays particular attention to states of consciousness and developmental stages reflecting expansion beyond conventional notions of self. The journal is dedicated to the cultivation and publication of careful scholarship in second wave...
The Concept of Spiritual Emergency T here exists increasing evidence that many individuals experiencing episodes of nonordinary states of consciousness accompanied by various emotional, perceptual, and psychosomatic manifestations are undergoing an evolutionary crisis rather than suffering from a mental disease (Grof, 1985).The recognition of this fact has important practical and theoretical...
In reply to This discussion illustrates that perennialist perspectives are far from outmoded. I discuss the metaphysical aspects of my model, suggesting that there is no reason why transpersonal psychology should not address metaphysical issues, as long as they are secondary to phenomenological issues, and as long as they are based on evidence rather than wholly speculative. Attempts to exclude...
This paper reviews the nosological systems in the field of psychology, comparing the classic medical model with a developmental approach to psychopathology and wellbeing. The argument is made that a developmental model offers greater refinement for distinguishing phenomenologically similar experiential states. Due to their substantial overt resemblance, a contrast between spiritual emergencies...
Efforts to present valid evidence for perennialist models do not withstand critical scrutiny.One strategy common to most versions of perennialism points to perceived patterns in reports of spiritual experiences, whether from traditional, clinical, or phenomenological accounts as evidence for such an approach; the shortcoming is that these same patterns are the basis for perennialist...
In a recent paper Taylor has suggested that perennialist models are or should be resurgent within transpersonal psychology.However, perennialist models such as those of Wilber and Taylor are metaphysical philosophies of spirituality typical of New Age religions; while such systems may be studied by a psychology that considers human spirituality, they are not and should not be proffered as...
Taylor has responded to critiques of his soft perennialism model in relationship to what he has called awakening experiences.The fact that some individuals have this type of experience away from the context of religion or spirituality, according to soft perennialism, is explained by a sort of landscape of experience representing the diverse ways in which one may engage with and experience this...
This paper explores how mythical figures and comicbook superheroes can 1) inspire personal growth, social and planetary change, and 2) explicate aspects of the deep ecology movement and transpersonal ecosophy that invite further academic inquiry while at the same time 3) speak to concerns that ignite the interests of popular culture and personal mythology. Likewise the ecopsychological...
In response to Hartelius (2017), I suggest that the evidence for perennialism or essentialism can be tested, and is publicly accessible, through engagement with the spiritual practices that have given rise to cross-cultural mystical experiences with common characteristics. This suggests that essentialism could be included in transpersonal psychology (and psychology in general). I suggest that...
The issue of whether it is possible to separate science and metaphysics is discussed, with reference to William James and the writings of quantum physicists. The metaphysical framework of scientific materialism is analysed and some of its key assumptions are identified. It is suggested that these assumptions are becoming increasingly untenable, as is evident by the advocacy of post-materialist...
This paper argues for a soft perennialism, distinct from the hard perennialism which suggests that spiritual and religious traditions are expressions of the same underlying spiritual realities.There are two reasons why it is necessary to think in terms of a soft perennial model: firstly, because of a number of important common themes or trends across spiritual traditions; and secondly (and most...
C. G. Jung (1937/1958) described archetypes as collective patterns of consciousness that are catalyzed into the individual human experience.This paper will examine the role of culture and history in the relationship between the timeless and imageless archetypal qualities such as self sacrifice, presence, love; the culturally agreed upon archetypal figures, which may include mythological...
Although Jung made a connection between his concept of the archetype and mankind's evolutionary history throughout his career, he remained notoriously tight-lipped about his own specific views on evolutionary theory.In the final years of his life, however, he finally went more into detail about this important topic, putting forward a most thought-provoking idea: the notion that synchronicity,...
The West African concepts of às .e .and sankofa have distinctive transpersonal value that should be explored in greater depth by the transpersonal field, particularly for their relational and participatory aspects.Transpersonal psychology is a Western psychology with philosophical roots in transcendentalism and perennialist traditions that may include theism and non-dualism.Officially...
The relationship between musical creativity and mindfulness meditation is explored through a qualitative study of three composers' individual experiences of musical creativity and participation in eight guided mindfulness meditation sessions.Through qualitative interviews conducted before and after completion of a mindfulness course, data was analyzed and categorized into themes in order to...
The author describes and examines participatory knowing, participatory spirituality, and psycho-spiritual growth and transformation as experienced by a group of accomplished singers through their singing and the process of learning to sing.In so doing, his study brings rich contemporary research narrative as evidence of the key elements of the participatory revisioning of transpersonal...