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Transpersonal is often used to refer to psychological categories that transcend the normal features of ordinary ego-functioning. That is, stages of psychological growth, or stages of consciousness
Consciousness

Consciousness is a difficult term to define, because the word is used and understood in a wide variety of ways, so that it frequently happens that what one person sees as a definition of consciousness is seen by others as about something else altogether....
, that move beyond the rational
Rationality

Rationality as a term is related to the idea of reason, a word which following Webster's may be derived as much from older terms referring to thinking itself as from giving an account or an explanation....
 and precede the mystical. The term is highly associated with the work of Abraham Maslow
Abraham Maslow

Abraham Harold Maslow was an American psychology. He is noted for his conceptualization of a "Maslow's hierarchy of needs", and is considered the father of humanistic psychology....
 and his understanding of "peak experiences
Peak experiences

Peak experience is a term used to describe certain transpersonal and Ecstasy , particularly ones tinged with themes of unification, harmonization and interconnectedness....
", and was first adapted by the human potential movement
Human Potential Movement

The Human Potential Movement arose out of the social and intellectual social environment of the 1960s and formed around the concept of cultivating extraordinary potential that its advocates believed to lie largely untapped in most people....
 in the 1960s.

Among the psychological sciences that have studied transpersonal phenomena are Transpersonal psychology
Transpersonal psychology

Transpersonal psychology is a school of psychology that studies the transpersonal, self-transcendence or spirituality aspects of the human experience....
, Humanistic psychology
Humanistic psychology

Humanistic psychology is a school of psychology that emerged in the 1950s in reaction to both behaviorism and psychoanalysis. It is explicitly concerned with the human dimension of psychology and the human context for the development of psychological theory....
 and Near-Death Studies
Near-death studies

Near-death studies is a school of psychology and psychiatry that studies the phenomenology and after-effects of a Near-death experience ....
.






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Transpersonal is often used to refer to psychological categories that transcend the normal features of ordinary ego-functioning. That is, stages of psychological growth, or stages of consciousness
Consciousness

Consciousness is a difficult term to define, because the word is used and understood in a wide variety of ways, so that it frequently happens that what one person sees as a definition of consciousness is seen by others as about something else altogether....
, that move beyond the rational
Rationality

Rationality as a term is related to the idea of reason, a word which following Webster's may be derived as much from older terms referring to thinking itself as from giving an account or an explanation....
 and precede the mystical. The term is highly associated with the work of Abraham Maslow
Abraham Maslow

Abraham Harold Maslow was an American psychology. He is noted for his conceptualization of a "Maslow's hierarchy of needs", and is considered the father of humanistic psychology....
 and his understanding of "peak experiences
Peak experiences

Peak experience is a term used to describe certain transpersonal and Ecstasy , particularly ones tinged with themes of unification, harmonization and interconnectedness....
", and was first adapted by the human potential movement
Human Potential Movement

The Human Potential Movement arose out of the social and intellectual social environment of the 1960s and formed around the concept of cultivating extraordinary potential that its advocates believed to lie largely untapped in most people....
 in the 1960s.

Among the psychological sciences that have studied transpersonal phenomena are Transpersonal psychology
Transpersonal psychology

Transpersonal psychology is a school of psychology that studies the transpersonal, self-transcendence or spirituality aspects of the human experience....
, Humanistic psychology
Humanistic psychology

Humanistic psychology is a school of psychology that emerged in the 1950s in reaction to both behaviorism and psychoanalysis. It is explicitly concerned with the human dimension of psychology and the human context for the development of psychological theory....
 and Near-Death Studies
Near-death studies

Near-death studies is a school of psychology and psychiatry that studies the phenomenology and after-effects of a Near-death experience ....
. Among the forerunners to the development of transpersonal theory are the school of Psychosynthesis
Psychosynthesis

Psychosynthesis is an approach to psychology that was developed by Roberto Assagioli, M.D. He compared Psychosynthesis to prevailing thinking of the day and contrasted Psychosynthesis with Existential psychology, but considered loneliness not to be "either ultimate or essential." ....
 (founded by Roberto Assagioli
Roberto Assagioli

