Transpersonal Psychology Research Articles

Psicología y Psicoterapias Transpersonales. Reflexiones y Propuestas


 
 
 La Psicología Transpersonal ocupa en nuestro país un lugar muy poco conocido. Los estudios académicos han descuidado, por el momento, incluir en la formación profesional de los psicólogos los aspectos relacionados con la dimensión espiritual del ser humano. De este modo, cuando en la práctica clínica se plantean problemas psicológicos relacionados con este ámbito, el profesional se encuentra sin marco teórico o herramientas prácticas para abordarlo. Igual ocurre con los estados de conciencia no habituales, conocidos como Estados Modificados de Conciencia (EMC). Sin embargo, eso no quita que las personas que se encuentran con ellos acudan a un psicólogo algunas veces. Otras lo hacen a un maestro espiritual o a un pseudoprofesional. El presente artículo plantea el panorama general que ofrece la Psicología Transpersonal y los modelos psicoterapéuticos derivados de ella, haciendo hincapié en los elementos comunes y diferenciadores respecto a la Psicología de la Religión, así como las dificultades y carencias que muestran. En él también se hace una propuesta concreta desde el modelo de Psicoterapia Integradora Humanista y se realiza una interpelación a las instituciones académicas y científicas para que no dejen de incluir en sus estudios e investigaciones los aspectos tratados por la Psicología Transpersonal.
 
 

Stress coaching 0.0. Experimental programa de coaching para reducir el estrés

Bienvenido al programa Stress Coaching 0.0. Un práctico, e integrador viaje para reducir el estrés a su mínima expresión posible. En el capítulo profundizaremos en la esencia y en la metodología de nuestro programa Stress Coaching 0.0. de experiencia transpersonal, que puede serle muy útil para cualquier persona que experimente cualquier signo, o síntoma, de estrés como ansiedad, irritabilidad, tensión muscular, agotamiento, apatía, inquietud, dolor de cabeza, fatiga, problemas digestivos, dificultades de concentración, preocupación, exceso de trabajo, abuso de sustancias, tabaquismo, trastornos alimentarios, trastornos del sueño o simplemente sentirse abrumado por los eventos como por ejemplo todo lo vivenciado con el COVID-19. El Stress Coaching 0.0. también puede ayudarle a desplegar sus potenciales y lidiar con el estrés asociado con vivir con la enfermedad, dolor crónico y dolencias como artritis, asma, cáncer, fibromialgia, trastornos gastrointestinales, problemas cardiovasculares, hipertensión y migraña, entre otros. muchos.

Exploration of travel and transpersonal development

This paper explores the relationship between travel, transpersonal development and spiritual growth. Due to the personal engagement of the participants and the author in the subject areas being investigated, Moustakas’ (1990) heuristic inquiry was chosen. This is a qualitative methodology ideally suited to reveal tacit knowledge through those “who have directly encountered the phenomenon” (Moustakas, 1990, p. 38). Interview analysis from the author’s original MSc research uncovered themes that were presented through individual depictions, an exemplary depiction and a composite depiction, portraying recurrent collective themes. The composite depiction forms the results section of this paper. The discussion utilises insights and theories from transpersonal psychology as analytical tools to more closely explore the deeper workings of the phenomena being researched. It suggests that for people who are open to experience and capable of processing that experience, travel, through a search for authenticity and transcendence of the known self and outer world can implicitly share similarities with spiritual practices, therapy, and rites of passage. This can lead to self-knowledge, meaningful transformation, and authentic transpersonal development. Furthermore, the liminal aspects of travel can continue on returning home to aid the process of integration, and ‘re-create’ both personal and communal life at home.

