Transpersonal psychology and the Spiritual but Not Religious movement

Abstract

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 fueling spiritual narcissism in the SBNR Movement are identified: experientialism and perennialism. After a brief introduction to transpersonal psychology, the chapter discusses two waves of transpersonalism (perennialist and participatory), arguing that the participatory second wave emerged as a corrective to the religious sectarianism and spiritual narcissism of the first perennialist wave. Realigning the SBNR movement with the participatory approach in transpersonal psychology may thus assist the movement’s minimization of sectarianism and support a fuller embodiment of its anti-exclusivist ethos. The chapter concludes with some general reflections on the (im)possibility of fully avoiding sectarian spiritual narcissism in intellectual discourse.