Roberto Assagioli was an Italy psychiatrist who was the founder of the psychological movement known as Psychosynthesis.An humanist, Assagioli differed from Freud....
), and the Analytical
Analytical psychology

Analytical psychology is the school of psychology originating from the ideas of Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, and then advanced by his students and other thinkers who followed in his tradition....
 school of C.G Jung
Carl Jung

Carl Gustav Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist, an influential thinker and the founder of Analytical psychology. Jung's approach to psychology has been influential in the field of depth psychology and in counterculture movements across the globe....
.

In integral theory, transpersonal refers to stages of human development through which a person
Person

The term person in common usage means an individual human being. In the fields of law, philosophy, medicine, and others, the term also has specialised context-specific meanings....
's self-awareness
Self-awareness

Self-awareness is the concept that one exists as an individual, separate from other people, with private thoughts and individual rights. It may also include the understanding that other people are similarly self-aware....
 extends beyond the personal
Personal

Personal means "of or pertaining to a person, or belonging to a person in some way", for example:* Hygiene#Personal hygiene* Personal identity...
. Integral theorists include Ken Wilber
Ken Wilber

Kenneth Earl Wilber Jr. is an American author who writes on psychology, philosophy, mysticism, ecology, and spiritual evolution. He has been described as New Age, although his writings are critical of much of the New Age Movement....
, Michael Murphy
Michael Murphy (author)

Michael Murphy is the co-founder of the Esalen Institute, a key figure in the Human Potential Movement and author of both fiction and non-fiction books on topics related to extraordinary human potential....
, Michael Washburn, Allan Combs
Allan Combs

Allan Combs is a consciousness researcher, Neuropsychology, and Systems theory. He considers his most significant work to be the development of a developmental psychology/evolutionary model of the mind using concepts from systems science....
, Jean Gebser
Jean Gebser

Jean Gebser was a Child prodigy, a student of the transformations of human consciousness, a linguistics, and a poetry....
, Don Beck
Don Beck

Don Beck is an United States Management consulting and co-author of the book Spiral Dynamics....
, and Clare Graves. The work of all of these theorists is inspired, in varying degrees, by the writings of the Hindu philosopher Sri Aurobindo
Sri Aurobindo

Sri Aurobindo was an demographics of India nationalist, scholar, poet, mysticism, Evolution , yoga and spiritual Guru. After a short political career in which he became one of the leaders of the early movement for Indian independence movement from British rule, Sri Aurobindo turned to the exploration of the subtle realms of human existence...
.

Transpersonal goals


As is embedded in the concept of personal growth
Growth

Growth refers to an increase in some quantity over time. The quantity can be physical or abstract . It can also refer to the mode of growth, i.e....
 by the transpersonal movement, personal goal achievement will necessarily involve the possibility of an arational mutation of the relationship between the subject and his/her goal. That this may occur in the process of realisation. It may also be embedded in the transpersonal movement that such a mutation
Mutation

In biology, mutations are changes to the nucleotide sequence of the genetic material of an organism. Mutations can be caused by copying errors in the genetic material during cell division, by exposure to ultraviolet or ionizing radiation, chemical mutagens, or virus , or can be induced by the organism, itself, by cellular processes such as s...
 will cause a cultural change that may be termed as an panepidemic memetic flu or a cultural and rhizomatic virus
Virus

A virus is a Optical microscope#Limitations of light microscopes infectious agent that is unable to grow or reproduce outside a host cell . Viruses infect all cellular life....
 project.