Integrating complementary and alternative therapies into professional psychological practice: An exploration of practitioners’ perceptions of benefits and barriers

Background and purposeAlthough Complementary and Alternative Therapies (CATs) are currently incorporated into psychotherapy, scepticism remains among professional and practicing psychologists about integration of CATs into professional practice. This research explored perceived benefits and barriers to integrating CATs into psychology practice with individual clients. Materials and methodsWe used a qualitative framework informed by Transpersonal Psychology to explore benefits and barriers to integrative psychology practice. We conducted semi-structured interviews with six practitioners trained or training in psychology and CATs and analysed verbatim transcripts using thematic analysis. ResultsParticipants reported personal, career-based, and epistemological benefits and barriers to integrative psychology practice. Benefits were improved therapeutic relationships, specialisation options, and a time reflective psychology. Barriers included stigma and bias, regulations, and dominance of the scientist-practitioner model. Superordinate themes were holism, connectedness, and governance. ConclusionResults activate conversation about the importance of a transpersonally oriented integrative psychological practice for the 21st century.

Romantic Scientism and the Potential of Fractals for Transpersonal Psychology

Romantic Scientism and the Potential of Fractals for Transpersonal Psychology

A Fractal Epistemology for Transpersonal Psychology

The role of science has been controversial within the nascent field of transpersonal psychology. Traditional linear and reductionist models are insufficient to address rare and unreproducible states of mind, fringe rather than normative experiences, and highly personal or culturally specific aspects of awareness. Through a fractal epistemology this paper introduces novel metaphors, models, and methods within a more holistic, organic, and synthetic branch of science. Principles of the epistemology illuminate observer dependence, fuzzy boundaries, recursive patterns, and higher dimensional phenomena that emerge within the infinite expanses between ordinary, finite (Euclidean) dimensions.

How the Cerebellum and Cerebral Cortex Collaborate to Compose Fractal Patterns Underlying Transpersonal Experience

How the Cerebellum and Cerebral Cortex Collaborate to Compose Fractal Patterns Underlying Transpersonal Experience

TRANSFORMATION AND INTERPRETATION OF GENDER CONCEPTS IN METAPHYSICAL DIMENSION: FROM CONTEMPLATIVE WORLDVIEW TO TRANSPERSONAL EXPERIENCE

Purpose of the study: Verbalization of concepts in the artistic dimension is of great significance in the study of the metaphysical view of the world. This study is undertaken to identify and describe the principal ways of transformation and interpretation of verbalized concepts with gender features, in particular the concept of WOMAN, in the poetic discourse of the Metaphysicals.
 Methodology: It is based on the combination of research strategies of an interdisciplinary approach with the methods of interpretive, linguistic-stylistic, hermeneutic, and imagological analysis. Adopting the methods of interpretive analysis of literary writings in the gender dimension allows us to greatly broaden the applicable scope of them.
 Main findings: Gender concepts analysis based on the seventeenth-century English metaphysical poetry can be of great importance since the functioning and transformation of the sphere of concepts are complicated by metaphorical, symbolic, and linguistic ambivalence – an essential element of artistic practices of the Metaphysicals. Verbalization of the concepts of MAN and WOMAN actualise a particular way of transforming and conveying the basic features of the conceptual system of gender through the lens of dialectical thinking.
 Application of the study: The analysis of gender concepts in poetry appears to be an embranchment of relevant and influential gender studies contributing to such fields of humanities as literary studies, linguistics, and philosophy, cultural and religious studies. This emphasizes an interdisciplinary/multidisciplinary approach.
 Novelty/Originality: The means of interpretive analysis help achieve objectification of the gender sphere of concepts in the metaphysical dimension that becomes a crucial means of representation of the linguistic worldview. Since the verbalization of gender concepts and gender considerations in the poetry of the Metaphysicals, and especially in John Donne's, is not always explicit, the study of them at the imagery level allows revealing even implicit concepts, in particular gender ones, arising from mental activity, spiritual life, and transpersonal experience. In metaphysical poetry, the word is considered a means of contemplating reality and transcending beyond it.

The Character Education in Topeng Malangan Dance Tradition According Transpersonal Psychology Perspective

The aim of this research is to uncover the presence of character building in Topeng Malangan dance tradition according to Transpersonal Psychology perspective. This tradition is one of the art cultural heritage that exclusively from Malang and has some rituals as Silem (meditation) and Suguh. There is something unknown beyond human personality which is connected with spirituality so it is correlated with human’s character building. Topeng Malangan dance tradition and all of the rituals inside have contribution and correlation with the character building in the dancer. This research is using qualitative research method with ethnography. It founds that sub-personality and some objects in transpersonal psychology has significant result in building character education at Malang mask dance.

