Three computer-aided qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS) were compared to each other and to a hand-coded method for analyzing spiritual content in 49 dream journals and 11 diary entries. The CAQDAS ratings demonstrated strong convergence with each other, despite using different assumptions; the hand-coded ratings were less correlated with the CAQDAS than the CAQDAS were to each other....
Awe is a concept central in much of humanistic and transpersonal psychology, but it still lacks a consensual scientific meaning. Consequently, this article conceptually clarifies awe for its further use in scientific research and theory, as well as in applications such as psychotherapy. Previous understandings of awe and its changing meaning are discussed in their historical context. Six...
The dominant tradition in Western culture has constructed an idiosyncratic view of nature and consciousness, one that relationally impoverishes both humankind and the rest of the natural world. Psyche, consciousness, and mind are typically thought to exist exclusively in humans (or just our brains); nature is deemed merely an object, resource, or lower life-form. Guided by hermeneutic...
“We speak of a human world not because it was made by human beings, or because human bodies and human voices can be seen and heard there. We call the world human because it is a place of dialogue.” —Hannah Arendt The word contemplation retains traces of the timeless insight that we can come to fully understand the other only by becoming that other's neighbor. The word refers us to the Roman...
This study sought to identify the distinctive elements of wilderness settings that contribute to triggering peak experiences. Thirty-nine participants who had visited wilderness areas were recruited using a voluntary wilderness registration system operated by the Victorian National Parks Service, Australia. Using a postal survey, participants were asked to provide a written response to an...
The case is made for a spectrum of methods in Western psychology transcending the normal dichotomy between the categories of quantitative versus qualitative methodology. Although the quantitative–qualitative continuum may be a sufficient representation of methods in the discussion of methodology within the reductionistic sciences, it fails to account for the phenomenology of the science-making...
Retrospective analysis of definitions published 35 years suggests the major subject areas of the field can be summed up in three themes: beyond-ego psychology, integrative/holistic psychology, and psychology of transformation. Theme frequency analysis reveals that early emphasis on alternative states of consciousness has moderated into a broader approach to human transcendence, wholeness, and...
A number of medication trials at major U.S. research universities are now, once more, legally exploring psychedelics' vast potential for treating various physical and psychological problems. These studies have been approved based on a medical model that considers psychedelics' effects as primarily biochemical, but some are also addressing wider humanistic and transpersonal implications for...
Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic widely used by physicians in the United States and also a psychedelic drug that physicians can legally prescribe off-label within the United States for other therapeutic purposes. It has been used in Russia and elsewhere to successfully treat alcoholism and other psychological or psychiatric problems, but has not been researched for this purpose in the...
Romanticism is becoming increasing prevalent in transpersonal psychology, subverting efforts to develop scientific approaches in this subfield of psychology. As a case study of some of romanticism's problems, the martial art and transpersonal system of Aikido is examined in regard to cultural errors and unwarranted supernatural assumptions. Specifically, 6 latent cultural errors (related to...
Abstract Meditation offers a rich and complex field of study. Over the past 40 years, several hundred research studies have demonstrated numerous significant findings including changes in psychological, physiological, and transpersonal realms. This paper attempts to summarize these findings, and to review more recent meditation research. We then suggest directions for future research,...
Abstract An overview of transpersonal psychology is provided with specific focus on a number of its central themes (nonduality, intrinsic health, self‐transcendence, and inclusivity) and practices (meditation, ritual, and inquiry). The relationship of transpersonal psychology to both mainstream psychology and spiritual wisdom traditions is discussed. The field's implications for diversity...
Abstract Throughout its existence, transpersonal psychology has held a strong interest in exploring the implications of consciousness and spirituality for health, both physical and mental. This article provides a brief overview of the theoretical, empirical, and clinical contributions of transpersonal psychology to the understanding and facilitation of human health and well‐being. It also...
Abstract The author argues that an integration of ecopsychology and transpersonal psychology is useful for both. Empirical research on nature‐based transpersonal experiences is cited, and the contributions of Fox (1990) and Wilber (1995) are discussed. Nondual transpersonal states are found to be at the core of both fields. However, misunderstandings of nonduality have hampered this...
Abstract Experiencing the sacred is a paradigmatic spiritual phenomenon, revered across diverse eras and cultures. This empirical research is a human scientific inquiry into the sacred in everyday life. In‐depth interviews are interpreted via a rigorous phenomenological method. A dialogue involving transpersonal psychology, existential phenomenology, psychoanalysis, and the world's spiritual...
Abstract The question of how to interpret the ideas and evidence from the transpersonal realm has been a challenge to western psychology since its inception. This article illustrates how process philosophy, as developed by Alfred North Whitehead, can serve as a theoretical foundation for transpersonal psychology. Making it especially qualified for this role are process philosophy's unique...
This article was originally presented orally by Shinzen Young as the opening talk of a retreat he led, on the practice of Vipassana meditation. The editor decided to retain its flavor as a talk by keeping intact the conversational aspects of the presentation as it was first given.
Abstract Altered states challenge an individual's established construction of reality, the personalized mythology by which one operates. Sometimes those altered states offer a glimpse into aspects of being that the mythology is unable to embrace. Experiences of this nature may challenge the prevailing mythic structure. This confrontation between the established construction of reality and the...
Abstract The phenomenological reduction and the writings of Husserl and Heidegger are considered in the context of transpersonal mystical experience. The author shows how the practice of the phenomenological reduction spontaneously delivered both Heidegger and Husserl into transpersonal realms. An experiential examination of their writing reveals the great similarities between their own ideas...
Abstract Transpersonal psychology is defined as the study of psycho‐spiritual disciplines and processes recorded in the science and religion of the earliest known civilizations, those of the Nile valley systems of Kemetic Egypt and Nubia. This study traces the history and transformation of these seminal ideas from there, through their dispersion and development in Europe, India and West Africa,...
Abstract A history of humanistic and transpersonal psychology is presented as a backdrop to examining both the weak and the strong points of transpersonal psychology proper. On the negative side, transpersonal psychology can be faulted for being philosophically naive, poorly financed, at times almost anti‐intellectual, and frequently overrated as far as its influences. On the plus side, it...
Upon reading Transpersonal or Transcendental? by Rollo May (1986) in the last issue of The Humanistic Psychologist, I could not help but notice how very different his image and description of psychology is from my own. In the spirit of mutual understanding, I offer the following as another way to look at the nature of approaches to psychology. In this rapidly growing Fourth Force in psychology,...