Transpersonal states


Transpersonal psychology considers the concept of transpersonal states of awareness. Stanislav Grof
Stanislav Grof

Stanislav Grof is one of the founders of the field of transpersonal psychology and a pioneering researcher into the use of altered states of consciousness for purposes of analysing, healing, growth, and insight of the humanly psyche....
 defines these as "The common denominator of this otherwise rich and ramified group of phenomena is the feeling of the individual that his consciousness expanded beyond the usual ego boundaries and the limitations of time and space." These include mystical states and near-death experiences also subject to the psychology of religion
Psychology of religion

Psychology of religion is the psychology Research of religious experiences, beliefs, and activities....
. The idea of altered "states" of awareness is pivotal to this research. The conceptualisation, and other signifying processes of altered forms of awareness are studied in transpersonal psychology. Transpersonal psychotherapy consists of moving between these states,and learning techniques for disassembling and reassembling on different states/situations of altered realitymontage for the purpose of healing, which can be brought about by transpersonal psychotechnologies. This clarifies one of transpersonal psychology's roots in early psychedelic work, some of these psychotechnologies include research with psychedelic plants and chemicals such as LSD
LSD

Lysergic acid diethylamide, LSD, LSD-25, or acid, is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family. Its unusual psychological effects, which include visuals of colored patterns behind the eyes in the mind, a sense of time distorting, and crawling geometric patterns, have made it one of the most widely known psyched...
, ibogaine
Ibogaine

Ibogaine is a naturally occurring Psychoactive drug compound found in a number of plants, principally in a member of the Apocynaceae known as iboga ....
, ketamine
Ketamine

Ketamine is a drug used in human and veterinary medicine developed by Parke-Davis in 1962. Its hydrochloride salt is sold as Ketanest, Ketaset, and Ketalar....
, peyote
Peyote

Lophophora williamsii , better known by its common name Peyote, , is a small, spineless cactus. It is native to southwestern Texas and through central Mexico....
, ayahuasca
Ayahuasca

Ayahuasca is any of various psychoactive infusions or decoctions prepared from the Banisteriopsis caapi vine, usually mixed with the leaves of the Psychotria bush....
 and the vast variety of substances available to all human cultures throughout history. See: "Part III. Transpersonal Dimensions of Healing with Psychedelic States" Vol. 2. It can also be said that the attempts by transpersonal psychology is an intercultural approach to medicine
Medicine

Medicine is the art and science of healing. It encompasses a range of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
 and ethnobiology
Ethnobiology

Ethnobiology is the Science of System dynamics between peoples, Biota , and environments, from the distant past to the immediate present."People-biota-environment" interactions around the world are documented and studied through time, across Culture, and across List of academic disciplines in a search for Validity, Reliabilism answers to...
 understood as a discourse raised from the academic community of the globalised university
University

A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education....
 sector of knowledge production encountering the so called herbalist
Herbalist

An herbalist is:#A person whose life is dedicated to the economic or medicinal uses of plants.#One skilled in the harvesting and collection of medicinal plants ....
 shaman or alchemist
Alchemist

An alchemist is a person who practices alchemy. Alchemist may also refer to:...
.

See also

  • Transpersonal psychology
    Transpersonal psychology

    Transpersonal psychology is a school of psychology that studies the transpersonal, self-transcendence or spirituality aspects of the human experience....
  • Humanistic psychology
    Humanistic psychology

    Humanistic psychology is a school of psychology that emerged in the 1950s in reaction to both behaviorism and psychoanalysis. It is explicitly concerned with the human dimension of psychology and the human context for the development of psychological theory....
  • Near-Death Studies
    Near-death studies

    Near-death studies is a school of psychology and psychiatry that studies the phenomenology and after-effects of a Near-death experience ....
  • Analytical psychology
    Analytical psychology

    Analytical psychology is the school of psychology originating from the ideas of Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, and then advanced by his students and other thinkers who followed in his tradition....
  • Psychosynthesis
    Psychosynthesis

    Psychosynthesis is an approach to psychology that was developed by Roberto Assagioli, M.D. He compared Psychosynthesis to prevailing thinking of the day and contrasted Psychosynthesis with Existential psychology, but considered loneliness not to be "either ultimate or essential." ....
  • Transpersonal chakra
    Transpersonal chakra

    The Transpersonal chakra is a chakra that many meditation practitioners say is located above the crown chakra. The transpersonal chakra is said to be located about 4-5 fingers above the head....