Searching for Spiritual Intuition in Management

This paper is a search for spiritual intuition in the management literature. The amount of published work on spiritual intuition is small compared with other types of intuition (creative, expert, moral and social). This literature review and conceptual paper: (a) searched for and reviewed the research on spiritual intuition in management; (b) alighted on the work of Frances Vaughan as the primary exponent of spiritual intuition; (c) traced steps backwards from Vaughan into transpersonal psychology; (d) found evidence for spiritual intuition in the work of two of the most prominent psychologists of the 20th century, James and Maslow; (e) identified links between spiritual intuition and other types of intelligences and capabilities. A contribution of this paper is that it adds a fifth type of intuition to the four types that have already been identified and shows how this is relevant for management. The types of intuition shown to be related, but they draw on different source disciplines and have different implications for management. A framework is presented which unifies five primary types of intuition. Spiritual intuition is proposed as being at the core of this framework for ‘intuitive intelligence’.

COVID-19’s Fierce Subversion of Our Supposed Separateness: Cultivating Life With and For All Others

The COVID-19 pandemic is not only a biological crisis but a psychological, sociocultural, economic, and spiritual one. Our most grave threat is not the coronavirus itself, but what we do in response. The understandable fear generated by the real dangers of this plague could reinforce a foundational confusion that recurrently brings suffering to us and all our relations: Namely, the dissociative fantasy that I am merely a separate, skin-bounded, autonomous, sovereign self. Fear and greed tend to follow this from this mistakenly contracted identity. Alternately, in fierce ways we would have never wished for, today’s circumstances may be fostering a transformation of consciousness and culture. COVID-19 could subvert our supposedly separate self-sense, world-view, and way of being with others; disclose the “interrelated structure of reality” (as Dr. King put it); highlight the ethical implications that inherently come with it; and summon forth our loving, compassionate responsibility. Working with theoretical ideas and peoples’ actual lived experience, the present article offers suggestions for collaboration—with and for all others—in this precarious time. Insights from humanistic, existential, phenomenological, and transpersonal psychology are set into dialogue with recent examples from daily life.

Metabolizing Death: Re-Thinking Recovery from Substance Use Disorder through the Creative Cartographies of William James and Ernest Becker

This study is designed to bring together the existential-psychoanalytic psychology of Ernest Becker and the pluralistic transpersonal psychology of William James to bear on how perceptions of death and transformations of death anxiety shape, in subtle and significant ways, the phenomenology of substance use disorder. Specifically, this study examines the ways in which these two divergent sympathies (read: ontologies) are actually two reciprocally-enforcing ends of a continuum of how to think about substance use disorder and, more importantly, how to overcome it. In yoking these oppositional cartographies of consciousness together, this article brings to light the integral role that unconscious death anxiety plays in the formation and sustainment of addictions and explores the mechanics of recovery through the lens of the transformation of death anxiety. In doing so, it demonstrates that recovery from substance use disorder is dependent upon the successful metabolization of death anxiety from both a Jamesian and Beckerian perspective.

Character Strengths as Manifestations of Spiritual Life: Realizing the Non-Dual From the Dual.

There is a noticeable increase in interest in the study of spirituality within the context of positive psychology. A review of the literature shows several parallels between dimensions of spirituality as explored within psychology of religion and spirituality and those of the VIA model of character strengths (CSs) as developed in positive psychology. However, coming from the domain of psychology rather than theology, these studies do not go deeply into the paradoxes that exist at the heart of various traditions regarding the nature of the spiritual or non-dual. Moreover, these studies lack a more comprehensive view of the nature of CSs and virtues. Our suggestion is to expand CS science to a wider context, extend the perspective from the individual to the transcendent, and understand the actualization of the capacity of CSs to be pathways to spiritual life. We argue that the actualization of all CSs allows for microcosms of a realization of unity. We believe that framing VIA’s CSs as a classification of the positive human spirit, and therefore rightfully placing it in the domain of human spirituality, holds great potential for both domains. We start by considering common basic assumptions emerging from various spiritual traditions and continue with a suggestion that CSs be seen as various pathways from duality to non-duality and by illustrating ways in which spirituality can be understood and practiced by the use of CSs.

