The Origin (and Future) of Transpersonal Psychology in an Open Scientific Naturalism

Several scholars in transpersonal psychology are converging on open scientific naturalism as a fruitful philosophical and methodological framework. This approach builds on early transpersonal psychology's naturalism before it entered a metaphysical phase (roughly 1975 to 2000). Science must assume some kind of world to operate, and not all background assumptions can be empirically tested, making some metaphysics unavoidable. However, this necessity does not justify inserting foreground metaphysical explanations for psychological or spiritual phenomena. Instead of broadening psychology by adding metaphysics, open scientific naturalism can make it more inclusive and scientific by challenging metaphysically based disbeliefs rooted in specifically Western background reality assumptions.

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Abstract

A number of scholars well known within transpersonal psychology appear to be converging on open scientific naturalism as a philosophically and methodologically fruitful framework for transpersonal and related fields. This builds on the nascent open naturalism evidenced in the early years of transpersonal psychology, before it entered its metaphysical phase (ca. 1975 to 2000). Since it is necessary for science to assume some kind of world within which it is possible to do science, and not every aspect of that assumed world can be subjected to processes of empirical investigation, some of these necessary background assumptions are unavoidably metaphysical. However, the fact that these are unavoidable does not justify the insertion of foreground metaphysical explanations for psychological or spiritual phenomena. Rather than attempting to broaden psychology by adding metaphysics, an open scientific naturalism can make it more inclusive and more scientific by disputing metaphysically based disbeliefs based on specifically Western background reality assumptions.