School Principals’ Self-Identity According to The Perspective of Transpersonal Psychology

Abstract: The school principal at the pesantren, displays a unique self-image that distinguishes itself from the others. In the school principal's self-identity is attached to the appreciation of values that become the core beliefs and core values of the principal. This study uses a qualitative approach to the type of phenomenology. Thus, this study seeks to explore the phenomenon of identity formation or forms of identity in the perspective of transpersonal psychology. The results of this study indicate that the formation of principals-based principals' self-identity is carried out in the form of self-understanding, parenting style and role models. Whereas the principal's identity pattern based on pesantren in the perspective of transpersonal psychology at pondok pesantren Nurul Jadid is in the form of spiritual awareness and ability to manage the ego (trans-ego). Thus, this study generally describes findings of self-identity oriented to the nafsani substance in the form of integration of three forces, namely; the heart (fitrah ilahiyah) as a superconscious aspect that has emotional power; reason (fitrah insaniyah) as an aspect of consciousness that has the power of cognition; and lust (fitrah hayawaniah) as an aspect of the pre or unconscious that has the power of konasi. الملخص: يعرض المديرالمدرسة المعهدية صورة ذاتية فريدة تميز نفسها عن الآخرين. في الهوية الذاتية الكامنة هناك تقدير للقيم التي بدورها تصبح المعتقدات الأساسية والقيم الأساسية للمدير. تستخدم هذه الدراسة نهجًا نوعيًا لنوع fenomenologi. وبالتالي ، تسعى هذه الدراسة إلى استكشاف ظاهرة تكوين الهوية أو أشكال الهوية في منظور علم النفس عبر الشخصية. تشير نتائج هذه الدراسة إلى أن تشكيل الهوية الذاتية للمديرين الذين يعتمدون على المبادئ يتم في شكل فهم الذات ، وأسلوب الوالدية ونماذج القدوة. و أن نمط هوية المدير القائم على المعهد قائم على منظور علم النفس عبر الشخصية في معهد نور الجديد الإسلامية في شكل الوعي الروحي والقدرة على إدارة الأنا (trans-ego). هكذا ، يصف هذا البحث بشكل عام نتائج الهوية الذاتية الموجهة إلى مادة النفساني في شكل تكامل قوة الثلاثة ، وهي: القلب (فطرة الديوانية) باعتباره جانبًا فائق الوعي له قوة عاطفية (الذوق) ؛ العقل (فطرة الجنانية) باعتباره جانبا من الوعي الذي له قوة الإدراك (حقوق النشر) ؛ والشهوة (فطرة حياونية) باعتبارها جانبًا من اللاوعي أو اللاوعي الذي لديه قوة كوناسي (karsa). Abstrak: Kepala sekolah di pesantren menampilkan citra diri yang unik yang membedakan dirinya dengan yang lain. Dalam identitas diri kepala sekolah melekat suatu penghayatan nilai yang menjadi core belief dan core values pribadi kepala sekolah. Penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan kualitatif dengan jenis fenomenologi. Dengan demikian, penelitian ini berupaya menggali fenomena pembentukan identitas ataupun bentuk identitas dalam perspektif psikologi transpersonal. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa pembentukan identitas diri kepala sekolah berbasis pesantren dilakukan dalam bentuk self understanding, parenting style dan model figur panutan. Sedangkan pola identitas diri kepala sekolah berbasis pesantren dalam perspektif psikologi transpersonal di pondok pesantren Nurul Jadid berupa kesadaran spiritual dan kemampuan dalam mengelola ego (trans-ego). Penelitian ini secara umum menggambarkan temuan identitas diri yang berorientasi pada substansi nafsani yang berupa integrasi tiga daya, yaitu; kalbu (fitrah ilahiyah) sebagai aspek supra-kesadaran yang memiliki daya emosi (rasa); akal (fitrah insaniyah) sebagai aspek kesadaran yang memiliki daya kognisi (cipta); dan nafsu (fitrah hayawaniah) sebagai aspek pra atau bawah-sadar yang memiliki daya konasi (karsa).

Synesthesia and the Perception of Unseen Realities

Exceptional experiences (ExE) incorporate a range of phenomena including subjective paranormal and transpersonal experiences. Synesthesia and synesthetic experiences are discussed as important variables in understanding the etiologies of ExE. The neural and psychological correlates of synesthetic experiences (associated with hyperconnectivity) are discussed in relation to ExE. It is argued that synesthetic processes enable both the detection and conscious perception of information from a range of sources that are usually unseen or inaccessible, including abstract, unlanguaged, preconscious, and potentially other nonlocal sources.

Anomalous Psychedelic Experiences: At the Neurochemical Juncture of the Humanistic and Parapsychological

This article explores the nature of psychedelically induced anomalous experiences for what they reveal regarding the nature of “expanded consciousness” and its implications for humanistic and transpersonal psychology, parapsychology, and the psychology and underlying neuroscience of such experiences. Taking a multidisciplinary approach, this essay reviews the nature of 10 transpersonal or parapsychological experiences that commonly occur spontaneously and in relation to the use of psychedelic substances, namely synesthesia, extradimensional percepts, out-of-body experiences, near-death experiences, entity encounters, alien abduction, sleep paralysis, interspecies communication, possession, and psi (telepathy, precognition, and clairvoyance and psychokinesis).

THE PLANE OF THE TRANS-THEORETIC EXISTENTIAL-SYSTEMIC CONCEPT OF REORGANIZATION OF THE SEMANTIC ARCHITECTONICS OF AN INDIVIDUAL’S CONSCIOUSNESS

The article substantiates a list of questions about the mechanisms and conditions of the dynamics of semantic architectonics of an individual’s consciousness as a text. The link between self-organization and reorganization of the semantic architectonics of an individual’s consciousness and the generative property of personality as a complex system to self-movement and self-transformation, characterized by self-attribution, is proved. The postulated trans-theoretic existential-systemic concept is validated. We examined the concept composition, substantive elements, the rules of their interactions and mutual influence, the model of their organization, their participation and relevance at request solving and processing of levels, stages and procedural actions reorganizing the semantic architectonics of an individual’s consciousness. The procedure of theoretical-methodological research consisted of the following methods: the synergistic method to analyze interaction and consistency of paradigm bases when creating a new concept; the modeling method to determine the foundations of a built model; and the reconstruction method to determine a coordinate space as a unified methodological background for describing the diversity and heterogeneity of concepts used in the initial research approaches. The heuristic model of the trans-theoretic concept was constructed, which consisted of existential analysis, the theory of dynamical systems, individual psychology, transpersonal psychology, psychodrama and some practical branches - system modeling, decoding of experience, neurological levels, holotropic breathing. These components exhibited fundamental diversity, but at the same time, the essential unity of the existential-system concept and influence on the dynamics of an individual’s meanings, in particular, intentionally created meanings and the individual’s identity basis, and on a certain acqured life position as a source of meaning in a life situation. The integrative unity of the examined concept was achieved by the construct from the theory of dynamical systems, namely: the nonlinearity of development of complex systems, to which personality belongs. The synergistic relationships between the elements of the trans-theoretic existential-systemic concept were determined on the plane of the microstructure. The internal interaction of the concept elements covered five perspectives of actions, namely: system-determined, ontological, genetic, functional and content-contextual. The dynamic processes of the reorganization of the semantic architectonics of consciousness are determined by common actions of the genetic, systemic and contextual planes of the existential-systemic concept, which shape and fill with content the ontological field of an individual’s existential reality; so the following key categories can be revealed: “self-attribution” and “dialogue exchange between the Self and the world”, “intentionality”, “the experience of meeting with oneself, the world and the world of other people”, “evolution”. The reorganization of the semantic architectonics of an individual’s consciousness is presented as a three-dimensional coordinate space with vectors. The protocol of the psychological assistance for clients with panic attacks is described, containing sequential steps and tasks of each of the vectors and the corresponding operations. &nbsp

Virginia Satir’s Transformational Systemic Therapy: A Transpersonal Approach to Family Therapy

The work of Virginia Satir, a pioneer family therapist, is examined as a transpersonal approach to family therapy. Ways in which transpersonal perspectives may be applied in family therapy are explored in Satir’s notions of grounding and centering, the evolving and transcending concept of congruence using the Self/I AM concept in the Satir iceberg model, as well as the Satir conceptualization of the therapist’s use of self. Aspects of transpersonal psychotherapy relevant to the practice of family therapy are examined, including the creation of a transpersonal space of trust in order to strengthen the therapeutic alliance, going beyond meaning in working with the family system to apply transpersonal (e.g. nondual psychotherapeutic) approaches to the therapist’s use of self in therapy. A discussion of intersubjectivity and the role of the beingness of the family therapist in promoting transcendence, awareness, and healing for the family is included. Satir family therapy is consistent with transpersonal psychotherapeutic perspectives and is therefore recommended as a prospective family therapy modality for the transpersonally-oriented psychotherapist. KEYWORDS Satir, Family Therapy, Transpersonal Psychology, Transpersonal Psychotherapy, Transcendence, Consciousness, Transformation, Intersubjectivity, Nondual Psychotherapy.

SYATAHAT OF THE SUFIS AND THE ISSUE OF HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS

ABSTRACTThis research empasizes on digging the consept of Syat{ah{at of Sufis where several tasawuf companion showed their psychological condition up on paradoct position, switces themselves on God position. Then, trought researching on Syat{ah{at of Sufis in psychological approach, researcher found several conclusions; i.e. (a) etimologically, Syat}ah}at means shaking (al-h}arakah); (b) terminologigally, Syat{ah{at of Sufis means any speeches that stranged to be heard by its audience when Sufis reached wajd or wujud level. The factors that force the Sufis said Syat{ah{at were: (1) the strong emotional feelings and rumbled spiritual extasy (wajd), (2) experiences self unification (ittih}ad), (3) Sufis are in extacy condition (sakr), (4) Sufis hear the signal of divinity within them who invites self-union, so they positioned himself as God, and (5) they loss of self-consciousness; Additionally, the researchers added the other factors, i.e. (1) the Sufis movement comes from tawajud (salat, dhikr, meditation, contemplation, thought) on to the wajd or ecstasy level, (2) when Sufis heart is suddenly controlled by Allah Almighty (warid al-ilahiyyah), so he was no longer able to control their consciousness, and (3) absence of prejudice that the Sufis are united with God, because when that feeling comes, then they really had split (infisal). In other hand, Syat{ah{at of Sufis in psychological perspective, this study focused on transpersonal psychology, researchers tried to draw the conclusion that remarks Syat{ah{at in grammatical word used is a combination of words which are not common to say by common, because the context is only for Allah. Those unusual utterances are manifestation of Sufis psychology themselves, when saying syat}ah}at , Sufis do not realize whatever they have been said.

Applying intervention mapping approach to a program for early intervention in first-episode mental crisis of a psychotic type

The holotropic mind perspective, an integral part of the framework of transpersonal psychology, has been considered a revolutionary approach to a certain spectrum of experiences in Non-ordinary states of consciousness (NOSC) which conventional approaches tend to treat indiscriminately as pathological processes, because PHM recognizes in these experiences their healing and evolutionary potential. This article describes the needs assessment, implementation, and evaluation of an experiential and educational program on the holotropic mind perspective and its praxis, Holotropic Breathwork® (HB), with students and professionals from the Group for Early Intervention in First-Episode Mental Crisis of a Psychotic Type of the University of Brasilia. The intervention aimed to establish change goals and objectives that would promote the adoption of the holotropic mind perspective’s elements, such as a framework to broaden and strengthen mental health programs that assist people experiencing NOSC. The stages developed, inspired by the Intervention Mapping protocol, included a needs assessment; elaboration of change objective matrices; selection and description of methods based on theory and their applications; conception, planning, and implementation of the intervention; and results evaluation. Participants reported that the intervention allowed the expansion of their theoretical-conceptual and technical frameworks, giving them a less pathologizing understanding of and approach to NOSC and allowing them to perceive and manage such states, not as indiscriminately pathological expressions, but as phenomena inherent to the human condition that can be accepted and cared for without the exclusionary and exhaustive bias of mental disorders. Limitations and practical implications are discussed.